The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-06-20 00:00:00

FOCI:: "IN, AND COLONIAL.

CRICKETERS IN PARLIAMENT. Land and
Water says
The cricketing interest in the House of Commons, which
has not been strong of late, has received a most important
accession in the person of Mr. C. G. Lyttelton, lately elected
to it as member for East Worcestershire. He will meet there,
though on the opposite benches, his old Oxford friend, Mr.
De Grey, who contrives to keep up some of his cricket in
spite of the occupations incidental to the possession of a
seat in the House. Colonel Bathurst, a very useful all-round
cricketer, managed to lose his seat at the last general elec-
tion, and may possibly regain it at the next ; and in Essex
there is some idea of getting Mr. Round, well-known as one
of the best amateur wicket-keepers of the day, to stand for
one of the new diViSlOllB, SI) that there is at least a fair
chance that the House may be able to turn out a very fair
team with these four, Colonel Kingscote, Messrs. Bathurst,
Bruen, Du Cane, and others; while the two Houses, in-
dialing Lords Stamford, Chesterfield, Coventry, Skelmers-
dale, and so on, could make a pretty good match with the
Zingari, without playing twenty-two, according to their old
custom.

LEGAL QUIBBLE.—A Barrister should cultivate
a good temper, if he would succeedas a Cross-examiner.
—Punch.
"OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS" FROM THE ANTI-
PODES.—The long-continued efforts made by the
Apteryxes in the gardens of the Zoological Society to
perpetuate their species have unfortunately proved
abortive. The female Apteryx came into possession of
the Society in 1851. In 1859 she laid her first egg, which
weighed fourteen ounces, one quarter the weig,htof the
bird, the egg being far heavier in proportion to the
weight than that of any other bird. Subsequent to 1859
she laid one ..r two eggs, but, from the absence of a male
bird, these were necesarily sterile. In 1865 a male
Apti-ryx was procured, and the birds paired in 1567.
Previous to 'miring, the male uttered during the greater
part if the night a cry resembling Aivi-kire, the name of
the bird in New Zealand, the female responding in a
lower tone. Both birds were silent during the day. The
first egg was laid on the 2nd of January last, and was
sat on by the female for three days, when the male
took to the nest. On the 7th of ebruary the second
egg was laid in the same nest, after which incubation
was carried on by the male alone, the female mean-
while sitting in the corner of the enclosure in uhich
the birds were confined, opposite the nest. From the
great size of the eggs, the male bird sat across both,
the ends of which were visible. He sat until the 23rd
of April, nearly four months, when the bird appeared
weak and exhausted, and ceased to sit. —.Mks/mum.
A CURIOUS CASE OF POISONING. —AR inquiry
IV at; held at Guy's Hospital,, in London, respecting the
death from arsenical poisoning of Thomas Blackwell,
aged seventeen years. Tile deceased was an apprentice
to Mr. Ward, a glass-blower, carrying on business in
Stamford-street. On Saturday last he was employed
in grinding op a quantity of Derbyshire spar for the
purpose of making French coloured glass. He then
took a cup of coffee, and immediately afterwards all
the symptoms of poisoning by arsenic showed them-
selves. He attributed the poisoning to the Derbyshire
spar, and it did not appear how the coffee could have
become impregnated with arsenic. He was taken to
the hospital, where he died on Monday morning. Mr.
Elliott, house surgeon, said that deceased died from
arsenical poisoning. Derbyshire spar did not contain
arsenic, but the deceased spoke of it Its being the cause
of his illness, and said that if he recovered nothing
would induce him to triturate that substance again.
The jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death."
MOTTO FOR HAIRDRESSERS.—" CIA and Comb
again."--- Punch

"THEY MANAGE THFSE THINGS BeTTEE IN
FRANCE."- The Dail?, Noes institutes a comparison
between French and nglish racing, not in all respects
complimentary to the latter. The writer describing
the Parisian racecourse, says :
The "grand stands "are kept as " select" as a police who
are supposed to know everybody can keep them, and the
young women with the loud laugh and the fancy names are
not allowed to nun with ladies by the mere payment of
money. At Ascot, in the grand stand, Belgravia, Clapham,
St. John's Wood, and the Argyle Rooms sit side by side, and
the men about town openly compare the " form " to use a
slang sporting terns of one section of society with that of
another. The remedy for this state of thing lies, to some
extent with the ladies; but, as far as our observation goes,
little repugnance is shown by these persons to anyone who
is not vulgar and ill-dressed. The same lady who turns up
her nose in the railway carriage at the good, honest, blowsy
wife of the sporting publican, and carries on her conversa-
tion in boarding school French, as a mark of contempt, will
sit quietly beside the "soiled dove," and allow her daughters
to sit with her.

MUTUAL UNJUST ESTIMATES OF RICA AND
POOR.— (From the Sunday Magazine.)
The upper and middle classes are too prone to judge the
very poor by what they read in the police reports. They
have no reason to complain if, ill return, the very poor judge
them, as I fear they do, by the revelations of the Divorce
Court. It you take up any commonplace aristocratic
fiction, you are sure to 11101 the conventional labourer who
gets drunk, beats his wife, and starves his children, and only
exists to be converted by the angelic efforts of the young
Isdies from the hall. And if you buy any of the badly-printed
penny serials sold in the streets beneath us, you will
be equally sure to find the conventional nobleman, whose
mansion is a very charnel-house, and who deceives and
seduces every girl he sees, until he is finally induced to
abandon his wickedness, that lie may deserve the hand of
some peerless village damsel, whose virtue has resisted fraud
and force alike. Now one pictin eis as true as the other;
or, rather, as false. I readily grant that in real life there
are more ill-conducted lalsomers than wicked lords,
because there are more labourers than nobleman • hut,
unfortunately, each class judges the other by the bad
specimens, which, like all evil weeds, come into undue
prominence.
THE BATTLE FIELD.—The new telegraphic
experiments at the Camp of Chalons have proved
quite successful. The different commanders of corps
are placed in communication with the general in chief,
who transmits orders to them not alone when the
troops are in quarters or on the march, but when they
are executing the most rapid and complicated move-
ments.

MARRIAGE OF THE EMPEROR OF CHINA.—An
Oriental spectacle—reminding one of some of the scenes
described in sacred history and the marriage of
Ahasuerus was witnessed at Pekin on the 2ith of
March. The young Emperor of China having reached
the age of fourteen, the time had come when a wife
had to be chosen for him. One hundred and twenty
young girls, ranging from eleven to nineteen years old,
were admitted tothe palace on the previous evening as
candidates. Seven were chosen from this number,
who bad to submit to an examination before the
Empress-Mother, whose business it is to make the
choice. Letters from Pekin of the 2nd of April
inform us that the young lady upon whom the choice
of the Prince and his mother fell was born at
Monkden, in the province of thing-king, that she had
attained her eleventh year, and that she was extremely
beautifuL She belongs to a family that for fifteen
years enjoyed the high favour if the late Emperor
Tao-Konang. It is stated that the majority of the
Emperor Tehoung-Tche will shortly be declared, and
that he will then take the direction of affairs.
MARRIAGES, BIRTHS, AND DEATHS IN IRELAND.
—A. return has been issued by the Irish Registrar-
General, which shows that the marriages registered
during the year 1817 in Ireland amounted in number
to 29,796 ; the births to 144,J18; and the deaths to
93,911.