The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-08-13 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

l:ord Lyons will spend a month this autumn at
Vichy.
A water famine is considered to be imminent at
Cardiff.
The Rechabite Order now numbers 69,000 members.
The phylloxera is reported to have appeared at
Gelnhausen.
On tbe 18th inst. there will be a great commemorative
demonstration on the field of Gravelotte.
A despatch from Algiers states that there have been
violent shocks of earthquake at Laghouat.
The newspapers of the United States maintain about
125 regular correspondents at Washington.
M. Waddington, the French Ambassador in London,
will take a month's leave on the rising of Parini.
ment.
The anti-treating crusade is the latest development
of the Prohibition warfare in the Southern States of
America.
The death is announced of Commandant Sisson, one
of the chief organisers under Lamoriciere of the Ponti;
ficial Zouaves.

_
A few days ago a male specimen of the green sand-
piper (tringa ochropus) was killed near Yetholm. The
bird is very r re in Scotland.
Mr. Chamberlain has fixed the first week of October
for his visit to Ulster. He will speak at Belfast on
the 4th, and at Ooleraine on the 6th inst.
By the end of the month 18 new regiments will be
added to the French army. These fresh corps will be
stationed in Paris and the eastern districts.

TLe meetiog of the Emperors of Germany and
Austria at Gastein took place on Saturday, and it is
regarded as assurance of the continuance of European
peace.
By the latest telegrams from New York, the Voltin-
teer, the future opponent of the Thistle, has been
beaten by the Mayflower and the Puritan.
It is considered by the New York police that the
capture of the man Mooney. arrested for causing an
explosion on board the steamship Queen, is a most im-
portant one.
Sir Henry James, addressing a political meeting at
Hereford on Saturday eveniug, said the Liberal
Unionists and the Conservatives had been I,rought
together by a common danger, adding that they bad
formed an alliance with men whom, on the Home Rule
question, they had never differed, while Mr. Gladstone
had formed an alliance with men with whom he had
never agreed.
According to the Registrar-General's report the
death-rate per thousand in London, which had in.
crewed in the six preceding weeks from 15.9 to 248,
declined last week to 218. •
The Queen has been pleased to approve Sir James
Colquhoun of Luss being appointed Lord- Lieutenant of
Dumbartonshire, in the place of the late Mr. H. Crum-
E wing.
The police at Bilston state that they believe they
have a clue to the murderers of Police-constable W.
H. Brown, at Pendeford. Detective Morton on Tues.
day went to Low House, Bilston, and arrested in bed a
young man named William Ellice. He admitted that
he was away from home, in company with two other
men, all Saturday night, and that they were netting for
eels in the vicinity of the spot where the murder was
committed. He, however, denied all knowledge of the
affair. He was brought up at Bilston Police-court on
Tuesday, and, after formal evidence, was remande
James and Percy Harvey, father and son, were
charged at Bishop Stortford Police-court on Tuesday
with fraudulent bankruptcy. It was stated that they
were undischarged bankrupts, and the prosecution was
undertaken by the Treasury. In three years they had
failed twice, and it is alleged that their liabilities are
very heavy. The elder defendant was deacon of the
Congregational Church, and the younger one a
treat-urer of the Salvation Army. They were remanded.
A Perth correspondent telegraelis that on Tuesday
morning the Euston mail train had a narrow escape
from being wreckei owing to the brake failing to act.
Fortunately the train was i tuned into a siring to the
west of the station proper, with the result that it came
in collision y ith another engine. The front carriage
and engine of the mail train left the milk With the
exception of the buffers of the engine being destroyed,
little damage was done, and no passangers were in.
jured.
At the half-yearly meeting of the Forth Bridge Rail-
way Company, held in Edinbtirch on Tuesday, the
report stated that the piers ard girders of the north
and south viaducts were completed, and that at South
Queen's Ferry and Fife the steel columns with their
connections and bracing had been carried to their lull
height of 370 feet, while at Inchearvie the columns
were up 283 feet above the sea level. The directors
expressed regret at the accidents which periodically
occur at the works. . _ .

--- -
The Teddington Local Board have accepted a tender
for the cm struction of abridge over the River Thames
within their district, and it is expected that the work
will be proceeded with immediately. The sanction of
the Thames Conservators have been obtained to the
erection of a bridge, and the plans have been approved
by the Local Government Board.
• The Isle of Man Steampacket Company's steamer
Mona'a Isle while returning to Liverpool on Tuesday
afternoon, •damaged her steering gear after being at
sea for about an hour. She put back to Douglas with
over a thousand passengers and the mails.
Robert Blackburn, 70, one of the Norwich City
Mis,ionaries, was on Tuesday drowned at Gorleston,
next Yarmouth while bathing. His daughter was
standing on the beach and witnessed the occurrence.
The body was recovered.
Two Hartlepool fishermen, brothers, named Balmer,
- were drowned off that port during Tuesday morn ng's
gale, their coble having been capsized off the mouh of
the Tees.
A ten acre field of growing corn, at Howfield, near
Canterbury, was accidentally set on fire on Tuesday
afternoon, and blozed away with terrific fury, the crop
Leing entirely destroyed.
A Vienua correspondent telegraphed on Wednesday
morning that Prince Ferdinand's departure for Bul-
garia is not likely to be long delayed. It is believed,
however, that the Prince will not stay long in the Prin-
cipality, but will merely make a tour through the
country and will then return to Vienna to conduathe
negotiations with tbe Powers.
here has been an increase in the chole,ra mortality
at Malta, 14 fresh cases and four deaths being recorded
on 'Tuesday, besides two deaths from previously re.
ported cases.
It is stated by a Paris paper that, in replying to a
request of the British Charge d'Affaires at Paris, that
the French Government should name a date for ,the
evacuation of the New Hebrides, M. Flourens,,the
French Foreign Minister, replied that no precise
answer could be given until England made known
her intentions with regard to Egypt and the Suez
Canal.
An influential deputation of members of Parliament
and other "gentlemen on Tuesday afternoon waited
upon Mr. W. H. Smith, Mr. Goscheu, and the Pest.
master. General, at Downing.re reet, to urge upon the
Government certain objections to the Post Office
Savings Banks Bill. Lord Claud Hamilton introduced
the deputation, and urged the claims of 4riatee
savings banks. which Mr W. H. Smith said he was
sure there was no desire to expose to any disadvantage.
Mr. Goschen also replied to points urged by various
Speakers.
A man named Robert Horridge was remanded at
Manchester on Tuesday, charged with committing is
burglary in that city, and also with the attempted.
murder of two policemen. Prisoner, it was stated, was
seen in a boot shop on the morning of the 30th ult.,
and in making his escape fired on the police, woundiug
one of them. On Monday night he was cleverly cap-
tured at Liverpool, when he attempted to draw a
loaded revolver, but was prevented.
Elizabeth Buckley was charged on remand at the
Clerkenwell Police.court on Tuesday with neglecting
to provide adeqn;te food and clothing for her male
child, Walter, aged four months. It was now, stated
that the child had died, and the prisoner was further
remanded until after the inquest has been held on • the
body.
A Cabinet Connell was held at the Foreign Office on
Tuesday. The Ministers present were the Marquis of
Salisbury, the Right Hon. W. H. Smith the Lord
Chancellor, Viscount Cranbrook, Earl ()adman, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Right Hon. 11.
Matthews, Sir Henry Holland, the Right Hon. E. Stan•
hope, Viscount Cross, Lord George Hamilton, the Lord
Chancellor of Ireland, Lord Stanley of Preston, the
Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, and the Right Hon. 0. T.
Ritchie.

A Parliamentary Paper was issued on Tuesday con-
taining corresponderce respecting the admission into
the United States of destitute aliens and State-aided
immigrants. The paper consists chiefly of dispatches
exchanged between Sir L.West, her Majesty's Minister at
Washington, and the Marquis of Salisbury, and covers
ttohgeeptehreir thodwbietween March 21 and June 22 of this year,
a dispatch from Sir L West to Earl
Granville, dated August 22, 1884, and relating to the
detention of Patrick Kearney on Ward's Island.
A letter was received by Mr. Morgan Morgan, Mayor
of Cardiff, on Tuesday morning, from Lord Salisbury,
announcing that her Majesty the Queen had conferred
upon him the honour of knighthood. Mr. Pittis, Mayor
of Newport, Isle of Wight, received a similar letter
from Lord Salisbury on 'Tuesday, stating that the Queen
has signified her intention of conferring a knighthood
upon him.
Mr. Blaine, the Republican candidate at the last
election for the presidency of the United States, has
arrived its Dublin from Belfast with his wife and
daughters, after sojourning in Perthsithe with Mr.
Anrirew Carnegie. He pnrposes spending some time
in Ireland to h,..ve a quiet look round in order to see
for himself the condition of the country:
A telegram from Verona states that Signor Bove,
the celebrated explorer, who accompanied Professor
Nordenskiold in his journey through the northeast
passage, committed suicide by shooting himself with
a revolver. The deceased bad been in ill-health far
tome time past.

An outbreak of anthrax has occurred in the neigh-
boot hood of Ds,lington. The carcase of a cow, the
ith of which transpired to be from anthrax or
spl nic apoplexy, was sent to the kennels of the Sur.
wovh pack of foxhounds, and as the result five
puppies, a fox terrier, and a fox cub died of the same
dise ,563. A cow, one of a herd grazing in a field, near
the kear els, has also died, and the question whether
.
the whole herd should be destroyed oecupyiug the
attention of the Privy Ootweil.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 1887.

The Scotch express narrowly escaped disaster the
other night while passing through Spring Vale Sta.
tion, no ir Blackburn, on the Lancashire and Yorkshire
Railway. The embankment, which at that part of the
line is constructed over a quarry, suddenly sank several
inches. The dtiver pulled up, and at once both the
platforms subsided with an &arming noise. Nobody
was injured, and the train kept the metals.
William Brown, a county policeman, aged 28, was
murdered early on Sunday morning, at Pendiford,
near Wolverhampton, by night fish-palachers. The
deceased was last seen alive at ten o'clock on Satur-
day night. His body was found in the canal at Pendi-
for3. Fifty yaids off were found his hat and walking.
stick; his staff was over the hedge. The road bore
marks of a severe struggle, and a live eel was found
close by. It is believed Brown was overpowered in
an encounter with night poachers, and was thrown into
the canal.

The other day a very fine female otter was shot on
the Tweed, a little below Locton. She weighed about
201 b., and was nearly four feet in length.
At Birmingham a schoolmistres., named Madelin
Hogorio, has recovered I:50 dam gee from Charles
Übeappa. for breach of promise of marriage.
The death•rate at Hastings during April, May, and
Rine was equivalent to an annual rate of 14,42 per
1100, and is 0-35 below
,the average of the past six
years.
The-preparations for celebrating the.lsoth anniversary
of the foundation of Gottingen University are com-
plete, and there is every promise of a'auccessful
festivity.
The body of Joseph Richard Drissel. a visitor to
Lowestoft. was washed ashore the other day, near
Olvff. He was drowned while bathing near Ness
Point.

A miner. named Thomas ,gyans, employed at
Tyriewydd Cloßiefler, has been killed by falling tooi.
dentally between the colliery drums while they were
in motion. '

The annual death..rate from all causes in the registra•
tion sub-district of Torquay should read 133 and not
30'3 per 1000, as - given in the Registrar. General's
returns.

A bill has been reported favourably in the lower
branch of the New Hampshire Legislature which
proposes to confer municipal suffrage upon women, and
permit them to hold all municipal offices.
Letters which have been received by Queen Natalie'e
friends indicate the absolute impossibility for the
present of any domestic arrangement by which her
Msiesty should continue to reside in Belgrade.
The Scotch Oonveyancing Acts Amendment Bill is to
be added to the number of measures which Government
are reluctantly c.ropelled to drop in view of threatened
( pposition from both sides of the House.

-The Press Ascociation understands that Lord
Sabsbury, who has been closely engs“.d at his official
duties during the present lengthened sitting of
Parliament. will go abroad at ths close of the session.
William Purman, 55, has been convicted at Hertford
for feloniously setting fire to a stack of straw. The
jury strongly recommended him to mercy .on ammo,
of the weak state of his intellect, and sentence was
deferred.

The London " Citizen " states that the damage of
the Thames•street fire is estimated at about £20,009.
The offices interested in Messrs. Harker, St ,ge.. and
Morgan's loss are the Sun, £5000; Ncrwich Union.
£SOUO; and Phconix.l4ooo.
The returns relating to the election in Texas on the
"prohibitory liquor amendment" qnestion show that
it was defeated by a majority of 50,000. • All the large
towns voted agsinst it except Fort Worth, where there
was a majority of 198 for prohibition
Great destruction has been caused in three villages of
the Pro, ince of Orense, Spain, by heavy rains and
floods, and many houses are in ruins. No deaths are
reported, hut over a hundred families have lost most of
their olo.hing and other belongings.
One effect of the drought has been to raise the price
of milk. The pastures are so dry and the cows ha e
consequently suffered to such an extent, that milk is
now selling in Ashford and other Kentish towns at a
penny per quart higher than has been known for many
years.

- The Very Rev. Dean Scott intimates his intention of
resigning the Deanery of Rochester, on account of
continued ill-bealth. The appointment is worth £2OOO
per annum, and is the gift (I the Government. Dean
Scott, who is 76 sears of age, will receive a pension of
2:000 a 3 ear.

Messre. Ed ward Withy and Co. have launched a steel
screw steamer for Messrs Steel, Young, and Clo., of
London and V eat Hartlepool. The vesael is 300 ft.
long, and is built on the cellular bottom and web frame
irs stem, and will carry torpedo boats, guns, machinery,
boilers, and a bulky cargo.
Probate has been granted on the will of 'Admiral Sir
Henry Mangles Denham, late of No. 21, Canton road,
Maida-vale, who bequeaths to his trustees his sword,
medals, and testimonials, the manuscripts, paintings,
inventions, and the other valuable things connected
with his hydrographic pursuits.
Mr. Thomas Baron, head of the firm of Messrs T.
Barron and Sons. Phcenix Works, Mexborough, met
with a serious accident the other morning While
proceeding from Mexborougla to Rotherham his car-
riage collided with another vehicle and was smashed,
and Mr. Barron sustair ed a fracture of two ribs.
The death has occurrei at Ingledon, his seat in
Kent, of Admiral Gordon. He served in the Oarlist
war, took part in the siege of Bilbao, and afterwards
.received the Baltic medal for his services during the
naval operations there in 1854, when "Sir Charles
Napier, w4lh 50,0 0 men, sailed up the sea, and then
sailed back again."

In a report submitted to the Hygienic Council of
Paris by Drs. Dubris %v and Chatin, the authors state
that the perfumery and toilet products now sold con-
tain so many VOXIOUP substances that it is desirable the
fact,ries should he placed under special surveillance.
The so called "harmless and purely vegetable" hair
dyes, for instance, are all poisonous.
Daniel Walmslev, a boy eleven years of age. met
with a fearful death at Alleslev the other day. He was
plat ing in a field where his father was harvesting, when
be picked up a six-chambered revolver used for killing
birds, and while handling it the weapon went off,
shooting the deceased in the stomach. The boy had only
sufficient strength to walk to his father and say," I am
shot!" when he fell dead.

- America, which is only just noNe.heeoming reconciled
, .
to the rivalry of Russian petroleum, is menaced by
serious competition in a fresh cpiarter nearer home. In
Venezuela, the petroleum deposits of Lake Maracaybo,
which have long been known for their copiousness, are
at length biting opened up by capitalists aid there are
rumours that the Rotbschilds are likely to secure a
monopoly of the affair. 1 • . ,
Before the Master of the. Rolls and Lords Justices
Lindley aid Lopes an appeal on behalf of Mr. E. M.
Langworthy, bankrupt, against the decision of Mr.
Registrar Hotit, declining to appoint a day to con—
sider the application of the
nowbabnekupinrghtlfdorbylethaveecctocibael
rßeepereerveart,ewri in the
was
dismissed.i n ciuiry
It is announced officially that the honour of knights
hood will shortly be conferred upon- the: following:
James W. Hamlett, Mayor of Belfast; Thomas Lecky,
May or of Londonderry; Aide-man George Meyers,
LL D., Dublin; Alderman Cochrane, J.P., DL.,
Dublin; James Spaight, J.P., President of the Chamber
of Commerce, Limerick; Robert Heron, D.L. chair-
man of the Kingston Town Commission; John R.
Wigham. hon. see. of the Dublin Chamber of Com-
merce; and Howard Grub, F.R. A.S.
Lard Drummond, grandson and heir of the Earl of
Perth and •Melfort, has (according to Renter) died of
consumption in one of. the hcppirals at New York.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, on Saturday,
the highest reading in the shade was 8918, and in the
sun's rays 147'4°.

A severe shock of earthquake was felt all over the
island of Oy prus at 1 25 p.m. on Sunday.
Two excursion trains, containing a large number of
Irish Foresters from Belfaar, were passing Ballymena
on Saturday evening on their homeward journey from
Portrush when several revolver shots were fired
from the carriage wirniows, and three -persons, named
respecrivel:r Dow& Tr ompson, and Campbell, were
wounded. Nearly thirty shots we:e fired, and it was
surprising that wine people were not badly wounded.
The outrage wsr ri-virded with the greatest abhorzt nee
ill the neighbour hn,,d.