The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-10-08 00:00:00

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OUr 11.7a0.an Courspoithcnt,

Za deem it right to state that we do. not at all tines
tire ourseive with our Correspondents opinions.
The recently issued Revenue Returns go far to con-
lima the conviction of those who have been maintain-
ing that notwithstanding many indications to the
contrary the period of depression under which the
country has laboured is gradually passing away. Both
for the quarter as well -as for the year ending the
30th September there was an increase in the national
receipts as compared with 1880,—a most satisfac-
tory feature, so far as the last three months
are concerned, being the augmented yield in
the Cnstoms. The tendency of the Excise Re enue
is also excellent, and to the practised eyes of
the trading :lasses no more trustworthy figures could
'he presented. Sit months of the financial year have
now ekpirel under circum ta.nces which give every
horet'of a good Budget next spring. Indeed, 1882 will
ie. more than one respect remied those who have fol-
lowed Mr. Gladstone's career of prominent events in
his political life. It will then have been fifty years
since he first entered Parliament, and thirty years
from the time of his taking the duties of Chancellor
of the Exchequer. A prosperous Budget would not
only be a blessing to the nation, but a topstone to the
fabric of a distinguished political career.
It is not only in the Revenue Returns that signs
are distinguishable of that revival of commercial activity
which has so long been anxiously looked for. In
the Board of Trade report for the past year it is
pointed out that our railway companies have almost
in a single twelvemonths recovered from the de-
pression which has affected them since 1873. There
are few who will be prepared for the fact, as
stated in the document, that compared with
1879 the receipts from passenger traffic rose by
more than a million and a quarter sterling, and
the receipts from goods traffic by £2,281,000.
Further it is pointed out that in both passenger and
goods traffic last year yielded absolutely the largest
receipt in any one year since the formation of rail-
ways in the United Kingdom. In the goods traffic
the increase was almost evenly divided between
minerals and general merchandise. As to the in-
crease of a million and a quarter sterling in the pas-
senger traffic, it is significant to note that almost a
million was from the third class. The receipts from
first-class passenger traffic have remained stationary,
and those from the second-class have dropped con-
siderably. The growth of the revenue from the
third-class is a powerful testimony to the wisdom
of the policy which has given facilities for
the great mass of the people to travel cheaply
and expeditiously, and with every convenience
which comfort can suggest. A great deal is some-
times said of the advantages of the American system
of railway travelling, which does not divide the pas-
sengers into cla,ssea, nor the carriages into compart-
ments. The Antericans who come over here, on the
other hand, extfreis their admiration of the substan-
tial way in which our lines are made, as compared
with the less solid manner in which the railways are
constructed in the United States.
The fact that the convocation of the French
Chambers is not to take place until the 28th of this
month brings to the mind of the English one or two
points which are worth a passing attention. Two
month. in. then have elapsed since the elections,
whereas in this country the Parliament is summoned
to meet on the first practicable day after the polls
have been closed. The theory of the Constitution is
that the nation should not be without a Parliament
longer than it absolutely necessary; and so rigidly is
this ad.Lered to that it would sometimes be diffi-
nul", for the members for the most remote consti-
tUencies to be present on the first day of the
meeting of a new Pa.iliament. Another point
is that by meeting in October the French Legisla-
ture comes ,together at a time of year when our
own senators are enjoying their vacation, and
are nattered over foreign lands and distant seas.
tn recent times the British Parliament has met in
t.Vovember and also in December, but not in October
although there are many who believe that if the
Session began in the autumn instead of in the
winter or the spring, the arrangement would materially
conduce to the better transaction of the nationa
br.siness, and to the greater convenience of those who
in an immense number of ways are associated with
the working of the Legislature.

The Social Science Congress follows closely upon
the meeting of the British Association ; and although
as a purely scientific body the younger organisation
cannot be compared with the older one, the questions
before the sociologists are often of great interest
to the general public. Few have yet forgotten
Dr. Richardson's famous description of the healthy
city of the future—Hygieopolis—Where sanitary
reforms of every possible description contributed
to the general weal and to the prolongation of
life. The Sociologists deal with things as they are
and as they are practicable to be made according to
the finite vision of the present ; the scientists specu-
late far into futurity, and discuss the possibility
of events which in the existing development of human
wisdom have sometimesa chimerical look about them.
Looking at the astonishing progress which has been
made even during living memory, it would be rash to
prophecy that the time will never come when the
steam.engine shall be superseded either by the balloon
or by electricity, when we shall as easily store sun-
beams as we store water, when the torrid heat of one
continent shall be utilised to temper the frigid cold of
another, and when the now wasted force of Niagara
shall be made to do duty at Boston. But in turning
their attention to the more pressing problems of to-day
the members of the Social Science Congress are doing
an eminently practical work, and one which, in urging
forward sanitary reforms, deals with the best way of
prolonging the lives of the existing generations rather
than with theoretical speculations as to what our
descendants a century hence may be able to accom-
plish.

The affairs of North Africa have of late been brought
prominently into public notice, and the people of Italy
are watching with much interest the doings of France
on that Continent. Their forefathers, or Perhaps it
would be more correct to say their predecessors, had
innumerable rights on the whole southern seaboard of
the Meditersanean, and the conquests of the Romans
of old upon that tideless sea fill up a large part of the
pages of ancient history. Those were the days when
the Romans and the Carthaginians, each with fleets of
galleys, met upon the surface of that vast sheet of
water called by the Jews the Great Sea, and contended
for the mastery of what in that time was the whole
civilized won't England and France were then un-
known as Mediterraman powers, while now the
former, more especially, through the possession of
Gibraltar and Malta, predominate in influence over
the whole of that seaboard. The critical state of
affairs in Egypt recently induced some of the Italian
journals 0 declare that there was an end to the shadow
of Ea.-yptian independence, and that the two great
nations of the West meant to occupy the country
which was once the granary of the Meditteranean
peoples, and which again may have a rich future.
The Italians do not appear to object so much to the
extension of English influence as to the progress of
that of France; and in the face of what is going on in
Temis would willingly concert with England with a
view to regain wholly or in part the position once held

by their country in the Mediterranean.
October promises to present a strong contrast to
September so far as political movement is concerned,
both in London and the Provinces. When September
came in the recess was not a week old; and Parlia-
ment and the public were weary of a session which had
lasted for eight months, and which had been occupied
almost exclusively with a matteraffectingonly one part
of the United Kingdom. Everybody was anxious for a
relief, and turned to various subjects with a view to
obtaining it. But now that more than a month has
elapsed since the doors of the House of Commons
were closed, and the deeds of the session of 1881
have been definitively numbered with the past, in-
terest begins to be excited over the future. It
is the old story—" Welcome the coming, speed the
parting, guest." There is a reawakening of poli-
tical life in town and country ; and by the end
of the month the leaders of both parties, including
the Prime Minister himself, will have addressed great
gatherings of their countrymen in various parts.
Indeed, so far as ministers are concerned, with Novem-
ber their work begins again. Then it is that the
Cabinet Councils reassemble, the estimates are framed,
and the measures are prepared for next session.
The proximity of Epping Forest to London renders
that place of recreation one of the most popular resorts
bfor the toiling people of the giant capital. Within
sight of the smoke Of the capital, and almost within
sound of the roar of its traffic, there are *3l the accts.
eories of countrplife. One of the most noteworthy of
these is the presence of deer; and although the herd
is not now so good as it formerly was, the fact of its
existence is of some public interest. The Epping herd
was a noble one in the days of Queen Anne. lisloit of
the red deer in it were removed to Windsor about
the same time that the relics of the Woolmer herd
were conveyed to the same place under the orders
of the Duke of Cumberland. A few years ago the
Epping herd had dwindled to a very, few bead of
deer; but under the care of the Conservators it is
now much stronger, thanks to their careful preserva-
tion of these graceful animals.

The squadron under the command of the Earl of
Clanwilliarn, having in company the Baechante, with the
sons of the Prinoe of Wales, is due at Yokohama on the 25th
Instant, and a visit to the most Interesting plaoes In Japanese
waters wtO, be made by the &lON ol the Waren.

THE LAST MOMENTS OF PRESIDENT
GARFIELD.
The New York papers contain copious reports of
the scene immediately preceding and following the
President's decease.
Quite a numerous staff of correspondents was stay-
ing at Longbranch watching the changes of his ill-
ness, and shortly after the news of his approaching
collapse was made known forty cabs tearing news-
paper representatives were on their way to Elberon.
The correspondent of the JA,e2v York Hcrald thus de-
scrihes the closing scene : • •
" Most of the evening the President slept or dozed.
His mind, when awakened, was not clear, and the
perspiration, whose drain upon his strength had' been
of such serious consequence for the last few :clays,
continued, while the doctors themselves were unable
to terminate them. The parotid gland, also, gave
trouble to the sufferer, the poisoned condition of the
blood preventing its healing, and perpetuating the
suppuration that drained upon his physical strength
and ate up his tissue. The flow of pus from his wound
remained unhealthy in character, and the st(imach
gave continual signs of rebellion. Stimulating con-
tinued, and every three hours a pony' of brandm with
milk—in fact, a milk punch—was administered.
Quinine was given as a tonic, not as a check to
malarial troubles.
"Mrs. Garfield to the last remainDd hopeful,: She
appreciated the gravity of the situation, and her wifely
care and attendance at the bedside never relaxed.
Last night she never slept at all, and to-day, when
she sought some rest, it was only upon the promise of
Dr. Bliss that she should be called at the appearance
of any new symptoms in the case. At fifteen minutes
to ten o'clock General Swain and Colonel Rockwell
were in the room together. They were preparing for
a quiet watch when the President said, putting his
hand to his heart, Oh, what a pain ! ' General Swain
came immediately to him, and said, 'Where is the
pain V He exclaimed, 'Oh ! oh ! 'and Colonel Rockwell,
taking his pulse in his hand, said to Swain, I can't find
it.' Swain immediately ran to Bliss's room, and the
alarm spread. Dr. Bliss came to the room. Mrs. Gar-
field, Mrs. Rockwell, Miss Millie Garfield, Mr. C. 0.
Rockwell, Dr. Boynton, and 'Dan,' the faithfulcaloured
servant, were summoned at once. Dr. Bliss came in
quicker to the summons than could easily have been
expected, considering the small sleep he has had for
the last three months. Hardly a minute it seemed to
the anxious waiters apsed before the doctor was in
the room. His practised eye saw the immediate
condition of affairs at once. There was an immediate
necessity for raising the temperature. If it should
fall beyond the point science had indicated there
was no hope of another hour of the precious
life that for the moment lay in his hands. Bring
ammonia and mustard instantly,' he said. Search
was made for the two things that might perhaps
have prolonged life a little while, but there was
no mustard in the room and there was no ammonia
there. A messenger ran across the darkened lawn to
the Elberon Hotel, perhaps 150 yards away. He
stumbled up the low porch of the hotel almost ex-
hausted in his breathless haste, and waited for the
precious mendicaments to be got, Warren Young,
the military messenger, meantime galloped at head-
long speed to camp almost half a mile away for the
mustard and ammonia, while those in the room
stood breathless. There was not a word to say.
There was only one thing to do. It could not be
done. Rallying from the exhaustion that set the
seal of dissolution on his brow, he awoke only to
the consciousness of physical pain. 'Oh! how it
hurts here, said he again with his hand still on his
heart. Around the death-bed Mollie Garfield was
close beside him; Drs. Bliss and Agnew were there,
so were Colonel Rockwell, Mr. C. 0. Rockwell,
General Swain, Dr. Boynton, Mr. J. Stanley Brown
(private secretary), Mrs. Rockwell, Miss Lulu Rock-
well, two messengers Mr. H. L. Atchison, Mr. John
Ricard, Mr. Lancaster, Mr. Spriggs, and two other
faithful attendants. Oh I how it hurts here ! 'the
President said once more, then with an uneasy
motion he seemed to try to turn over, and, drawing
due long breath that was almost a gasp, his tortured
lungs refused their service. The heart was stilled and
life was gone!
"The midnight scene at Elberon was very striking
and dramatic. The cottages were mainly closed.
People came in driving from all parts of the settlement.
The correspondents gathered around the tables and
took every note possible of the final scene. Guards
were formed around the Elberon cottage and allowed
no one to approach. Death was reserved and secluded.
Few lights were burning, attendants were going to
and fro. Everything seemed covered with gloom, and
nothing was wanting to complete the picture of desola-
tion. In the centre of this group of busy correspon-
dents, statesmen, politicians, and gentlemen connected
with the Government was a life size picture of the
President in full and brilliant health, looking out
upon the surroundings of his fate. In Elberon
men stood waiting in breathless anxiety. The balcony
looking down upon Franklin cottage was covered with
them. To every one the consciousness seemed to have
come that the fatal moment was at hand. They were
not long delayed. The hands of the clock pointed at
ten minutes to eleven when the long-anticipated and
much-regretted tidings came. After tne patient's long-
enduring combat with death and the heroic struggle
with suffering, which fall to the lot of few men, the
bullet of the assassin had completed its work, and
James Garfield had succumbed. It had come at last
—the news which a whole nation had so long awaited
and were ready to so deeply deplore ; and at once by
wire and messenger it was bruited abroad. Elberon
was a scene of excitement such as was never before
witnessed there. How had the President died? What
were the circumstances of this midden taking off?
Rumour, gossip, fact, all were snapped upwith avidity
and then away went coaches and vehicles of every kind
along the road, bound for every quarter; horses driven at
the top of their speed galloped along; messexigerson foot
competed with one another; and the whole cavalcade
swept into Longbranch, to hotel and telegraph
station, to speed away the tidings of the nation's loss.
The west-end was in an uproar, and the village was
awakes-led from the night's repose by the dreary toll-
ing of the bell ringing out the knell of the dead Pre-
sident. The news flew like lightning. Many who
had sought their beds bestirred themselves and
hurried out to glean some word of the sad event, and
the road, which but a few moments before had been
filled with carriages and footmen bearing off the news,
had now as many hurrying to the scene where the last
of the tragedy was enacted. Franklin-cottage stood as
before silent and in darkness, but the feverish an xiety
of the watchers was over, and the fears and hopes that
had fluctuated so often about it were set at rest for
ever."