The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-02-06 00:00:00

r A FINAL CAUSE.— Customer (who 'wishes to
return a Horse he has lately bought) : "He's kicked the
Carriage into Lucifer Matches, and no one dares get
'on his back. What he was made for, I can't think!"
—Dealer: "To Sell, .1 should say."—Punch.
THE IMPORTANCE OF MANNERS.—I used just
now that word, manners. Letme beg your very serbus
attention to it. I use it, remember, in its true, its
ancient—that is, in its moral and spiritual—sense. I
use it as the old Greeks, the old Romans, used their
corresponding words ; as our wise forefathers
used it, when they said well, that " Manners
makyth man "' • that manners are at once the
efficient cause of a man's success, and a proof of
his deserving to succeed ; The outward and visible
sign of whatsoever inward and spiritual grace, or
disgrace, there may be in him. I mean by it what
onr Lord meant when He reproved the pushing and
vulgar arrogance of the Scribes and Pharisees, and
laid down the golden rule of all good manners. "He
that is greatest among you, let him he the servant of
all.'' Next, I beg you to remember that all or almost
all, the good manners which we have among us—
courtesies, refinements, self-restraint. and mutual
respect—all which raises us socially anl morally above
our forefathers of fifteen hundred years ago—deep-
hearted men, valiant and noble, but coarse, and ar-
rogant, and quarrelsome—all that, or almost all, we
owe to Christ, to the influence of His example, and to
that Bible which testifies of Him. Yes, the Bible has
been for Christendom, in the cottage as well as
in the palace, the school of manners; and the saying
that he who becomes a true Christian becomes a true
gentleman is no rhetorical boast, but a solid historic
fact. —Charles Kingsley in Good Words.

DOES SUNSHINE PUT OUT A FIRE ?—A good
deal of discussion has lately taken plaoe in this coun-
try over the old question whether sunshine checks
combustion. It is an old notion that sunlight lessens
the intensity of a fire, and may even put it out, and
the theory was that the sun's heat by expanding the
air caused a diminished supply of oxygen to the coal.
This and all other explanations are now condemned,
and the fact is denied. One writer says that if a few
pieces of charcoal are ignited in a chauffer, and placed
in a sunny room provided with closely fitting shutters,
the fire will appear to die away in the sun's light.
But if the shutters are closed, the coals will be
seen to be in full combustion. There is no pheno-
menon at all, but only the appearance of one,
which is due not to the sun's heat, but to the fact
that its light, being stronger than that of the coals,
overcomes and subdues it. The fact of combustion
is so intimately connected with glowing ignition
in our minds, that anything which lessens the glow
appears also to diminish the combustion.—Cassell's
Magazine.

TELEGRAPHING FOR THE PRESS.—Last week,
owing to the concurrence of political meetings at Bir-
mingham and Lewes, the quantity of matter trans-
mitted by the Post Office on behalf of the Press was
unusually large. It is estimated that from Birming-
ham there were transmitted of Mr. Bright's two
speeches close upon 400,000 words, and delivered
throughout the United Kingdom more than double
that number, or nearly 500 columns of printed matter.
From Lewes the number of words actually trans-
mitted to London was about 40,000, but eventually
not far short of 450,000 words must have been delivered
throughout the United Kingdom. On the whole, the work
appears to have been singularly well done. The Tzraes'
message from Birmingham on Monday night extended
to 14,000 words, and it was transmittted to London by
the " Wheatstone " process at a speed of nearly 6,000
words an hour' or 100 words a minute!
FUNERAL REFORM.—The clergy of the rural
deanery of Oxford have taken a practical step with a
view of discouraging needless expense and ostentation
at funerals. They express an opinion that, notwith-
standing the improvements of late years, in many
cases there is much needless expense, more than rela-
tives can well afford, and that this expenditure, by
adding to the outward gloom, must often tend to
aggravate their distress. They venture to suggest that
scarves and hatbands might be altogether discontinued,
and request that for the future articles of mourning
may not be offered to them at funerals. They recom-
mend that, except in cases where special circumstances
render the use of lead advisable, the coffins should be
of wood alone; hope to see some expedient devised
for doing away with the present cumbrous hearse and
gloomy mourning coaches, and will welcome with satis-
faction any change which would impart to the funeral
ceremony a less gloomy and more hopeful character.
They add that they would promote the object they
have in view if testators would direct that their
funerals should be simple and inexpensive, or that the
expenses should not exceed a certain sum.
SCIENTIFIC GIFTS.—At the last meeting of
the directors of the Manchester AthenEeum it was in-
timated by Mr. W. R. Callender, M.P., the hon. sec.,
that a complete set of meteorological instruments has
been offered to the institution by Mr. W. Aronsberg,
optician, of that city, who has made similar gifts to
the Manchester Royal Exchange and Town-hall.
Within the last two years Mr. Aronsberg has pre-
sented spectacles to Lancashire Boards of Guardians
for the use of aged paupers to the number of 16,000
pairs. He has made useful gifts to infirmaries, hos-
pitals, lunatic asylums, and gaols throughout the
North of Dngland. Mr. Aronsberg's benefactions
also include 200 boxes of mathematical instruments
to the Manchester School Board and to the Lanca-
shire and Cheshire Union of Mechanics' Institutes
respectively.
PARAPHRASING "THE ANCIENT MARINER."—
"Politics, politics everywhere," said a candidate the
other evening. " Yes," continued a thirsty con-
stituent, in the Coleridge style, "and not a drop to
drink."—Court Journal.

"BRING Ur A CHILD," &c.—Ethel: "I
wonder why Adam and Eve were turned out of
Paradise ?"—Tack (the Squire's son): "P'raps they shot
a fox Punch.

A FATAL GUN AcorDENT.—A fatal accident
has occurred to Henry Deane, aged 46, one of the
Royal keepers of Swinley Forest, Berkshire. On
Thursday last he had just returned home from rabbit
shooting, and was hanging up his gun in its usual place
over the fireplace, when it slipped through his hands,
and one of the locks, which was defective, coming in
contact with the ground, the hammer fell and lodged
the whole contents of the barrel in his abdomen. Dr.
Keogh, of Bagshot, was immediately sent for, but, in
spite of all that could be done, he only lingered in great
pain until a quarter to nine the same evening: The
gun which caused the accident is a double-barrelled
muzzle-loader,and had been in need of repair for some
months previously. A large hole is to be seen in the
ceiling of the room, which was made by the same gun
having gone off accidentally under nearly similar cir-
cumstances. Deane was a respectable steady man,
who had been in the service of the Crown nearly 16
years. He leaves a widow and young family.
SHELLEY's BOTHOOD.—Shelley at Eton dis-
played that fearlessness of character which ever
strongly distinguished him. He opposed with passion-
ate ardour the system of fagging which was pursued,
and his individual force was such that he kept down
the hateful system as far as he was personally con-
cerned. As a youth his large soul was impatient of all
paltriness and meanness withwhich it came in contact,
while the pleasures of his imagination were so
strong and satisfying as to draw him away largely
from ordinary communion with the human. Then,
too, even in his days of boyhood, there were floating in
his mind certain undefined schemes which he longed
to promulgate for the amelioration of the race; and
there is something beautiful, if strange, in a youth of
seventeen so impressed with the necessity of working
for the good of his species as to be contemplating the
issue of a novel which was to give the death-blow to
intolerance. —Cornhill if agatine.

MARK TWAIN ON CHAMBERMAIDS.—Against
all chambermaids, of whatsoever age or nationality, I
launch the curse of bachelordom. They put your
boots into inaccessible places. They chiefly enjoy de-
positing them as far under the bed as the wall will
permit. They always put the match-box in some
other place. They hunt up a new place for it every
day, and put a bottle or other perishable glass thing
where the box stood before. This will disgust you.
They like that. No matter where you put anything,
they won't let it stay there. They will take it and
move it the first chance they get. And they use more
hair-oil than any six men. They keep always coming
to make your bed before you get up, thus destroying
your rest and inflicting agony upon you, but after you
get up they don't come any more till the next day.
STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE OF A FORTUNE.—
One of the dangers of placing your money in shares
instead of sinking it in some more tangible property is
shown by a chronicler in the Paris Constitutionnel. A
member of the financial world recently died a sudden
death. He was known to have a considerable fortune
in French and foreign shares. His family at once
searched for them, but could find them nowhere;
every nook and corner was turned out, but in vain;
and the family have been forced to come to the con-
clusion that the deceased, in a moment of panic conse-
quent on the uncertain state of political affairs, must
have hidden them in some spot which he was unable
to reveal owing to the suddenness of his death. The
result is that, en attendant the discovery of the shares,
the family of the deceased, whose income was esti-
mated at two thousand a year, are penniless. Accord-
ing to the same writer, this is not an isolated case, and
he quotes the disappearance of many fortunes in a
similar way.

MR. P's ADVICE TO YOl7liG PEOPLE FALLING
IN LOVE.—FaII out —Punch.
CAVERNS USED FOR GRAVES IN KENTUCKY.
—A new phase in the archwology of the United States
is shown by the researches of Mr. Putnam in the caves
of Kentucky, as he has found that many of the caverns
there were used for burial, as in Europe, and that
others were used for habitations. 'Many relics and.
skeletons have been brought to light by his investiga-
tions, The caves were evidently very extensively used
by an early race of men, but the race to which the
remains should be referred is not yet determined. In
his investigations in the vicinity of a group of mounds
in Monroe County, Kentucky, Mr. Putnam was also
fortunate in finding a peculiar mode of burial that has
not before been noticed, inasmuch asthe bodies—in one
grave ten in number—were buried in a circular grave,
, made by placing erect slabs of limestone around a floor
laid with thin stones. The bodies had all been placed
in the grave at the same time, and evidently in a sit-
ting posture, with their backs against the slabs. The
skulls show a race remarkable for the shortness of their
heads, and in one case at least exhibited a posterior
flattening. The bones of the skeletons were thick and
massive, and the shin-bones remarkably flat.
BROOKLYN-BRIDGR.— The Mayor of New York
presents to the Common Council of his city an annual
message, giving an account of the state of the city
finances, the progres4 of public works, and the various
municipal affairs of public interest. In his message
for 1875, the Mayor of New York recommends that
the bridge across the East River to Brooklyn be com-
pleted without any unnecessary delay. He says
"The tower on the Brooklyn side is substantially
finished. On the New York side the tower has been
carried a few feet above the springing of the arches,
and can be completed during the coming working
season. The Brooklyn anchorage is within 2011. of
completion, and will require about three months' work
to finish it. The outings required to support the
cables of both towers are made. A consolidation of
the cities of New York and Brooklyn into one munici-
pality is but a question of time. When this bridge is
Completed that union may become a fact."