The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-12-26 00:00:00

TRYING BACK.

"E. J." makes the following very obvious but ex-
tremely hopeless suggestions :—" Years ago pattens
were used by all classes of females, and it seems to me
a great pity that they should have gone so entirely
out -if fashion, when f see, wading through wet and
mud and melted snow, so many children laying the
seed of disease, so many old tempting their death,
and, I may add, so loony young and well-dressed
womcn with such dirty and disappointing extremities.
Nothing is so economical as the patten, and nothing
so effective, raisin" as it does the foot so high above
the damp; and ff its unyielding,nese be objected
to, surely springs behind the toes can be easily con-
trived. Certainly our female servants should use loose
, wooden clogs in which to clean their steps: They
would not only be but look more comforthble, and
clogs would assuredly be no uglier than the slovenly
chaussure they usually expose. The French servants,
Gies chausies par excellence, always wear sabots over
their slioiers for outdoor work and short errands."
Sir William Fraser writes to us on the same subject :
"It needs no doctor to tell us that wet feet are the
primary cause of at least half the deaths from chest
disease. The Balmoral boot has saved the lives of
thousands of the upper class. Is it impossible to per-
suade the inhabitants of the southern counties of this
island to imitate their more knowing neighbours of
the north, and to adopt toe neat, black, metal-tipped,
wooden-soled clog? Surely a few examples in high
places might effect this." —Tile Times.

CHAPTER V.
" To the third and fourth generation."
We take a step of seventy years; the old family
mansion still remains; although it has been repaired,
and somewhat added to, the character of the building
is presersed— it is still the old Tudor house, among
more recent neighbours, who themselves are becoming,
if not obsolete, at least old-fashioned. The master is
still a Ferrol, another James, the son of George,
whom we had known in his early days. Ile is not a
young man, having passed his three-score years, but
the old family type is strongly marked in him; he
takes the family estates, and the family duties, and is
justice, without being especially "burly." His son
is with his regiment, his wife and daughter at home.
He is a good country gentleman of the old school.
Mr. Temperley, who was one of his grandfather's
tenants, he had heard about indistinctly; the name
was associated with the misty things of two genera-
tions past, for the Temperleys had gone into the
easterE part of the country to farm, and the society
of the two families was broken off by distance.
Longthorpe of old time, was s ery much the Long-
therpe of the than time of George 111., and although
much had been done in the progress of civilization
since our story opened with the opening of the
eighteenth century, it was still dangerous to ride
home at night with much money, but it was also still
unusual to keep current accounts at a banker's. It
is said, history repeats itself, and in the instance of
Sir James Ferrol, to whom the story now refers, it may
seem strange that he should meet similar experienses to
those of his father; but highwaymen and highway rob-
bery were not uncommon, and as Sir James was riding
home unattended on Christmas-eve just seventy
years after the similar event occurred to his father,
a horseman rushed out upon him from behind some
cover, and the two having fired their weapons,
straggled arm in arm (a sort of wrestle) as to who
ehould throw his enemy from the saddle. The high-
w-.-;man was young and slender, and not very daring,
b it James Ferrol was tough and determined, and
brought down the other man with all the force he
could muster. Before allowing the beaten and bruised
man to come round he bound him ankles and wrists
with his saddle girths, and put him in a deep ditch
beside the road. It was a moat degraded position for
the would-be robber, and he felt the indignity sadly,
heightened as the feeling was by an almost certain ex-
pectation of the gallows—for he was scarcely hardened
enough not to dread being made a public example on a
gibbet. The squire did not long leave his captive in
suspense, helpless in the ditch, but as soon as lie
arrived home, sent out men to take him. Next
morning, after a somewhat unpleasant night of it, the
captive was brought into the presence of the solemn
magistrate, Mr. James Ferrol, to be questioned about
his antecedents, and, if need be, to be committed for
trial for highway robbery and violence. It may not
seem very just that the only accuser of the culprit
should be his judge, so least as committal was con-
cerned; but Mr. Ferrol was not disposed to carry
matters to extremes, especially with so young a man.
Upon enquiry being made as to his name, he gave
it as Arthur Thompson, but could not make a very
good tale RR to his place of birth, or ally other of hi
antecedents, and it was very evident he was not speak-
ing the truth.
"Were any papers found upon his person ? " asked
the magistrate.
"Yes Sir," and here one of the captors, who had de-
livered the man from the ditch, handed in some letters,
and several other articles of personal property.
These Mr. Ferrol examined, especially the letters,
and after some time, he looked us, to the ceiling with a
meditative air, saying, more to himself than to anyone
vise—" Temperley ! Francis Temperley ! yes, surely, I
remember something about that name." Continuing
his reflections, he lowered his eyes, and they fell upon
an old saddle which hung in the hall. It was the very
relic which his father had preserved, with the ball in
it which had been fired in the affray which has been
narrated. The story had been often told in the family,
and now came vividly into the memory of the living
representative of the Ferro's ; he knew now, at once,
how, and in what connection he remembered the name
of Temperley.
"It appears that your real name im*Francis Temper-
ley, and not Arthur Thompson. You had better he
honest with me, young man: I shall judge of you by
that, so no more deceptien. Where do you come from?
How long have you been in this part ,f the country?
At the special desire of the magistrate, he was left
alone with young Tempel ley, who then made a clean
confession of all his circumstances, and pleaded with
all his heart for mercy and forgiveness. Mr. Tun.
perley's son had left the estate of the Ferrol's to farm
in is somewhat distant part of the country; his father I RESTRICTING THE OUTPUT. Combinations
had died, and the farm had been since held by other among the intermediary class which stands between
hands. The younger Temperley had been a. prosperous the producer and consumer are becoming a very serious
man, and the culprit now on his confession was his matter in the United States. A correspondent of
graralson—the great grandson of the older Temperley. the Sheffield Daily Telegraph gives A strikieg example,
He had fallen out with his father, upon whose farm he of this in a recent letter from Nery York, where,
had lived from a boy, and travelling westward for he says, turkeys sell at from 20 to 22 cents per lb.,
ease days, be came on horseback to Isongthorpe. Over- though the farmers who rear the fowls get only
hearing some of the intentions of Mr. Ferrol, he had eight cents, the rings of middlemen, dealers, and re
planned the desperate enterprise which had led hun toilers, dividing the surplus. This suggests the old
into this trouble. laws against forestallers and regrators, which the
'I he good old gentleman quite felt for the prisoner, fusty wisdom of our ancestors provided against such a
and was determined under the eircunistances to save contingency, but which have been set aside in favour
him from the consequences of his ill-advised conducts of the now universally professed gospel of free trade.
It being Christmas-day he ordered his men to provide The American iron manufacturers have, however,
for the young man, to give hint food and acsommo- taken a leaf from the book of Mr. Macdonald and his
station in a small private apartment, where he was to protectienist followers. A c maniittee receetly ap-
be kept under lock and key until the next day, when pointed by a meeting of ironmasters at Philadelphia to
it was hoped some scheme could be devised for his devise steps for arresting the threatened decline in the
future welfare. But after all it WAS is sorry way to price of pig-iron recommended the limitation of pro-
'spend Christmas. He was lavish in his thanks, and duction, and their constituents have since resolved to
not knowing anything about the cause of such leniency, reduce next year's production by one-half.—/ron.
was somewhat astonished at the friendly manner of
the magistrate and his servants. That Christmas was
a clay of repentance and reflection.
The circumstances at length assumed the following
form in Mr. Ferrule mind: The would be robber bad
not committed any offence against any other person
than himself; he WM his sole accuser, and his conduct
hardly amounted to highway robbery, it was more the
act of a young fool driven desperate. So the next
morning he set the man at liberty, after a lecture, and
after setting forth his reasons for doing so and he was
very glad to be tuns able to do a good turn to one
whose name and ancestry were eonnected with the
saving of his own fathers life under glaringly similar

very
' his

Amen the other day saved his wife from drowning,
when they were upset in a boat. The danger destroyed
presence of mind.
This is the latest form of welding invitations:
('onto arose.t gedsee me earth, a mother-ln-law at eight
o'clock sharp."—Ameriean Paper.
. . . . .

The pollution of rivers is a most important matter to
the public generally and to manufacturers in particular
anal the Society or Arts does well, therefore, to hold a Con
terence on the subject. The conclusions arrived at will
possibly; form the foundation of legislation, and at any rate
they ought to afford material for it. Meanwhile a corn-
mission is about to inquire Into the pollution of the Clyde.