The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-06-23 00:00:00

MILITARY TOURNAMENT

On Saturday afternoon the full performance at the
Military Tournament at Islington, to which all pro-
ceedings hitherto have been merely preliminary, was
gone through in the presence of many thousands of
enthusiastic spectators. The musical ride of the Royal
Horse Guards in full uniform was a very brilliant
spectacle, and as loudly cheered as the more dashing
display for which the 12th Lancers deserved and won
high praise on previous days. The combined display
of all arms in this year made nearly complete by
the introduction of every modern type of weapon
except the repeating rifle, and more realistic by
the aid of cunning devices in scenery and artificial
lights. The general idea is that a detached
force from an army on the line of march
attempts to turn the enemy's flank. To do
this it is necessary to cross a small river and defile
through a mountain pass which they believe to be
unoccupied. Near this they bivouac for the night
protected by a chain of outposts along the river bank.
These are presently surprised by having an electric
light thrown upon them. Then the attack develops.
Cyclists go forward to reconnoitre and hold an ad-
vanced position. Infantry, a mountain battery of
artillery, German and Nordenfelt machine gnns,
Hotchkiss revolving cannon and quick firing guns
come into action; the river is bridged by engineers,
a stockade is blown up, and the pass successfully
stormed. In addition to these novelties the Scots
Greys and oth Lancers give effective displays of cavalry
manceuvres, and the whole spectacle is so attractive
that standing room can scarcely be found for the thou-
sands who seek admission every afternoon and evening.
The individual contests for auxiliary forces were con-
tinued and some concluded before Saturday night. In
"cleaving the Turk's head," Sergeant Townsend,
Shropshire Yeomanry, took first prize, Sergeant
Bickley second, and Corporal Keen, Bucks Yeomanry,
after a very close struggle. In other Competitions the
following were prize winners :—Tilting at the ring,
Corporal Keen, Sergeant Dudley, Corporal W. Green,
and Corporal A. T. Miles; lemon-cutting, Corporal W.
Green, Private H. Dowson, Sergeant Bickley, and
Sergeant Townsend; Tent-pegging, Sergeant Walker,
Corporal F. Miles, Sergeant Franks, and Corporal
Green. In Sword against Sword the first prize was
taken by Sergeant Bickley, the second by Sergeant
Nash, Victoria's, and the third by Sergeant Dudley.
WANTED, A HOWARD.

The following letter has been written to a con-
temporary by Mr. John Parnell, of Chichester House,
Rockley-road, West Kensington: "As foreman of a
jury at Clerkenwell Sessions, on being discharged
after six days, I, with my fellow-jurymen (by order
obtained of the judge), went over Pentonville Prison.
We were much horrified and pained to see the brutal
system under which torture is hourly inflicted upon
many of the poor prisoners. We were told that for a
month after entry the prisoners, as we saw them, are
kept upon that abominable invention, the treadmill,
their time of actual working on it being 5i hours
daily. We were then shown the prisoners' cells, and
the dreadful instrument of torture called Ora plank-
bed. From the mill, aching in every limb, the poor
prisoner, for a whole month, has tq lie all
night upon this slightly - raised platform, with-
out a mattress or pillwa . This is not punish-
ment—it steps beyond it—it is deliberate torture. As
an Englishman and a ratepayer I protest most ear-
nestly against its longer continuance. The chapel in
which the gospel of love and forgiveness is daily set
forth to the prisoners we also visited, but I fail to see
how any prisoner aching in all his bones from the
plank-bed can obtain belief in such far-off possibilities.
The system of silence which also prevails is against
human nature, and productive of prison crime. Surely
it is high time, if we mean really to be a civilised and
Clnistian nation, to sweep away the treadmill, the
system, and the plank-bed altogether, and tc
treat prisoners as human beings entitled to our kind.
ness whilst in durance, instead of driving them into a
wearisome melancholy madness. It s a shocking
fact, which all who have studied European penal
systems will admit, that our treatment of prisoners
sentenced to short terms is surpassed in cruelty by
that of no other civilised nation. Of course, prisons
are penal establishments, and prisoners have no right
to be made comfortable; but it is a scandal to civili-
sation that men should be discharged daily from out
gaols with bodies weakened and faculties impaired,
and in a condition far less fit to earn an honest living
than when they entered prison."

The royal sport of falconry is (remarks the Graph r)
so little pursued nowadays that few people have any
notion how much sport may still be enjoyed by this
means. A well known falconer with four birds last
season secured with his best sparrowhawk, 1 pheasant,
1 partridges, 56 blackbirds, 5 thrushes, 2 small birds,
anti 4 water-hens—total, 71 head. His next best hawk
took 44 blackbirds, 13 thrushes, 1 partridge, and 2 small
birds-60 head. A female goshawk took 130 rabbits, 1
pheasant, 3 water-hens, and 1 stoat; while a male gos-
uawk took 26 partridges, 10 pheasants, 16 rabbits, 12
water-hens, tnd 1 stoat. It is clear that the barrenness
lf this sport is very much of a myth; and, as to the
'iffirulties Cl training hawks, it is precisely difficulty
7hich is the soul of the best snort

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Bartholomew's Ilft-Astra-U:4 Guido to Ms Turklet
and oth.r Baths. Inc.. GA

Eria:thofox-iiti;;;;;;- lieetie..4.l Lecture on th• Curative
action of the Turkish and other Baths. Deliwered
fore the Learned Societi,s, Westminster Hall, London. Price 3d.
Sent post tr,e from his establishments in Brisol, Bath. Bre.
mingham, Bsnchester, Worcester, and Leicester Square. London.

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