The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-10-30 00:00:00

'Miscellaneous lintetligente,

HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

NEW TEST OF A ' GENTLEMAN. Customer.
Do you know Mr. Jones ?—Newsvendor. 0 yes, Sir; a
customer of ours—a perfect gentleman—never reads
anything under the Saturday Review.—PUNCH.
CARE OF Cows IN AUTUMN.—An enterprising
farmer in Western New York communicated to us
recently his practice in the management of his cows
during the season when the grass begins to fail (says
the New York Herald). He says the great secret of
rearing and feeding stock successfully is to keep what
you get--to save every pound of flesh and fat that is
produced. The question lying still back of this is how
shall the fat flesh be retained? What to do and how
to do it is the question. Hitherto I have always com-
menced feeding ray cows with meal in October, and
continued the regular extra feed through November,
and we made more butter through one of those autumn
months than in any other month of the grazing
season. I have a pint cup with flaring sides that
holds, when dipped in and heaped up full, about two
quarts of good Indian corn and oats, of equal parts
made of the pure grain. I never " cob " ray animals,
I am down on the cub system of management. With
every fifteen bushels of corn and oats I mingle, before
it is ground, about one bushel of flaxseed. This im-
proves the quality of the feed for animals of any kind,
as ground flaxseed, when mingled with grain, is far
better for much cows, for horses, for fattening young
sheep, or for young stock of any kind, than all meal,
I BOW a little flaxseed every year for the express pur-
pose of having the seed to mingle with the grain that
is ground into meal for my cows and other stock. I
think this is the true way to make money—to save all
that is made Without losing any portion. The little
losses abstract the profits.
WEAVING FANCIES. —A rare talent of Hans
Christian Andersen was his skill in arranging flowers.
On fete days he would decorate a, ri?Cm or a table with
a taste and simplicity` that were perfect. He allowed
no one to help him, saying that it diOnebed his ideas;
so children would gather flowers for him, and leave
him alone to weave his own fancies. . .
As THE COURT, SO THE PEOPLE.—The Corre-
t ponclent of The Times at Milan remarks :
In two *portant particulars the Court of the King of Italy
appears At-great advantage, and, perhaps, excels all other
Royal or Insperial establishments. Victor Emmanuel never
stints himself in the purchase of fine horses, and tasteful as
well as splendid eqnipagesi; and he musters the bi st-bred,
most courteous, and obliging staff of servants. The men of
menial rank in the Royal household are mostly Piedmontese ;
and I believe there is no instance of any person, high or low,
ever entering the Palace on any errand without, receiving
due attention. Access to the King's Staff, and to every one
high in office about the King's person, is always open and
easy, and upon any application to them the utmost.
readiness to grant any reasonable request is invariably
evinced. Even those strangers who are apt to find
fault with the Italians in other respects—those Northeners,
especially, Who rather too freely claim the monopoly of
truth and honesty, and alt other virtues under the sun—
are forced to admit that, whatever may be the defects of the
Italian character, they are rather more than glossed over by
a uniform, never ruffled, never Whig coating of national
politeness. As the Court is, so is the whole country. Polite-
ness, another.word for ctvilisation, is with nations a matter
of age. It is most mature where it is oldest, and it has
attained a higher standard here than in any o,her country in
Western Europe, precisely because modern intellectual,
social, and moral refinement had here its earliest develop-
ment. That ripeness necessarily involves rottenness is not
as easily proved as it is assumed. In their ever prompt and
untiring obligingness the Italians are, as a rule perfectly dis-
interested, and those strangers who tob hastily style it flat-
tery or regard it as fawning servility, those who stroke this
feline race the wrong side of the hair, soon find that the
temper on the smoothness of which they are tempted to tres-
pass is speedily ruffled, and that the people have, after all,
pride and resentment enough never to be coaxed or forced
into a repetition of their rejected advances. ,
PRAYER FOR THE PRINCE OF WALES.—The
following has been sanctioned by the bishop of the
Episcopal Church in Scotland, to be used at morning
and evening prayer in their respective dioceses, and to
follow the "Prayer for the Royal Fatuily," or (when
the Litany is used) tle prayer We humbly beseech
Thee," Sec. :—" Almighty and most merciful Father,
take, we beseech thee at this time into Thy holy
keeping, Thy servant, Albert Edward Prince of
auard him in his going out and coming in; direct_ and
prosper him in his way; order all his doings for , the
good of our fellow-subjects in India and the glory of
Thy holy Name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen."