The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-08-20 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

The Chinese Government has ordered from Ger-
many war material to the amount of 15,000,000 marks, and
further oiders are expected.

The Church of England Working Men's Society
have issued a petition praying for the release of the Rev. S.
F. Green. It is being numerously signed. When completed
the document will be presented to the Queen, the Houses of
Parliament, and to Mr. Gladstone.

Don Carlos paid a brief visit to Oxford last Satur-
day, and inspected several of the chief objects of interest in
the University and city.

Lady Dufferin has given a garden party in Con-
stantinople, which, according to a Reuters telegram, was
one of the most brilliant fetes of the season.
During the recent outbreak against the Jews in the
small town of Schivelbein, in Pomerania, damage was caused
to the extent of 150,000 marks, which sum will have to be
covered by the municipality.
- -

- -
A fox-hunting pig is owned by a Transatlantic
farmer in Connecticut. Whenever Piggy hears the hounds
he manages to escape, and join in the sport. generally out-
stripping the pack and securing the lion's share of the fox
before the rest of the hunt can arrive.

A new game is to he introduced. It is called eye
peeping, and the fun consists in trying to guess the unknown
owner of an eye which is shown to the spectators through a
hole in the curtain.— Court .1 ournal.

A novel by King Oscar of Swelen "Le Chateau de
Kronberg," is being eagerly awaited by Swedish literary
circles. The work is to be published in Swedish and
German, and is said to be admirably written.
The committee of the National Memorial to Lord
Beaconsfield report that they have received £4,789 and that
£405 are promised. They have selected Signor M. Raggi to
execute the statue in bronze, and, with its pedestal, it is to
be completed in fifteen months for the sum of £3,150. The
tattle is to be placed in Parliament-square.

In London, on Saturday morning last, at about
seven o'clock, a boy, aged about fourteen, was fishing off the
Albert steps at Westminster-bridge, when he slipped and fell
into the river. The tide was rapidly running out at the
time, and he was quickly carried through the first arch. The
occupants of the police boat heard the alarm and made all
haste to the spot; but, notwithstanding their exertions, they
were too late to save the boy.

The Mayor of Liverpool, Mr. W. B. Forwood,
received the congratulations of a large number of citizens on
Monday upon the birth of a daughter on the preceding
Saturday. The old custom of presenting a silver cradle to
the Mayoress of a borough who gives birth to a child during
her husband's year of office has hitherto prevailed in Liver-
pool, and will be carried out in the present case.

A little girl in Brown's Valley, Yuba county,
California, lately found a blue jay's nest with four young
ones in it. Three of the young ones were in orthodox blue
feathers, but the fourth was pure white in plumage. She
carried the wonder home and brought it up by hand. It is
now full grown and is still as white as snow.

A telegram from New York says that it is feared
that a scientific party from Kansas State University, com-
posed of an astronomer, a professor of natural history, and
two students, have been captured by the Apache Indians in
New Mexico.

A Reuter's telegram says that the tobacco merchants
of Belgrade are on strike against the new Consumption Tax
Law, which. in the provision affecting the tobacco trade, re-
quires them to keep books to show the amount of their sales.
They protest against this regulation, and, should they persist
in their opposition and the Government refuse to make any
concession in the matter, the public will probably be con-
siderably inconvenienced through the closing of the shops
in which tobacco is sold.

The Irishmen of London, members of the League
of the Cross, numbering it is computed some 15,000 persons,
have through his Eminence Cardinal Manning just for-
warded to Pope Leo XIII. an address expressive of their
sympathy at the recent outrage to the remains of Pope
Pius IX. They say, "We are only working men, but we are
your sons, and the SOllB of fathers who have given all things,
even life itself, for the holy faith," and pray that the present
pontiff may be spared for many years to rule over the
Church.

In the course of the excavations for the new fort at
Lier, in the neighbourhood of Antwerp, a number of bones
of extinct animals, mammoth's teeth, and the almost com-
plete skeleton of a rhinoceros have been dug up. It was in
the same district that, in 1760, was found the immense
skeleton of a mammoth, which has been preserved in the
Natural History Museum at Brussels.

Prince Henry of Prussia visited her Majesty on
Monday, and took leave on his Royal Highness's return to
Germany.

Mr. Bright writes to one of his constituents :—" We
cannot expect to deal with the French tariff ac if it was our
own. Each Government has its own people and interest to
care for, and all that can be done is what the two Govern-
ments can agree upon. I hope if the negotiation fails they
who now ask to have no treaty except such a one as is im-
possible will not turn round upon the Government and blame
them for not accepting an arrangement which might have
been of great value to some branches of our varied industry."

Last week 29 deaths from small-pox were registered
in London. Of the persons who died 11 had resided in the
north, 7 in the east, 7 in the south, 3 in the central, and 1
in the west group of districts. Seven fatal cases belonged
tl Islington, of which 2 occurred in private dwelling-
houses.

In London last week 2,477 births and 1,578 deaths
were registered. Allowing for increase of population, the
births were 13 and the deaths 77 below the average num-
bers in the corresponding week of the last ten years. The
annual death-rate from all causes, which had been equal to
27 2 to 234 per 1,000 in the two preceding weeks, further de-
clined to 21*5.

Dr. Diplock has held an inquest at Hammersmith
relative to the death of a boy aged eight months. Alice
Taylor, the mother, said on Thursday morning in last week
she..put the child to bed. When she visited him about two
o'clock she found that he had worked his way down the bed
and got his neck entangled between the railings of the bed-
stead, thereoy causing strangulation. The Coroner re-
marked that it was a singular accident. The jury returned
a verdict of "Accidental death."

We regret to learn that the Earl and Countess of
Haddington have received a telegram from India announcing
the death of their second son, the Hon. Richard Baillie-
Hamilton, of the Rifle Brigade. He died at Poonah, where
he was serving with the Ist Battalion of his regiment, on
the 12th inst. The late Lieut. Baillie-Hamilton was born on
the 28th of August, 1858, and obtained his rank of lieutenant
in August, 1830.

- -
On Sunday night about fifty galley slaves at Goletta
succeeding in bursting their chains, seized the guns of the
soldiers who had charge of them, and took to flight in the
direction of Carthage. A panic ensued in the town, and a
Dumber of rich families passing the summer at Goletta,
fearing an attack in the night, went back to Tunis. Most of
the prisoners were, however, recaptured.
During a north-west gale, accompanied by a very
heavy sea, the lifeboat Jane Dalton, belonging to the
National Lifeboat Institution, and stationed at Rhyl, was
launched on the afternoon of the 13th instant, in the presence
of a large number of spectators, and it brought ashore six
men from the schooner William, of Liverpool, which had
dragged her anchors and was inn dangerous position opposite
the Winter Gardens. The vessel afterwards grounded on the
ebb tide, and it was feared she would become a total wreck
If the gale did not moderate.
- - - - -.- -

A deputation of seamen waited on the President of
the Board of Trade on Monday to urge the necessity of pro-
viding them with some equivalent for the advance notes
which have been abolished. Mr. Chamberlain, in reply,
said he thought that there was not sufficient ground to go
back to the old system. The deputation expressed them-
selves much dissatisfied with the result. At a meeting of
the men on strike last evening it was resolved that Mr.
Chamberlain's reply was unsatisfactory, and that the strike
should be continued till an equivalent to the advance note is
granted.
- -

The vicarage of Clifton, Bristol, vacant by the
resignation of Bishop Anderson, has been conferred on the
Rev. Canon Money, vicar of St. John, Deptford. Canon
Money was formerly in the Foreign Office. He was ordained
In 1845 by Bishop Monk to the curacy of St. Mary, Chelten-
ham, then held by Dean Close, and after a successful
ministry in the neighbourhood of London, he returns to his
old diocese.

From a privately issued report on silk cultivation in
the Chinese province at Kwantung, Nature learns that in
the Pakhoi district, on the southern seaboard, wild silkworms
are found which feed on the camphor tree, and their silk is
utilised in a singular manner. When the caterpillar has at-
tained its full size, and is about to enter the pupa state, it is
cut open and the silk extracted in a form much resembling
catgut. This substance, having undergone a process of
hardening, makes excellent fish line, and is generally used
for that purpose in the Pakhoi district.

- -
Colonel Knox, commanding the Scots Guards at
Dublin, met with a severe accident on Sunday morning near
Richmond Barracks, Kilmainham. His horse shied and
threw him. The Colonel's foot caught in the stirrup, and he
was dragged some little distance before he became released.
The horse then, wheeling, trampled on Colonel Knox's face,
inflicting serious injuries. Surgeon-Major Perry, of the
Coldstream Guards, was at once in attendance on the sufferer.
Though the injuries are serious, the condition of the patient
is not pronounced dangerous.

A serious accident happened on Saturday on the
new line of tramways to Fairfield, Liverpool. A car had
Just commenceil to descend the hill when the brakes ceased
to act. At the bottom of the street the car came into
collision with a gig, and the occupant, Sir. Wright, farmer,
of Croxteth, sustained severe injuries. After this the car
struck a heavily laden timber cart, the horse in whicn was
thrown down and the shafts of the cart were broken. The
horses of the tramcar rau full into the timber cart, and both
animals were severely cut about the legs. No one on the
car stutained any injuries, but the car itself was consider-
ably damaged.

The London Correspondent of the Manchater Guar-
dian says that immediately after the debate on the free
trade and reciprocity question, Mr. Gladstone wrote a note
to Mr. J. K. Cross, M.P., expressing the " pleasure and
profit" with which he had listened to his speech, and Bug.
gesting that he should at once prepare the address for pub-
lication. In accordance with that proposal the Cobden Club
are preparing to print Mr. Cross's speech, together with that
of Mr. Chamberlain.

One of the detectives who took Guiteau to
knows how it is himself to be shot (says an American paper.)
Twenty-four years ago, the United states Marines were
called out to,quell a riot. The police officer was at that time
a spectator, and received a ball in the skull. A portion of
the brain oozed out and the surgeon passed his finger into
the brain the whole length of the wound without finding the
ball. He let it alone, and the ball is still somewhere in the
skull, the detective, being in the service of the United
States and the enjoyment of perfect health.

A meeting called by the National Liberal Federa-
tion was held on Slonilay at the Westmiaster Palace Rotel
in reference to the present political crisis. Mr. W. Harris,
of Birmingham, presided. The meetitia was attended by
delegates from between ninety and one hundred Liberal as-
sociations. Resolutions were passed pledging the meeting
to support the Government in carrying the rrish Land Bill
En its integrity, and various speakers called on the Govern-
ment to pursue a policy of no surrender, no resignation,
and no dissolution.

Although the prediction that the world would come
to an end this year has not yet been verified, it must be ad-
mitted tita: we are passing through a period of political
and atmospherical disturbance of no ordinary kind; and to
be "surprised at nothing" is the general feeling of the day.
Two comets have already made their appearance in toe
heavens, and there is no saying how many mre may come
before the close of the year. It is true that comet No. 1,
which has just vanished, was harmless enough; and there is
no reason to suppose that comet No. 2, now becoming visible
to the naked eye will be less inoffensive than its prede-
cessor.--St. James's Gazette.

The Printers' Register says :—"Printers have lost
a warm friend in the late Dean of Westminster. Not only
did his voluminous writings and sermons find much employ-
ment for the press, but Dr. Stanley always took a special
interest in printers and their art. He presidod at the pre-
liminary meeting of the promoters of the Caxton Celebration,
and Was one of the first to Join the committee of the
Caxton Memorial Fund. He encouraged parties of com-
positors to make visits to Westminster Abbey, often acting
as their cicerone himself, and generally inviting them to tea
in the Jerusalem chamber afterwards. One grievance,
indeed, the printers had against him ; he wrote a most
illegible hand; and he himself was the first to acknowledge
his indebtedness to the compositors who so patiently deci-
phered his manuscript
An inquest has been held
Jane Collard, rgaeg'sedlilo 5 years. spi tal,
Knightsbridge, on the body of
Evidence was given showing that she had been an imbecile
almost from birth, anti en Thursday in last week Was put to.
bed as usual by her mother, who gave her a .Pleegaler Slam,
to play with. A small paraffin lamp was placed upon the
shelf, and the mother left her. Shortly afterwards the girl
was heard shrieking for help, and on her father entering the
i
bedroom he discovered her n the centre of the room' with
her night clothing in flames, and the lamp standing upon the
bed. The flames were extinguished, and the girl brought to
the hospital, where she died shortly after admission from the
effects of the burns.—The jury returned a verdict of "Acci-
dental death."

died

The Czar is reported to be contemplating a tour in
the interior of Russia.

Upwards of 500 boxes of grouse were sent from In-
verneis Station on Saturday.
Thirty-two houses inhabited by poor peasants have
been destroyed by fire in the commune of Jallanges, Cate
d'Or, France.
The Czech National Theatre at Prague has been
destroyed by fire.

Mr, Dillon, M.P., has written, stating that he does
not intend to be preseut in l'arliament during the present
session.

Mr. Arthur Bass has obtained a return showing
that there are 187 towns in England and Wales each havimp
a population of 10,000 persons and upwards none of which
return a member to Parliament.
Prince Leopold will preside at the 217th anniversary
festival of the Scottish Corporation, to ba held on
St. Antlrew's Day, the 30t'l of November next. , •
4 number of negroes have been overwhelmed by a
landslip while working in a cutting on a new railroad in
Virginia. &Not men were killed, six of them being
convicts.
The principal squares and streets of Stockholm will •
shortly be lighted by electricity.

4 .1

The Queen, accompanied by the Princess Ileatrice,
on Monday witnessed a race in Osborne Bay, between the
six-oared Ligs of MM. yachts Victoria and Albert and.
Osborne, which were pulled by officers of those ships. The
winners, who proved to be the crew of the first-named gig
afterward reuived a silver cop as a prize from the hands of
her Majesty.

The Indian Government, acting on the reconnnen-
dation of the Commander-in-Chief, has issued orders that a
brigade of all arms, consisting of troops stationed in the
Punjab, sluffi be fully equipped, with transport animals, on
the Cabul scale, and shall be always kept in readiness for
active service.
An anonymous donation of £l,OOO has been made-to •
the Church Missionary Society for sending a missionary to
the Mackenzie River and the shores of the Polkr Sea. The
Rev. T. li. Canham has been appointed to the work.

A terrible epidemic of yellow fever is reported at
Senegal. Upwards of 80 deaths occurred on the Bth inst.
Admiral de Lanneau is among those who have perished.

At Glen Muiek on the 12th inst., Mr. Allan
Nfar.kenzie, jun., of Kintail, and Mr. Pigot shot 74i brace of
grouse, and the Hon. Algernon Sydney and Mr. Tharp 27
brace of grouse. The day was rainy, with a high wind. Mr.
Caird, C. 8., and party, on Cassencary Moors on the 12th shot
25i brace, on the 13th 10 brace, and on the 15t1fi11i brace of
grouse.
A telegram from the Correspondent of the Daily
News at Geneva states that a lady supposed to be French but
whose name was not given, was killed on Saturday, by a fall
down a precipice in Switzerland.
The Admiralty have sanctioned a supplementary
expenditure of £17,000 for the completion of the Inflexible.
Cardinal Manning is to deliver a lecture on tem-
perance in the Music Hall, Swansea, on Thursday, the 25th
inst. The Mayor will preside.
By a resolution of the Dublin Town Council, carried
by a majority of two to one, the salary of the Lord Mayor
was increased from £2,000 to £3,000 a year, the increase to
commence from the present date.
The Bishop of London has just admitted twenty
laymen in the chapel of Fulham Palace to the office of lay
readers. They were presented to the Bishop by the vicars
of the parishes in which they were to officiate.
The Right Rev. Alfred 011ivant, D.D., Lord Bishop
of Llandaff, was born at Manchester on Aug. 16, Ins. thus
completing his 83rd year on Tuesday. His lordship was
consecrated Bishop of Llandaff in 1849, and in point of age
is the oldest prelate on the Episcopal Bench.

The Government have made arrangements for con-
veying home, in the course of the next two or three weeks I
at least one-half of the force, which was sent out to Scuth
Africa in connection with the war in the Transvaal. The
Transport Department at the Admiralty have already
'secured the necessary vessels for the conveyance of the
troops.

On Monday afternoon Llewellyn Whittard, aged 26,
of Paddock, near Huddersfield, was engaged in painting the
ceiling of the Huddersfield Town-hall, when his foot slipped
and he fell from the scaffolding t< the floor. He was re-
moved to the Palace Hotel opposite, but died within three-
quarters of an hour. He leaves a widow and three
children.
The rumours that the Pope contemplated calling
together cardinals and others to consult as to the expe-
diency of his quitting Italy are contradicted. His Holiness's
health is stated to be unsatisfactory, and renders it impos-
sible for him to undertake a long journey, especially by
sea.

The ship Northampton, Captain Clare, chartered by
Mr. S. Samuel, C.M.G., Agent-General,of New South Wales,
sailed from Plymouth for Sydney on Friday in last week.
with 361 emigrants, under the supervision of Dr. C. H.
Gibson, as surgeousuperintendent, with Miss Kent in charge
of the single women.
A denial is given to a rumour that President GrAry
had offered the Pope the hospitality of the Republic. It fa
stated, moreover, that there is no idea of his Holiness leav-
ing Rome.
The approximate return issued by the Government
statist at Melbourne gives the population of Victoria on
April 3. 1881, at 845,977, composed of 438,186 males and
407,791 females. These numbers are exclusive of 11,835
Chinese (of whom only 196 are women), and 770 aborigines.
The rumours current at St. Petersburgh of reduction
in the national expenditure of Russia are said to be prema-
ture. Although there is a strong feeling in favour of
economy, nothing can be settled until the result of the
present harvest is known.
Mrs. Gladstone was attended by Dr. Andrew
Clark on Monday for a slight attack of er}sipeliis in the
face.
Great nreparation3 are being made for the forth-
coming Land League Convention, to be held on the 29th .
inst. at Newcastle-on-Tyne. Mr. Justin WCarthy, M.P.,
as President of the Land League of Great Britain, 'will pre-
side.

A Reuters telegram dated Berne, August 11 states
that on the night of the Bth inst. as the diligence was cross-
ing the Julier Pass, the horses took fright at a flash of light-
ning and leaped over the precipice by the side of the road:
The five passengers sustained injuries more or less severe.

The were 17 British and foreign wrecks, of which 12
were British, reported during the past week, making a total
of 1.031 for the present year, or an increase of 174, as com-
pared with the corresponding period of last year. The ap-
proximate value of property lost was £.3,000,000, including
British £2,500,000.
The fascinating effect of music upon snakes was uh-
pleasantly experienced recently by a British regiment at a
small station in the Deccan. As the soldiers were returning
from church the strains of the band attracted a huge cobra,
which with its head erect and hood expand/it, completely
barred the passage. The men were fairly panic-stricken
until a courageous sergeant skilfully cleft the reptile in
two.
,
The Colonies and India states that a thick vein of a, -
peculiar substance, which, according to local chemists, con-
tains 50 per cent, of pure paraffin, has been discovered at 0:
Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. It is said to be worth £4O per
ton, and to exist in enormous quantities.
The Giorn,alc di Sicilia reports the discovery of a 7
necropolis of singular interest between Capaci and Cairni,
province of Palermo. By the form of the tombs, excavated
In stone, and by the nature of the pottery found, the necro-- '-
polls might justly be considered prehistorical. Until now sr
no °lints of metal have been found, and the pottery dis-
covered is made by hand without the help of any instrument. '-
Youthful Britons on Guy Fawkes' Day are prone to
meet with mishaps in the firework experiments, but their t
risks are small compared to the dangers incurred by v..
American lads during the Fourth of July festivities. Then
It is the delight of every patriotic youth to tire off a pistol
and this year no fewer than fourteen children have died in -
Baltimore from the explosion of toy pistols on the glorious .
.4"
Fourth. tri
Handel's "Messiah," which had not been performed .`
n Norway within living memory, has been lately revived
with much suc^,ess at Christiania.
A man named Smith, who lived in a model lodging
souse in Parliament-street, Liverpool, has died in the Roy
touthern Hospital. It appears that a few days ago he had a
lorin in his mouth which slipped down his throat. He tried
-) recover the coin by means of a hooked wire, which also
ick in his throat. He was taken to the hospital, where he
ad from his injuries.
Thomas Wilson, 24, a atone carrier, of Dorchester,
ras drowned while bathing near the pier at Bournemouth on
Monday mcrning. The body was recovered about half-an-
hour afterwards, and at an inquest held in the afternoon a
verdict of "Accidentally drowned" was returned.
Oh Saturday morning, Mr. William Clay Ritaos,
twenty-seven years of age, son of the late Mr. Joseph Ritaon,
a Liverpool solicitor, was accidentally drowned in the Tyne,
six miles west of Newcastle. The deceased and Rev. Mr.
Fox, curate of Newburn, went out rowing in skiffs. Mr.
RitsOn, in attempting to take off his jersey, capsized his
skiffl and was thrown into the water. Mr. Fox dived for
him, but without avail. The body of Mr. Ritson was found
half an hour after the occurrence. He was managing clerk
for Messrs. Spenc,r, steel manufacturers, Newburn, and,
much respected.
On Sunday night in the Hall of Science, Old-street,
Loudon, was crowded to hear Mr. Bradlaugh, who was an.
nomiced to deliver a lecture on "My Parliataentary Struggle,
and what I intend to do," hut in his absence a telegram
dated that afternoon was read from him in the following
terms :—" Though the arm is still very much inflamed, the
general health is much improved since my arrival here -
(Worthing, Sussex). Tell friends I regret very much I am
unable to meet them to-night in " Hall of Science."

An inquest has been held at Reading on the body of
Mr. Jesse Palmer, aged 25, son of one of the principal -
butchers of the town. On Thursday afternoon in last week,
during a heavy gale of wind, he proceeded in a boat as far
as the Kennett's mouth, where two currents meet. The boat
there capsized and the deceased was drowned. The jury, in
returning a verdict of "Accidental death," recommended •
the Thames Conservators to place drags at their cottage
close to the spot.