The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-07-16 00:00:00

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Our fonbon earresponbtut.

[We deem it right to state that we do not at all times identify
ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

Even, although the jubilee, as far as its central
official celebration is concerned, has now been.
for some weeks a thing of the past, we are
still surrounded by echoes and accompaniments
of the great event. For just now we are about
mid-way between the Military Review at Alder-
shot and the Naval Review at Portsmouth,both
of which are entitled to rank as Jubilee celebra-
tions, and not until this latter is over will the
series of pageants which have marked 1887 be
considered to be'coinplete. If the Naval Review
passes off as well as did the Military, there will
be little reason for either the authorities or the
public to complain.. The day at Aldershot was
a splendid one, and although most of those
present would have liked the heat to have been
somewhat tempered, there was little disposition
to wr----ible. Aldershot, in the most -ordi-
Plary summer, is a dusty place, and, there-
fore, those who visited it last Saturday,
knoiing what an extraordinary summer the
present has been, must have been prepared for
the extreme dustiness of the day. Dust or no
z auo, the display, was a very striking one, and
..,-.4.„iie which was ' ; -.-- travgilliogloOy mita*
1,0 84 lifisltt i=,- . .. aiP tic,lCv.ast number
1413
...., ,of B -..isrtino of aft; ,_;..": are arrayed in
.A-Alli-evievtgorarctftrie 'tna—pte` dsion teft upon the
..;liminds,of the spectators. was that, although the
03.4146glii1akinty Ten:tains and- must remain a small
04,,,Qn5, itis as fit for work and as ready for duty as
- ever it was in the most palmy days of which our
. historians can speak.
From consideration of the regular forces it is
.an easy transition to the auxiliaries, and the
vt ... volunteers have been much in evidence during
the' past few days owing to the presence of
, between two and three thousand of their picked
. - men at the annual encampment at Wimbledon.
There have been no signs of diminished popu-
larity of the camp, either among the volunteers
or the general public, and much murmuring has
been heard because of the impression that this
may be the last year's meeting on the well-
known common. It is not too late, even
now, for what many volunteers would regard as
a catastrophe to be averted, and there are
thousands of those who have passed through
the force, as well as of those who are still
in the ranks, who hope that even at the eleventh
hour some arrangement may be made which will
prevent the necessity for the National Rifle
Association being evicted from its old ground.
This is not the place to discuss the reasons why
this danger has come, but it may fitly be re-
corded that the general opinion appears to be
that the reasons are not sufficiently strong to
justify the extreme step proposed to be taken.
Institutions, like trees, do not bear transplanting
after they have reached a certain age, and it is a
moot point whether, if what is now known as
Wimbledon were removed to Brighton,orDover,or
Aldershot, it would be the same success as it
always has been. Such considerat;ons as these,
one may be certain, will have been present to a
large proportion of those who have encamped on
Wimbledon Common within the past few days,
and it may be hoped that they will have due
weight with the powers that be. If they have,
there is little reason to doubt that an arrange-
ment will be arrived at which will enable the
Wimbledon we have known since 1860 to remain
Wimbledon still.

That in one single day over a hundred thou-
sand telegrams should pass through a single
office, even when that office is the chief depart-
ment at St. Martin's-le-Grand, is a circumstance
so remarkable as to deserve note. It is under-
stood that, ever since the Government took over
the telegraphs, the ambition of the authorities
at the head office has been to send through a
hundred thousand telegrams in one day; but,
although the high figure of ninety thou-
sand had been reached, the wish remained
ungratified until the 16th of last month,
when 102,032 messages passed through St.
Martin's-le-Grand. This tremendous total,
however' was beaten by nine thousand on the
very next day, but the greatest date of all was
June 20, when the total reached 124,291. It
will be remembered that this was the day before
the official celebration of the Jubilee and it
was directly owing to that event that such
an enormous number of telAgrams were sent.
Those who wished to arrange final appointments
with friends, and those who desired to make
a last despairing appeal to tailor or
dressmaker, so that their new clothes should
reach them in time, largely contributed to swell
the total; and a great number who in ordinary
circumstances would have been content to trust
to the post, used the telegraph wires on this
occasion so as to make sure in the midst of all
the bustle and all the crush, that their messages
should be delivered.

The figures just quoted are the more remark-
able because they come almost simultaneously
with the jubilee of the telegraphic system itself.
It is within a few days of fifty years ago
that Cooke and Wheatstone, seated in a
small room in Camden Town, first flashed
their signals along the yet uncompleted London
and North-Western line. Prophesies of failure
were abundant, and it was proved by some
scientific persons to absolute demonstration that
eight hundred yards formed the farthest distance
along which electricity could by wire be trans-
mitted. It is curious to-day to read of such
forebodings of evil, and to remember how they
have been falsified. We can scarcely conceive
what modern life would have been like without
the telegraph wire. This much is certain, that
our railway system could never have reached its
present development but for its aid; and as to
the usages of daily existence, into how many
departments does the telegraph enter? Business
communications, private messages, and latest
news alike are transmitted by wire, and it would
not require an exceptionally brilliant imagination
to perceive that, if it were possible for a day to
blot from our reckoning electricity and all its
effects, life would be a very different thing
during that period to what it now is.
Not for many a year has there been such a
drought during the early part of the summer as
that which we have just been passing through.
For five or six weeks not a drop of rain fell in
many parts of the kingdom, and when at last
the clouds gathered and the heavens
became black with rain, the fall was
only a taste and not a full meal for the land
which hungered and thirsted after moisture. For
even after the weather appeared to have broken
the drought returned, and no sound more wel-
come to the popular ear has for a long time been
heard than that of such rain as has since fallen.
When there is a prolonged lack of moisture, an
abundance of suggestions are put forward to
show the way for preventing a recurrence of
drought; but one is afraid that these must Eck
practicability from the very fact that they
are never put to use. It is very
easy to suggest the erection of storage
reservoirs, which shall husband the water
of rainy periods in such a fashion
as shall provide sufficient to irrigate the
*land in times of drought. But the cost
of such reservoirs is no light matter, as
any who have had practical acquaintance with
the building of even the smallest are aware;
and although all may agree that it would be an
excellent thing if these storage reservoirs were
constructed for every large farm, the practical
among us will allow that the cost is an effective
barrier in the way. -
Blindness being one of the most terrible afflic-
tions that can befall mankind, it is well to
encourage every effort made by the benevolent
to lessen the pressure ol the calamity upon indi-
vidual sufferers. The Crown Princess of Ger-
many—our own Princess Royal—was, therefore,
engaged in an excellent work, and one thoroughly
in accord with the recent traditions of the
English:Royal Family, in giving the aid of her
countenance a few days ago to the Royal Normal
College and Academy of Music for the Blind.
This institution, which began with two pupils,
now has 170, and those of its old students who
have gone out into the world have given proof
by their success in different walks of life of
the thoroughness of the training they had
received. When it is added that the earn-
ings of about a hundred of the former pupils
during the past twelve months have been between
nine and ten thousand pounds, a most striking
proof of the value of such an institution is
given; and it may be trusted that many another
proof of a similar kind will yet be afforded. In
these days it is held that the best treatment for
those afflicted with blindness is to provide them
with the means of at once occupying their mind
and earning their living. This prevents brooding
thoughts and inspires a cheerful self-reliance, all
of which are a good effect, materially and morally,
upori,the sufferers.
It is hardly possible during the summer
months to take up a newspaper without seeing
the heading "Bathing Fatality" to one or more
paragraphs. This is so much taken for granted
that many people do not appear to ccnaider
whether a large proportion of such sad events
are not preventible, and yet, if they did consider
it, they would find that this was so. There is
much folly displayed by bathers, and the reck-
lessness often shown deserves to be characterised
es criminal. Men will bathe upon a shore of

ivhich Chey know nothing, and will not trouble
to inquire whether there are dangerous currents
or a ground swell which will sweep the sand
from under their feet and carry them to
the pitiless ocean to drown. Others will
bathe in rivers of which they are equally
ignorant, and will not talk ask.
the.dAtiars cl,4*,)* Oiet4er ffieie are A or
dden ZAPreSiiitifei. in tl4 bed which may -en.;
gulph them unawares. It would be hard to say.,
that persons wtto snffer, as, a
,consequenCe. of such-,
wilful igiioraite7deservw- no pity whet uvil
befalls them, but it is really difficult to condemn
such conduct in too strong words. Certain
obvious precautions ought to be taken by all
who bathe, and, although,,whee everything is
done, there is still the risk of accident, that risk
would be minimised; and many lives spared, if
those who want an open-air bath would exercise
a greater amount of caution. A. F. R.

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