The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-04-03 00:00:00

01 la onbon Compact

(We deem It tight to state that we do uot at all HMO)
&Witty ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.)

One of the signs of the approach of summei
is the appearance of advertisements and placards
announcing excursions to the seaside. Most ol
these which have been issued up to the present
refer simply to the Easter holiday, but there are
some which cover the whole period of spring
and summer. It is surprising to what heights
this excursion system has grown within the past
twenty years. To say nothing of what was the
case fifty or sixty years ago, when lengthened
trips were necessarily rare, it was not until our
railway system had been very largely extended
that the taste for excursions was raised to any-
thing like its present' extent. The taste was
largely aided in its development by the creation
of the four statutory bank holidays, which
gradually became general holidays, and on which
the people poured forth in their tens of thousands
eager for a change of scene. The railway companies
were by no means loth to take advantage of a
state of things which might work with so much
profit to themselves; and the list of cheap
excursions which is now issued in advance
of each bank holiday is so tempting that it
is no wonder that the opportunities for enjoy-
ment thus given should be so largely availed of
whenever the statutory holidays come round.
There are always some ready to grumble at the
disturbance they cause to ordinary, quiet-going
folk, who are not inclined for cheap trips, and
who take their leisure when they choose, and
dislike doing so with a crowd. But these are
only a minority—and a very small minority—and
It is for the greatest enjoyment of the greatest
number that railway companies cater.
The milder weather, however, is not merely
the herald of a period of enjoyment for those
who can afford to take a holiday, if it be only
for a day at a time, but it puts an end to a large
amount of the distress which has been too pain-
fully apparent in our large towns during the
past few months. It has not always been recog-
nised with sufficient clearness that very much
of this distress was caused by the unusually long
winter. As a rule, when work is stepped by
the cold weather, the majority of those affected
have saved sufficient during the summer months,
or, as a last resource, have enough furniture to
pawn to carry them through the period of trial.
But the winter we have just undergone was pro-
longed beyond reasonable expectation or recent
precedence, with the consequence that thousands
of workmen who, under the ordinary circum-
stances caused by the frost and snow, are able to
keep their heads above water, have had to appeal
for charity. From October to March outdoor
operations in the building, painting, and car-
pentering trades were practically at a standstill,
and it is only now that they are being resumed.
It is, therefore, obvious that, although the
general depression in trade had something to do
with the acute distress which has been suffered,
it was not the cause of it all, and that, had the
winter been milder, we should not have heard of
so much suffering on the part of the operative
classes.
It is, perhaps, too much the habit of the average
Englishmen to congratulate himself that he is
not as other men are, and that, on the point of
bearing trouble, at least, he is far superior to the
foreigner. But there is really some excuse for
this kind of self-congratulation when we contrast
the conduct of our working classes during their
recent period of distress with that of the Belgian
operatives who have recently been on strike.
Much excitement was caused and much discus-
sion aroused by the unfortunate disturbance
.which occurred at the West End at the beginning
of Febiliary ; but no dispassionate observer could
fail to see that the mischief was done by a com-
parative few, and was due in largo degree to the
supineness of the police authorities. Window-
smashing and shop-robbing were disagreeable
incidents, it is true, and are such as cannot be
tolerated in any country; but they pale into
almost insignificance when set side by side with
the excesses in Belgium, of which we have been
reading within the last ten days. The burning
down of works, of houses, and even of convents
far exceeds, in point of heinousness of design and
wickedness of execution, anything devised or
done by the London rioters; and, whereas, these
latter, when once faced by a small but resolute
body of police, dispersed without further trouble,
the Belgian strikers held their ground even
against the military, and many were killed in the
. encounters which ensued. We can scarcely
imagine such a state of things in England, and it
is well for us that we cannot. There is an inten-
sity of bitterness infused into disputes between
capital and labour on the Continent, as is proved
not only by the Belgian disturbances, but by the
events of the Decazeville strike in France, which
is happily absent from similar disputes in Eng-
land, and this is a fact upon which our country-
men can hardly be too highly congratulated.
A question is often put by those who have
relatives or friends in India which is not easy to
answer, and that is as to why, when we can send
a letter to almost any part of the habitable
globe at the postal union rate of twopence half-
• penny, we have to pay about double that
amount if we wish to write to those living
in our greatest dependency. Perhaps because
this appears a somewhat commonplace sort of
• grievance, it has not received the attention
froni Parliament it deserves; and there will be
• many ready to think that the question of the
extra twopence or threepence can scarcely affect
- a sufficient number of people to make it worth
ventilation. But such a contention ignores every
argument which makes for cheap postage; and,
if a less expensive system is not worth intro-
ducing between ourselves and India, it is difficult
• to see whydp muck trouble is continually being
taken to, introduce it between ourselves and
other countries. It ought not to be forgotten
that we have thousands of Englishmen in India
serving their country in various capacities who
• litive friends at home desirous of frequent cora-
- • _ munication with theta; and that to a great
number of the working classes, whose brothers or
sons are in those regiments which are stationed
in various parts of Hindostan, the question of
whether -one letter or two can travel for the
same amount of money is a very real one. It is
• understood that the matter will soon be venti-
lated in Parliament; and there are many who
will hope for a successful result to the effort.
Prisons in the metropolis are becoming fewer.
Some years ago the gaol in Horsemonger-lane,
on. the Surrey side of the Thames, was de-
, molished, and its site was converted into a pleasure
- _ground for the people; and within the past few
days the last prisoner has been removed from
Coldbath-fields, preparatory to that building
:also being razed to the ground. it will not be
. long before Pentonville Prison is similarly
served, and Newgate, Millbank, Holloway, and
the House of Detention at Clerkenwell will be
all that are left to remind us by their presence
of the punishment which the law inflicts upon
the doers of ill. The special object of the re-
moval of the prisons at Coldbath-fields and
Pentonville is to make room for improved dwel-
lings for the working classes, this being one
of the recommendations of the Royal Com-
mission on the Housing of the Poor: and no one
who knows the districts in which they are
situate, is likely to deny that there is a neces-
sity for such dwellings being there provided.
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13u-t, beyond this, one may be glad tliat these
• . grim abodes of criminals are being taken away
from among the busy haunts of men. It can
scarcely be fancy which makes folk generally
' 'believe that they cast in some sort a blight upon
the neighbourhood in which they are situate.
Certain it is that the districts around a prison
are unusually squalid and poor; the sermon in
stone which its walls may teach to a casual
passer becomes lost upon those who dwell beneath
them, and all that is left is the gloomy horror
_ • which always attaches to a gaol.
One of the "hardy annuals," the appearance
of which may always be looked for in the spring . •
• is the agitation in favour of what is called by
its supporters "rational dress." Whoa the
_ days begin to lengthen, and the weather is
.4-I.2%becoming such as to tempt us out of
floors, we know that the season has come when
1,•••• we shall hear of the miseries of tight-la?,ing, the
, vagaries of fashion, and the mysteries of the
'4ll dual garment. Even those who see no prospect
;---• of women abandoning their present style of dress,
cannot see any harm in these protests against the
length to which fashion is often cared; and,
although rationality and feminine costume do
not to many people seem necessary companions,
• --,
••• • good may result from women being taught that
•in certain directions physical harm may ensue
•'. from the voice of reason and the evidence of
science being ignored. But the subject is one
• for- those intimately concerned to settle.
• - We are sometimes told that it is only
to please the men that women indulge
themselves in each latest fashion; but it will
. cOmmonly be found that, if a man attempts to
, •• • • point out wherein that fashion is unmeaning, ex-
travagant, or hurtful, he is at once assailed by a
battery of feminine scorn, which exposes his
ignorance, and which is kind, indeed, if it do not
set down his criticism to malevolent envy.
, Comfort is, however, to De extracted from the
fact that we are no w )rse off thau our fathers in

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