The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-08-17 00:00:00

THE RAILWAY COMMITTEE'S REPORT.

The report of the Joint Select Committee on Railway
Amalgamation is to the following effect
Anmlgamations have done more good than harm.
That to stop amalgamations openly or secretly is
practically impossible.
That competition by sea exists and is mot useful,
and should be preserved by keeping all harbourif out of
the hands of railways.
That there is SOllle competitionby canal,whichshould
be preserved so far as possible by keeping them out of
the hands of railways and insisting on the removal of
bar toils imposed by railways.
That there is little permaneat competition for prac-
tical purposes between railways so far as passenger
traffic goes, and though it does still exist to some
extent, so far as goods are concerned, even that cannot
be relied upon as permanent. That the committee
recommend that all amalgamation bills be referred to
_permanent and specially-selected counnittee of both
Hou2es, and they recommi nd the following suggestiotut
aim to controlling railways by a general bill, to be put
into every amalgamation bill, until the general bill
passes.
L A new classification of goods.
2. Absolute publication of rates, distinguishing
charges for terminals.
3. Facilities for charging through rates to and from
any station.
4. The appointment of a Board of Control, c
In; of three men of high standing, one to be an mi-
-1 Dent lawyer, to whom all disputes between railways
I and traders are to be brought, and summarily dealt

with.
The ccuuurttee alio recommend that all traders and
public deparik,, tits may be heard before • Committee
of tie House,
uct,eithstanding any standing order to
the contrary.
_
CUTTINGS FROM AIrERICAN PAPERS.

Nashville policemen wear the geg.tle bowie knife.
A Cedar Rapids editor envies the census for embrac-
ing 17,000,000 women.
An eccentric gentleman in New York has had his
house painted black, as a token of grief for tho loim of his
wife.
A society for the prevention if cruelty ka children
in the shape of exposure from the bare arum, shouiders, Agit
legs, which the vanity of mothers delights 10, 55 soya, Lo ho
established in Boston.
A bachelor says that if you hand a lady a newspaper
with a scrap cut out of it, not a line of it will be read. 001
every bit of biterest the paper possesses is centered in
log out what the missing scrap conteined.
A lady entered a chemist's shops and asked for a
bottle of "Jane's Experience." The chemist's ASSiii
smiling, informed her that Jaen hadn't bottled her enter:mice
yet, but they could furnish " Jayue'a Expectoi ant."
An English Radical M.P. once said to Train "Mr.
Train, have you the law of primogeuiture in America ?"
Says Train, 'No? "What," replies M.P., "no /tented? "
Replies Train, "No ; but we have the cocktail."
The Norristown (Ps) Herald says—" London claims
7:i0,000 cats—'ellich is not a single mit too n- any to have in
ease ngland rc!ilees to settle the Alabama claim, Rs-
member Tanis.'
Wild fowl are said ti be an numerous in lowa that
then:is:do of them are killed by ratiroad trains remit,.
among: t them : and, not to be outdone, Norfolk, Va , boasts
ol an eagle with a bell ou its neck hovering over the town.
Josh Billings says :—" I suppose we never shall
kite in this fife how big a phool a 121813 km be, bekauze he
st
not allowed tew hay all his wants and vanitys gratteed."
We trait that Mr. Billings may have all Ins satislied, and
give the proof.
A gentleman, seriti 17 from South America, says
There are only three drug stores in Quito, and the sigo
which indicates the business Is a serpeut. Physicians here
DO ,ifices, and rarely visit patients at their &reline:Fs-- per-
sons too sick to cat' -n them being considered liepeless
cases."
Speaking of the earthquakes and the eruption of
tierce% Vesuvius, a scientific American writer says they or,,
after .11, inn it due to the sielicions introduetion of photo-
spherical asteroids, but father to i arabolic stratification at
igneous zygma—of which there can ha no doubt.
An ingenious youth, imprisoned at the Tombs,
New York, recently effected his escape by dropping crotou
oil on his face, thereby proelneing marks similar to small-pok.
iie was of course Mat removed to a hospital, and easily de-
camped. What will Wilms all English reader is. how the pi (-
sober came to be possmsed of crotun out.
Mr. Josh Billings says this much of billings and
cootngs : —"Courting is like 2 little springs on soft water that
steal at from under a sock at the fat of a mountain, and
run uln,wo by the hill side by side singing and dengue and
spatterieg emit other, eddying mei frothing and iiaseadir g.
LOW hiding under bank. scow full of sun and now full of
ladder. till byemby tha jine, and tha go slow.
An instance of rare honesty, and showing how a dog
(American, of course) may desire to pay his board bill, re-
cently occurred in Fitchburg, hisesechusetts. A lady atm a
dog frequently about her house picking up old bits which had
linen thrown out, and one day site called hint in and fed him.
The next day be came back, and as she opened the door he
:liked in and placed an egg on the floor, when h. WILS
again fed. The following day Inc brought anther egg to pay
ter his dinner and on the fourth day he brought the old hen
herself, who it seems had failed to furnish the required egg
A NEAT CoMehluENT.—lingler the heading "J)ia-
holiest
Jackaasery," a Mississippi paper prints a synopsis of
its correspondents' letters.
A SAD OMISSION !—We learn that the Americans
are constantly trying new places and styles of marriagts.
'The last was in a ball-room, while dancing. To be married
In a balloon is now too commonplace to be thought of n so the
sea has been invented for the marriage ceremony. And we
learn with astoelshment that Americans have no legal provi-
sion for marriage in that locality. Under the heading of
"No Gretna Green at Sea," the A tta California eayan "It
has frequently happened that a lover has takol the girl of
his heart out to sea, and when beyond the limits of the State
—the boundary is three miles from the shore—the ceremony
has been performed by a justice of the peace. Such a cere.
mony is void, because no law authorises the performance of
a marriage ceremony at sea In American vessels ; and no law
recognises the official character of the clergyman or justice of
the peace there.