The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-06-04 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH A ND FOREIGN.

A match for the sculling championship of Asuerica
was on Monday decided on Lake Calumet, Illinois, in
which Gaudaur defeated Hanlan by fur lengths,
On Monday the annual London cart.borse parade,
open to all drivers of cart-horses within seven miles of
Charing Cross, was held in Battersea Park, whence,
after the judging the 300 horses competirg were
marched over Chelsea Bridge, some taking the route
past the houses of Parliament to the Thames Embank.
merit, and others going to Olympia, where diplomas
aryl prizes were distributed by the Lady Burdett-
(Jonas.

Edith Hall, a girl in domestic service, was tried at
the Central Criminal Court on Monday, charged with
having set fire to a dwelling-house at Shepherd's-bush
belonging to Mr. George Perkins. It was stated that
the accused was subject to hysterical fits. The jury
returned a verdict of "Not guilty."
The 1886 accounts of the Egyptian Government were
finally settled on Monday between the Caisse of the
Public Debt and the Government,

Intelligence has been received at Bombay to the
effect that the Ameer's troops defeated the Ghilzais
on the 20th ult. at Ghuzni, both sides sustaining heavy
loss. The Jaowri•Hazaras have submitted to the
Ameer.

On Tuesday a statue erected to the memory of Joseph
Haydn was unveiled at Vienna, in the presence of the
Austrian Emperor and Crown Prince.
In Celebration of the Queen's 3Ubilee a grand
nal lonal demonstration of volunteer fire brigades was
heli at Oxford on Monday, when firemen were present
from all parts of the country. Prince and Princess
Christian were among the visitors A message of loyal
greeting was telegraphed to the Queen, and a gracious
reply from her Majesty was afterwards read to the
assembly by the Mayor.
Mr. G. J. Holyoake presided over the nineteenth
annual congress of co-operative societies, which was
held at Carlisle on Monday, and delivered the inaugural
address, in which he sketched the progress of the
movement in this country. Deputations were after-
wards received from the trades-unionists, and papers
were read on co-operation in agriculture.

The Ist Middlesex Engineers had a field-dav at
Claremont on Monday, the operation being ffitnessed
by the Duchess of Albany. The 21st Middlesex Rifles
marched to Harrow, where they went through a series
of evolutions.

Oelobe( 0. B. Brackenbury, R.A., has been selected
to rucceed Colonel Markham as Director of Artillery
Studies at Woolwich.

Colonel G. T. L. Carwithen has been selected for
the command of the King's Own Scottish Borderers,
shor ly falling vacant.
Colonel W. Budi en, R.A., has been appointed Com-
mandant of the Hill Depots at Dalhousie.

_
The Hon. George Wyndham has been invited by the
Conservatives of Battersea to stand as their candidate
at the next general election against Mr. 0. V. Morgan,
the sitting member, and has consented to do so.
It is proposed to erect a monument at Bradford to
the late Mr. W. E. Forster, which will also serve as a
memento of the Jubilee. The proposal is receiving
support from all parties in the borough.
A blind man named Fyfield, 68 years of age, was
convicted at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey,
London, on Monday, of the manslaughter of his wife.
They went home drunk one night, and in the morning
she was found dead on the floor of the bedroom, with
injuries which the medical men said could nut have
been occasioned by a fall. He was sentenced to 18
'months' hard labour.
Orders are at once to be issued to commanding
officers of volunteer corps forbidding the testing in
any form whatever of the bayonets and sword-bayonets
now in possession of the force, which, it is stated,
will be exchanged as soon as sufficient bayonets for
the purpose have been released from the regular forces.
An alarming accident occurred on Saturday evening
on the newly-constructed line of the Lanarkshire and
Ayrshire Railway at Kilwinning. The traffic is being
conducted on a single line. A train conveying 200
workmen from Barrmill to Kilvvinning, ran into a
ballast train coming in the opposite direction. A
large number of the men, seeing the danger, leaped
from the train, and 15 of them were badly injured.
The tender and several of the waggons were completely
wrecked. The injured men were removed to Glasgow
Infirmary.
An Odessa correspondent writes: I learn ' from a
member of the Imperial Caucasian Agricultural
Society that the experiments in cotton culture in
three different did,ricts of the Caucasus have thus fat
given promise of success. American, Egyptian, and
home-grown plants appear to be alike favoured by
the soil and climate. The society has recently
despatched two of its most expert members to the
United States, where they will scientifically study the
American systems of cotton culture. A company is
being floated which will establish the first extensive
plantations in the neighbourhood of Erivan. There is
here the promise of a new Russian industry of no little
importance.
In accordance with the bequest of s testator named
Pitt, 60 loaves were distributed on Whit Sunday morn.
iDg to poor persons in the schools of St. Botolph,
Bishopsgate-churchyard. The bequest dates back at
least 200 years, and before the North London Railway
Station in Broad street was built the loaves were given
sway in the garden of Mr. Elvin, surgeon, which
occupied the site of a graveyard originally belonging
to Bethlem Hospital. That hospital was established,
but for a different purpose, many centuries ago, and
Henry VIIL, at the dissolution of the monasteries,
gave it to the City of London, when it was converted
into a hospital for lunatics, and it was removed to
St. George's fields, Southwark, early in the present
century.
A monster demonstration in honour of the French
Communists who fell in the " Semaioe Sanglante " of
May, 1871, was held on Sunday by the Socialist work-
men linown as " Possibilists" at the cemetery of Pre
Lachaise. The red flag was unfurled, and several very
incendiary speeches were delivered. One of the party,
Citizen Brousse, after declaring that the bourgeois
Republic was on its last legs, added that he knew for a
fact that it intended to place itself under " a sword
railed nerieral Boulanger." But be swore that, when-
ever this plan was carried out, the Socialist workmen
would fly into the streets, and, contesting the ground
inch by inch, save the true Republic.
The additional impost to be levied on imported coal
threatens, an Odessa correspondent says, absolutely to
destroy the trade in British coal in South Russia.
Hawarden was in an unusually crowded state on
Whit-Monday. The charming weather, and .the im-
proved means of access to the village, added to the
fact that Mr. Gladstone was known to be at home, no
doubt accounted for the large influx of —visitors. Mr.
Gladstone, looking exceedingly well, was seen only
twice during the day, but was cordially cheered on
both occasions. Mrs Gladstone conducted a sale of
wor k on the Rectory grounds in the afternoon in aid
of the Sunday Schouls. Mr. Gladstone's excellent
physical condition may be judged from the fact that
he has recommenced tree-chopping. Having felled a
large decaying tree in the grounds of Hawarden Rec.
tory, there was a continuous scramble among the ex-
cursionists to secure chins as mementoes of their visit.