The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-04-27 00:00:00

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SPUTTERINGS
which occurred
half-crazed lay

AN INTRI7DIE [TAN THE POPE..
nate di Boma relates a curious incident
at the Vatican a few days back. A half-erases_
schoolmaster, troubled with scruples of conscience, re-
solved to speak to the Pope in person, and, joining a
deputation which was entering the palace succeeded in
passing the sentinel and attendants at the doors. He
then concealed himself and stayed for the rest of the
day and all night in his hiding place, and early in the
morning found means ef introducing himself into the
chamber of the Pope, who, on entering from afire-sing-
room, discovered the stranger on his knees in an at-
titude of supplication. His Holiness was greatly
alarmed and pulled his bell with impatience until
assistance came and rid him of the intruder. Pius IX.
afterwards remained for two days in a state of in-
describable agitation.
A Coartteuienow.—Some few weeks ago,
under the heasiing of " Wan Dickens Ever a Stroller?"
the Barton Courier copied from the New l'ork Tribune
that Mr. Dickens in hia early life had been a member
of a strolling theatrical company, and that many of the
cnaracteut and incidents tin Nicholas Nicklehy were
enFested by the acquaintances and eXperlences which
this episode in the novelist's life had furnished. It
seems that a friend in London forwarded a copy of the
pant r containing the extract in question to the novelist's
eldest son, who, in the following note, soldes that
question :
MTh* of All the Year Round, 18th March, 1872.--My
dear Sir,—Many thanks for the wry remarkable extract from
the Boston Courier. There is no doubt that the statement
Is untrue in every particular. —Very faithfully yours,
CHARLES DICKENS.
"COME" AND "TAKE."—The Lambeth Water
Company, no Mr. John Taylor, their engineer, writes
to The Times, are going to improve their "intake."
Bravo. L. C. ! Then it isn't true that the Loudon
Water Companies only think of improving their ineomt.
—Punch.
THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. The Parliamentary
Committee of the London anti Provincial Licensed
Victuallers have published a series of objections to Sir
Robert Anstruther's bill relating to the sale of intoxi-
cating liquors. They affirm that the formation of
local districts and the election of licensing boards is a
direct recognition of the pertitiaaive principle, and is in
antagonism both to Sir S. Ibbetsbn's Bill and that of
the Government; that the provision that no licence foe
music or dancing shall be granted to any person hold-
lag a victualler's licence, or to an 3 premises adjoining
a reffilie house, is unjust to the present holders of
mode and dancing licences, and introduces an entirely
new principle of licensing such places ; and that the
clauses respecting Sunday cloning, the meetings of
benefit societies and clubs, and the prohibition of the
employment of any person under eighteen for the
supply of drink, are injurious, oppressive, and unneces-
sary.
A "COUNTER-CASE."—Shoplifting. itch.
MATRIMONIAL CualccEs.- -(From the Man-
chtstcr Ertiminer)
'Gentleman, middle-aged, with moderate independent in-
come, wishes to nmke the acquaintance of an educated
musical lady, with a view to matrimony. —Address, in good
faith," &c.
"A bachelor, 40, in good business position, gentlemanly,
and temperate, would be happy to correspond with any lady
who is well informed, ladylike, and of good family, with a
view to matrimony ; real address—Address," &e.
. .

room,

•
"A widower, aged 33, in goi.d business, with villa resideace,
moderate income, no children, wishes to make the acquaint-
ance of an educated and domesticated lady, with a view to
matrimony; age from 24 to 32 ; must be tall and good look-
ing; must have an excellent character: means no object.
—Address, in confidence, with carte," Ac.
•

, •
A REMARKABLE boo—At the Liverpool
County Court, Edward Tomkinson, a butcher, brought
an action against Ann Haigh, for the recovery of £,lO,
the value of a large Newfoundland dog belonging to
the plaintiff, and alleged to have been lost by the de-
fendant. According to the plaintiff's statement, the
defendant, being recently at his house, had obtained
the dog for protection on het return home. It was also
stated that the animal was quite familiar with the
several ferries' and that it was in the habit of going to
and returning frees Cheshire in boats selected at its own
discretion. The defendant said that the plaintiff had
himself offered her the clog as a protector on the occa-
sion in question, arid that she thought it had gone
home, it having got away out of her house. The plain-
tiff, however, denied havirio' since seen the dog. The judge
held that it was a case of gratuitous bailment of the
dog, the defendant being only liable in the case of gross
neglect, of which there was no evidence, and dismissed
the case accordingly. •
Rant En 'Tont En. —Serjeant Baltanbine pleads
as a reason for letting the Claimant out on bail that,
" as the question will be one of his identity with
Arthur Or on, it will be necessary that he should see
his witnesses." We should have thought that all that
would be necessary would be that the witneeres should
see tins—Fuse/s.
MIDNIGHT MELTING MOVEMENT.—The
annual meeting of the friends and supporters of the
movement was held on Monday evening in Exeter.
hail, London. The secretary read the report, detailing
the operations of the committee of the movement
throughout the past year. One midnight meeting at
least had been held every week throughout the yam-,
and in some districts extra meetings have been held.
The total number of fallen women who bad attended
the midnight meetings during the year had been 2,104.
Of this number 154 had been rescued from their miser-
able life at the meetings, and 31 by after applications.
The total number thus rescued and placed in homes
during the year had been 188, the great majority being
between the ages of 17 and '24, and more than one-third
orphans. The total income for the year, including the
balance of £317 and £lOOO donations and subscriptions,
had been £1,422 10s. led., and the expenditure
amounted to £3,192 Os. sd. leaving a balance of
£3OO 4s. sd. The invested fund was £l,OOO.
meeting was then addressed by several speakers, and
the report was adopted.
AN OMNIVOROUS ANTELOPE.—The Naval arid
Military Gazette records the following :
- - -

A death bas recently taken place In tho army which,
attic ugh It con scarcely be chronicled in our obituary column,
is nevertheless not unworthy of a passing notice. " Tanby,'•
the celebrated antelope of the 7th Hussars, has paid the last
debt of nature. A post-mortem examination revealed tho
fact that " Tafiby " had an ontrielnlike capacity for eating
singularly indigestible substances. In Ids atomitch were
found several brass knobs, a sponge, half a yard of flannel,
and sundry other articles which are not generally recognised
as articles of food—even for nntelopes. " Tanby's" head and
horns will, we understand, be preserved by the regiment in
memoriam. Requiescat its pace!
AN EGYPTIAN HAIM! BITIINED.—A corm.
pondent at Cairo writes
• . .

The harem at the new palace at the 'Abblsiyyah, near
Cairo. was burned on Tuesday night, the 9th of April.
Thirty rooms were consumed, but no lives were lost. The
women w.reF.e oil ?e_f.tt off by. night to another palace, and the
,

Vic;;;;3, followed tli;tu early next morning: The fire broke
out at 1.30 p.m. His Highness is said to be greatly annoyed
by the event. It ass only a couple of years ago that the
palace at Er-Rarnlth, near Alexandria, was burned just as it
was finished, and there was also a considerable fire in the
palace at Ras-et-lin. Whatever may have been the cause of
those fires, this is said to have been occasioned by gas. It
could hardly have been caused wilfully, se-lug that it com-
menced is the women's apartments, to which there could be
no access from without.
LOSS OF A VESSEL AND FOUR LIVES. —Oll Sun-
day night about halftpast nine, during a heavy storm,
the Norwegian galliot Barbara Christine, of and from
Bergen, struck upon Hasborough Sand, and soon began
to break up. The master, Captain Peterson, and the
i crew, five n all, got out the boat, but a heavy sea
capsized it, At that moment the mast went by the
board, and the crew were swept overboard. They all
managed to cling to the mast, and so kept afloat for a
while; one of the crew, Valentine Olsen, being an ex-
pert swimmer, left the mast and swam to the boat,
and succeeded in righting her. With the help of a
single oar whieu had been left in the boat he attempted
to reach the other men, but before he could get up to
them he saw them all swept away, and they were
drowned. Oslen was pulling abeut all night, and at
noon on Monday, he was picked up by the smack,
John and Emma, of Great Yarmouth, and landed there
at ten o'clock at night, after being fifteen hours in the
open boat.
WELL CLASSED.—In an article headed "The
Agricultural Labour Question," we read, among other
news of the "movement," that "the Newmarket
trainers have advanced the wages of their men from
14s. to 165." This is the first time we ever saw New-
market trainers figure as agricultural employers, and
their men as agricultural labourers, lint the classifica-
ti to may be defended. If our labourers are serfs,
what are trainers' labourers but adseripti glebie? Ln't
their work altogether of the turf, turfy
TRAFALGAR AND WATERLOO. —Oll.O Of very
few remaining officers who were present at Trafalgar
, has just died at Paithiton, aged b2—the Rev. Henry
Bellairs, a descendant of the ancient family of Kirby
• Bellairs, Leicestershire. He entered the navy when
14 as midshipman, and received two wounds at the
battle of Trafalgar. From ill-health he left the navy,
but subsequently received a commission in the 15th
I Hussars, together with his brother, the late Sir William
• Bellaira, and served at Waterloo, thus taking part in
' both England's greatest battles. 110 subsequently
I entered the Church, and became rector of Bedwcoth,
Warwickshire, of which county he was a magistrate.
A HARD FIGHT FOR LIFE!—An inquest has
been held, in London, en the hotly of Anne Ilutchin-
EMI, aged thirty-three. The deceased was employed
as a needlewoman, but became destitate through ill-
ness. Although her landlord considerately allowed
her rent to fall into arrear, she had to paun articles of
furniture to live. She at length applied at the White-
chapel Workhouse for a little out-door relief, but was
refused, somebody saying, "Come into the work-
house; that is the place for you." Her pride, it ap-
pears. forbade her to adopt the suggestion, and she
locked herself up in her room for several days. On
Monday night she stole out of the house and sold
some clothes, buying with the proceeds a small
quantity of food. It was, however, too late ;on the
following day she died. A medical examination of
the body showed that the deceased had undergone
acute privations. The coroner remarked that a
neediewoman in London always had a hard fight for
life. Verdict, "Death from disease of t,te lunge, ac-
celerated by starvation."
OUR Len Watt.—ln his farewell order to the
Cachar Column on its safe return from a very trying,
if comparatively bloodless, campaign, General Bour-
ehier. beam admiring witness to the -discipline, energy,
and unflagging services of his troops (saws Allen's
Indian Mail). Hard work, he truly said, had been
their lot, work done with a will" under the most try-
ing circumstances of heat and frost." The only
shelter alike for officers and men consisted of rude huts
of grass or leaves. They had to March day by day over
precipitous mountains, rising at one time to 6,000 ft.,
and to make 103 miles of good road for elephants; but
their spirits "never flagged, and when they met the
enemy they drove them from their stockades and
strongholds until they were glad to sue for mercy."
After "'weaving the several services rendered by 'lit'
ft-rent parts'iif the column, the General has a word
fur the younger office's, who are specially c atgratn-
lated on having had "such an opportunity of gaining
experience in mountain warfare.' The services of all
will, no doubt, be duly appreciated by the Cemmander-
M-Chief, by whom we must remember that the plan
of the campaign was originally devised, and who may,
therefore, claim no little share in its successful issue.
We, for our part, are inclined at present chiefly to
congratulate the troops on having got through their
woll. with SO few miscarriages before the rainy season
set in.

FROM " JUDY'S " PEN.

Tfie Spendthrift's Prayer—Leave me irlouu will ou
EXIIIANIPINART PhenOntoooll—A feat of arna.
WRY is it dangerous to take a nap when travelling 1-13 e.
cause the train runs over sleepers
A CATAsTROPHX.--.% party of Americans went hunting.
and, afar turee days sport, returned with nought but a cat,
as trophy,
Nt T.CRACKERS.—Shillideghi.
ADVICE to Fair Anglers—boot Rob for compliments.

ASS AsslNATios—Oonkey slaughter.
ExTRAORDINAEY Mfrliowss olf THE SEASON.—The marded
Man who stopped out late the other night fortud a flea in his
ear when he got home.
IIArRnAT officers are generally of retiring dispositions.
file truest history-lend, Junv ever bowelft lie. on I shelf
at this present moment.
A HAN of Many torts—the hawker of an EucyclopicaLk
Sour ballet-girls are pussies—some are perers.
THE Best Thing fir the Chancellor to Take Off —Himself.
A REVENUE (TITER.—Mr. Lowe.
SIGNS of " the Times."—The news-boy in the morning ring
lig the area bell, and shistling a lfopular melody.
A CERTAIN celebrated sculptor's talent% are sabl to be so
Infectious, that even the people who sit to him make faces.
PPS very odd that a sovereign should be under a crown.
Tire Lord Slayor's "Sir" prize.—Kuighthoml.
In ERE IS • shoemaker's journal late:y started—he sore you
ask for the last °damn.