The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-07-23 00:00:00

AN ELECTRIC TE,AfiLWAY.

The Berlin and Charlottenburg Tramway Omnibus
Company are going to avail themselves, with regard
to one of their routes, of Siemens and Halske's adap-
tation of electricity to locomotive purposes. The work-
ing machine, which will be fitted underneath the floor
of the tram-car, will be suprlied with the current in a
somewhat different mariner from that employed
tor the electric railways already in existence. Two
lines of cable, insulated and supported similarly
to ordinary telegraph wires, on posts sixteen
feet high, are to be erected alongside of
the tram way. Upon this pair of cables is to be fitted
a small four-wheel contact carriage, as it is called,
which will be connected with the working machine
beneath the tramcar by means of two short cables.
The currt-nt will then proceed from a stationary
dynamo-electric machine at the terminus, along one
of the lilies of cable, and thence through the wheels of
the contact carriage into one of the connecting cables,
by which it will finally reach the working machine.
The second cable will serve for the return current.
As the tramcar moves, the contact carriage connected
with it will of course be drawn along the pair of
cables.

The Registrar-General's returns for last week shows
the rate of mortality in 20 large English towns to have
averaged 231 per 1,000.

THE LEGEND OF THE GERMAN
CORN FLOWER.

That the blue-bottle (also called bachelor's button)
is the favourite flower of the Emperor of Germany is
a well-known fact (says the Court Journal). The
reason why this simple field flower should be preferred
by him to other and much finer ones may not be so
welt known. On the occasion of a small festivity
given at Kcenigsberg, the Emperor's mother, Queen
Louise, appeared in the presence of several French
generals, sent by Napoleon I. to the unhappy
Prussian King, in a very simple white dress, wearing
some of these flowers in her hair and a small
hunch of them in her corsage, much to the aston-
ishment of the rude warriors who did not hesitate
to exchange in a loud whisper derogatory remarks
about the plainness of her toilette. Turning with an
indescribably sad vet dignified smile to the generals,
the Queen said: "Ever since your horses have trodden
down our cornfields, gentlemen, these pretty wild
flowers may well be counted among the rare treasures of
my unhappy country." That scene and the flowers con-
nected with it belonged henceforth to the Emperor's sad
but sweet reminiscences of his youthful days. When
shortly before the battle of Friedland Queen Louise had
once more to flee from Keenigsberg to Memel. the car-
riage in which she travelled with her two eldest sons,
Princes Frederick William and William, lost a wheel
on the road. They were obliged to alight, and, being
far from their habitation, to sit down by the side oi
the deserted road wbile the damage was repaired. The
little princes being tired and very hungry loudly be-
wailed their fate to the dejected mother, who did not
know how to appease the wants of her children. The
young and delicate Prince William in particular clung
beseechingly to his dearly beloved parent, who finally
rose from her grassy seat and culled bluebottles in the
adjacent fields, encouraging the two boys to follow
her example. With the flowers thus plucked she
twined wreaths, which occupation the Princes
looked on with great curiosity and interest. The
feeling of helplessness and the thought of the
unhappy condition of her family, her country, and
the future of the sons by her side brought tears to the
mother's eyes, hot tears, which slowly trickled upon
the flowers she held in her hands. Prince William,
deeply touched, threw his arms round her neck and
tried to comfort her with his childlike caresses which
brought a sweet smile on the maternal face and lips,
and won for the irresistible comforter a wreath of the
blue flowers upon his ten-year-old curly head. This
touching roadside scene Prince, eow Emperor William,
has never forgotten. On every corn-flower (thi, being
the German name) he still thinks he sees the glitter of
a maternal tear. Hence his fondness for them.
Still it is not the flower alone he loves, he has alst.
a great partiality for its colour. A peculiar con-
struction of the Emperor's eyes causes this particular
shade of blue to strike it more pleasingly than any
other, to such a degree in fact as to render him almost
indifferent, nay insensible, to all other colours This
is also the reason why he likes to surround himself
with this his favourite shade, and the ladies of his Court
have long made it a point to appear on festive
occasions in blue toilettes, which not only produce an
agreeable effect upon his sight but also upon his mood,
imparting to the latter that happy tinge of cheerful-
ness and amiability which have long become proverbial
in his case.