The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-08-13 00:00:00

A STRANGE FARM.—One of the strangest farms in
the world is the Terrapin Farm of Mr Dorton in Ala-
bama, wlich is stocked at present with twenty
thousand head of turtle, that are reared and fattened
for the New York market. They eat nothing in
winter, and their summer diet of crabs is inexpensive.
Mr. Dorton sell his turtle for four shillings apiece t
the restaurateurs of New York.

THE SENIOR ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET. —Sir George
Rose Sartorius, G.U.8., the senior Admiral of the
Fleet, attains his 91st year on Monday, having been
born on Aug. 9, 1790. The venerable admiral is the
eldest son of the late Colonel John Conrad Sartorius,
an Engineer officer in the Hon. East India Company's
service. Sir G. R. Sartorius is one of the few sur-
vivors of Trafalgar, having taken part in Nelson's
memorable victory as midshipman of the Tennant, and
was also engaged in many other naval operations in the
early part of the century.

A MODERN HERCULES.—Very strong men are not
so common in these degenerate days as they were in
the "good old times," if the feats of heroes chronicled
in legendary lore were ever really performed by those
mighty ones of the past (says the Bally Telegraph).
But Milo, of Crotona, or even the semi.divine
Hercules himself, might have been proud of such
muscular power as that possessed by one Xavier
Semmelmann, a Bavarian drayrnan now living in the
town of Irlbach, near Straubing. Among the latest
recorded achievements of this formidable athele, who
claims to be the champion weight-lifter of Germany,,
the following deserve especial mention, as having:
completely thrown into the shade the justly celebrated
feats of Hans Steyner himself, hitherto reputed to be
the strongest of Latter-Day Teutons. A few days
ago, at Hogeldorf, a suburb of itottenburg, Semple-1-
mann raised a blacksmith's anvil, weighing four hun-
dred and eighty-eight pounds, twelve inches from the
ground with one finger, and subsequently lifted a load_
of bricks, five, hundred and forty pounds in weight,
to the height of his Shoulder.

A LIBERAL GIFT. —On Sunday morning ban-notes
to the value of £5OO were dropped into the, offertory
bag at Chelmsford Church, with a waten request
that the money should be devoted to tix3 Chelmsford
Infirmary.—On the 4th of July last year a gift of a
similar amount was made in the same way for the
Chelmsford Dispensary. The donor's name is un-
known.

A LllapuTiAN MAOHINE.—A watchmaker in New-
castle, Pa., says a Pittsburg paper, has completed a
set of three gold shirt-studs, in one of which is a
watch that keeps excellent time, the dial being about,
three-eighths of an inch in diameter. The three,
studs are connected by a strip of silver inside the shirt
bosom, and the watch contained in the middle one is
wound by turning the stud above, and the hands are
set by turning the one below. But perhaps the most
remarkable thing about the liliputian machine is that
it works with a pendulum, like a clock, and the
pendulum will act with ease and accuracy in what-
ever position the timepiece is placed, even if it be
placed upside down,
A FIRFAIDiz AMUSEXENT.—The occurrence of vege-
table remains in coal is well known; but it is generally
believed that the evidences of animal life are slight,
and rarely to be discovered. According to Professor-
-0 wen this is not the case, though the remains of
animal life are for the most part of such a nature am
to be easily overlooked. He says in his address to the
students of the Dental Hospital of London, published
in the July number of the Journal of the British Dental
Association Pick up and scrutinise with your
pocket lens any fresh fragments of coal that may have
fallen upon the shovel upon the hearthstone. It
you can discern a speck of brighter colour thun
its black environment, rub the surface showing
it flat enough to be cemented to a plate, or
'slide' of glass; then turn the opposite side to the whet-
starie, and carefully rub down your bit of coal till it
is thin enough to let light through the speck. You
may then see, in what looks at first sight like a thin
plate of mere coal, when put 'under the microscope, a
tooth, of perhaps novel form, with crown and root.
The former may be defined by a coating of enamel,
and the dentine may show a rich vascular organisa-
tion, stained with the iron of the blood of the old car-
boniferous fish or batrachian." At the close of his
address PrafeLleor Owen showed a number of speci-
mens of teeth thus embedded in coal, and very beautiful
objects they appeared when seen under a low power of
the microscope.

THE MURDRA OP LIEUTENANT ROPER.—Notwith-
standirlg the increased reward offered by the officers
of the Royal Engineers, amounting, with the Govern-
ment reward, to £6OO, for the discovery of the Mur-
derer of Lieutenant Roper, at Chatham, the Scot-
laud,y4trd authorities have not gained any fresh in-
formation. The Engineer offioera purpose, it is said,
to make the reward £1„000, in hope that, if there
was an accomplice in the crime, he may be induced to
divulge what he knows.
AMERICAN VISITORS TO EIIROPE.—Eight steamers
sailed from New York on Saturday, with about four
hundred passengers, including many American dele
gates to the (Ecumenical Methodist. Conference in
London. The total number of tourists for Europe
during the week was ever 1,100, which is not so many
fiS in previous weeks, but is said to be unprecedently
large for the season of the year.
ADVERTISE OR "Bust I "—An American paper
quotes a couplet by Benjamin Franklin, as illustrating
the advance made of late years in the art of "getting
on." Franklin wrote: "He that by the plough would
thrive, himself must either hold or drive." The
Yanlwe version, adapted to the times, is : "He that
by his trade would riao, must either bust or adver-
tise."

Cost CV BEOENT BUILDINGS.—It is interesting to
compare the cost (says the Builder) of some of the
most recent buildings of the present day, The new
Grand Opera at Paris cost 40,000,000 f. ; the new Hotel
de Ville, 40,000,000 f.; the new Paris Post Office;
59,000,000 f. ; extension of the Conservatoire of Music,
8,000,000 f.; the new Museum of Victoria, Australia,
ClOO,OOO ; the Maison du Roi, in the Brussels Market-
place, 2,000,000 f. ; the now Provincial Government
Buildings at Bruges, 2,000,000 f. ; the Brussels Cavalry
Barracks, 4,000,000 f.: the new Brussels Mint,
4,000,000 f. ; the Palais des Beaux-Art at Brussels,
3,000,000 f. ; the new Museum at Antwerp, 2,000,000 f.;
the Palais de Justice at Brussels, 40,000,000 f. ; and.
the Department of Justice Building at the Hague,
1,700,0001.. We may compare with the above cost of
the following buildings in the United Kingdom : ,
The Houses of Parliament at Westminster cost
£3,500,000, or 87,500,000 f. ' • the new Foreign Office,
Whitehall, £550,0l0; the Record Office, £120,000 ;
and the Law Courts are estimated, exclusive of special
fittings, at nearly £900,000.
THE ENQLISH STYLE OF GIRL.—A Western Paper
thinks there are fashions in girls as well as in clothes.
It says :—"There are thirty thousand unmarried
women in Massachusetts. Why are these women un-
married It is because they are of a pattern which has
(If late years gone out of fashion, A. couple of years
ago there was introduced the plump English style of
girl. The latter soon became enormously popular, and
the bony and epectaeled maidens of Massachusetts be-
mune a drng in the market. It was still generally con-
ceded that the Massachusetts girls knew more about
Emerson's philosophy and Alcott's Orphic utterances
than did her plumper rival, but the merits ef the
former were no longer able to awaken any enthue
siasm. The Boston poetical young man no longer
wrote sonnets expressing the emotions of his heart on
hearing the bones of his beloved rattle as she ran to
meet him at the gate, and the Boston youth of fashion
no longer propos9d at public dinners the once familiar
toast, 'Beauty and Bones,' in honour of the spare sex.
In fact, spare and angular girls went entirely out of
fashion, and Massachusetts men went outside of the
boundaries of New England when they sought for
wives."—.Detroit Free Press.
THE LABOUR MARKET.— Work after the holiday
has been fully resumed in all the labour centres, and
business in most departments of industry is fairly?
good. The reports from Scotland, Cleveland, kna
Staffordshire, show a continued and steady impreve-
ment in the iron and steel trades. The sheet iron
branch is the most active, owing to the demand for
galvanised sheets both at home and abroad. Work-
men are well employed at fair average wages. Trade
is good in Yorkshire, especially at Leeds, where all
operatives are well employed. Birmingham, Wolver-
hampton, and Sheffield, are full of orders, there being
a great demand for agricultural implements. Cotton
operatives are well employed, and the textile trades
are somewhat more brisk. In the west of England
the staple industries continue rather quiet, with the
exception of the clothing and leather trades. The
olothing factories are busy, especially with orders
from the north and for export, while the demand for
winter season goods opens far more promisingly than
last year. The boot and shoe manufacturers are
fairly supplied with orders' which are mostly for the
ckeaper else of goods, the demand being better than
has 'men experienced for the last five years. Work-
men in the building trade are in excess of the demand.
The harness manufactories have been less active, and
the sugar trade so quiet that stocks are accumulating.
In the agricultural district e there is a better feeling.
The hay harvest, iust over, has produced a rather
short crop, but of better quality than has been
gathered in this nistriet for several years. The wheat
harvest will also be abundant. Farms are letting
better.
A GOOD OPENING FOR A YOUNG Mem—:His
mouth.—July.
MR. GLADSTONE AND AN AUTUMN SESSION.-- At the
request of the Agricultural Labourers' Union, of
which he is the President, Mr. Joseph Arch recently
wrote to the Prime Ministeri urging the expediency
of an autumn Session of Parliament for the purpose of
dealing with the cinestion of Land Reform in England.
In answer to this communication Mr. Areh has re-
ceived the following letter :—" I'o, Downing-street,
Whitehall.—Sir, Mr. Gladstone has received your
letter of yesterday, and in renly desires me to say
that it is most unlikely that there will be an autumn
Session of Parl;arnent. It could not be asked to
reassemble then except under extreme circumstances.
—I am, Sir' your obedient servant, Horace Seymour,
—Joseph Arch, Esq,"
AN ExmonnwanY SHOT.—The Hamilton (Canada)
Times gives the particulars of an unfortunate mis-
hap which occurred the other day at the new range
of the Victoria Rifle Club. Members of the club
were engaged in practising at the 1,000 yards range,
and George Margette weefiring at the target when
unhappily the marker, George Jenkins stepped in
front and received the bullet, which passed through
hie body and, strenge as it may appear, struck the
bull's eye which was bespattered with blood. it
appear § that it has been the praclice of the marker
Dt. tile range to wave a red flag when he wishes
to repaint the target after a number of shots
have been fired, sir prior to examining it
after the marksmen are through firing. But in
this instance Jenkins neglected to wave his flag and
exposed himself, with the result stated. The un-
fortunate man passed the night very favourably, and
there were great hopes that he would mover. The bullet
entered at the back below the shoulder blade, passing
out about an inch below the left nipple. After look-
ing where the ball bad struck the target, and seeing
that it we,a a bull's-eye, Jenkins says he felt a stinging
p:-.;n as if a needle had gone through him. He then
shouted to the parties at the range, for the purpose of
letting them know that he was struck, and ran down
the ranges 240 or 250 yards and as several of the
marksmen approached him he fell over. He bled but
little from the wound and there has not been much in-
ternal hemorrhage. Jenkin has performed the duty of
marker at the rifle ranges for nearly three years, and
has always been considered a very calatioua man.