The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-09-04 00:00:00

THE STOTIRBRIDGE OBSVRVER.

compromise from the first, and, though it has net yet
got through, it is certain that if it passes at all it will
pass only as a compromise. Here, then, is the mea-
sure of what the legislation of the session can possibly
be. Here is the whole product of the unexhausted
energy and first fresh effort of a revolutionary House
of Commons. There is not much as yet to shock
the most timid nerves. The grand assault looked
for has not been delivered after all, and the skirmish-
ing of the session—for there has really been nothing
more—has not resulted in any decided victory for
either party.

THE OURANG-OUTANG AT THE
WESTMINSTER AQUARIUM.
The Daily News of Monday says :—This somewhat
formidable animal, whose arrival at Mr. Jamrach's
establishment was noticed in a recent impression of
the Daily News, has been safely housed at the Royal
Aquarium, Westminster, where he was exhibited to
the public for the first time on Saturday last. In
order to secure his comfort, and it may be added that
of the public also, a strong cage has been fitted up,
the bars of which are stout enough to allay any
apprehensions as to the possibility of its restless occu-
pant finding his way out. Writing on the subject
of the ourang - outang Mr. Frank Buckland
says, that "So far as can be judged he is an adult, or
nearly an adult. He has been brought from Malacca
in a box three feet high, and as he sits in the box the
top of his head almost touches the top of the box."
Stretched to his full height he measures about 4 feet,
and seizes the bars. at the top of his cage with the
greatest ease, swinging tc) and fro with all the agility
of his race. Some idea of his great strength may be
gathered from the nervous energy with which he
grasps the bar with his fingers, which ge about
live inches long, and from the muscular develop-
ment of his arms and shoulders. He peels an
orange with gres; dexterity, and sucks it with evident
relish. He is fond of retirement, and when an oppor-
tunity offers will envelop himaeif frqm head to foot in
his blanket, any attempt to remove which wonses
display of passion which would suggest a speedy retreat
on the part of the offending person. His anger is ex-
Wessed in a peculiar manner He purses up his lips
as thougli about to whistle a tune, and dashes about
tI is cage with r,esitler,a energy, stopping every now and
then z to peer through the isare in search of his enemy.
When hi a good humour his na4iral uglinsss and the
fierceness oi ,t!!, PYes are much PofteOct 167 tb,c intel-
lectual formation of 110 f?rehead, which may be
said
to be beautiful by compaiZso7l wlth.the other portions
of his frame. This is a point hi 134114 naturalists will
no doubt be interested. Although sornewt fLt a.hy, Ale
does not absolutely shun the public gaze but generally
looks straight before him over the heads of the
crowd, as though searching for some object
familiar to him. Any unusual sound such as
the beating of a drum, attracts his attention at once,
and causes him to turn his bead round sharply in a
listening attitude. Concluding his remarks upon this
singular animal, Mr. Buckland states that "the hair
about his head is so arranged that he appears to wear
whiskers. He has, moreover, a reddish beard, and
under thisbeard is a very remarkable pouch, the use
of which has not, as yet, beep oleariy ascertained. As,
however, it is capable of dilatation yit4 a, ip is, in
all probability, directly connected.twith thy 0rg44.40f
voice. It is a wonder iio me how ever the natives
managed to catch him, whether as an infant or of full
growth," This opinion will be fully endorsed by all
who have seen the Onrang-outang.

The Standard notices the axrival of the Onrang hi
an interesting article from Which we e*tract-the
following :

In view of his arrival, it is worth while to call attention to
the fact that three great tailless apes are known to natnral-
ists—the gorilla, the chimpanzee, and the ourang. The
existence of the gorilla was first made known about thirty
years ago, when a traveller in the Gaboon country, on the
West Coast of Africa, discovered a skull fixed on a post in a
dark and gloomy part of the foVest. It was ornamented with
broad red stripes, crossed by a white stripe. Tike natl. Yea re-
garded it as a "fetish," and treated it with the greatest rever.
ence and respect. It was the skull of a very large gorilla. We
have never yet seen a full-grown gorilla in this country; but
the ourang just arrived from Malacca is by far the largest
specimen of modern times, and is therefore of the highest
interest. Ourang-outang, in the Malay language, signifies
the "wild man.' These "wild men" are found in the
islands of Sumatra and Horneo. They are forest animals,
and rarely seen, The pgrang is a purely diurnal animal, as
the pupil of his eye—like that of 'a dog, pfd not of a cat—
will tell us. He is probably the a.iiiuni;l w ich gaye rise to
the "Satyr," "Pan," and the "Fauns o 4oinan trues.
The islands of the ourang's home are nearly all covered with
a dense, gloomy, tropical forest, and what is not forest
is jungle or swamp. they are nearly under the Equator,
and therefore well suited as the habitat of these big
apes, espe;ially as fruits are abundant. It is in these
forests, where 'human heiug,s cannot and dare not enter,
that the ourang is torn at;ta specter. pt their habits and the
maximum size to which they attaig, nob Ody—not even the
native hunter—can tell us much, if anything Th old males
lives solitary lives in the forests, but the young ones tolidvititair
mother, and are said to stay a long time under her guardian-
ship, and (as may be seen sometimes at the Zoological Gar-
dens) the baby ape clings round the neck of the mother who
P444ri,ep her infant about among the tree tops. It is at this
time that' Ygung ourangs are caught, and so valuable are
they, and si) 4fiTcutq xear, that the native women suckle
them till they have got tO' ë 4repg. It is probable that
somehow or other this Waft pt4ingvas' '4o caught young
but was trapped or snared when adult, ' •

The ourang is very intolerant of cold; yet his mitixe,
forests are, when the sun goes down and the fog rises, very
cold at night. Under these circumstances, the ourang
creeps in among the parasitic orchids, and making a sort of
pest, covers himself all over. This habit the animal at
Westminster retains, and it will be seen that he is very fond
of his blanket, said frequently wraps himself up altogether,
leavitig just a peep hole, threligh vviiieh hp Inspects his
visitors, Ills eyes are very close tegettlo. hut Very bright.
watchful, au4l observant ; 11!)is also very qiiick of hear-
ing •
We men have the power of placing the thumb sq a 3 to
meet the tip of any finger on the same hand—hence the
principal superiority of man over all other animals, mac-
much as by means of the thumb he can make himself
clothes, procure food, forge weapons, (Vc. The thumb of
the ourang, on the contrary, is on his foot. Lascars and
,otherr sailors use their great toes in climbing ropes, and the
Aug.ralisn ‘';.yages are very clever in climbing up trees, and
1441404, vgrynaUArticles mith the naked feet. Civilized
men Rise miick by AiOt ifsing their great toes, which may be
gasiiy,educated 'to work The cmya4g's foot is admirably
contrived for li.ying'in trees Whetialttiu on a flat surface
he tucks his kgs ugdPr .4h* #l,is I*lionsitting• ch a bough
he holds on D 7 means of the tiMmh 4100,#. ".' .'-" •
•, . .

As no monkey can live by himself, he should haye g coin,
panion, such as a long-coated puppy, a kitten, or better still,
a good. tempered monkey. His companion he would pro-
bably nurse, and it would help to keep him warm, and to
Wei him that it is to his advantage to become tame as soon
ieosg.4,lz. As regards his brain power, much is yet to be
earnt, a thicjigtir anatomically similar, the brain of this
big monkey is' far helW'tlT standard of intelligence of even
the lowest of the hunian "114. x. instance one point.
No monkey of any species, where th.e";e44lfkcliP haa l)een
tried, would ever put a stick or coal on to an eXPiri.l4 firVt
he would sit and shiver by ttie fire till it goes out. His
mind is not sufficiently acute to see the connection be-
tween cause and effect, so as to put coal on to keep
1,1i6 'fire f,;(ginz. There is another thing showing the
0;64 (1114,retieb betNyceß man and a tailless ape, such as
the onfang. Ti dbledt'be given to a monkey he ,imme-
clieielY'sraells it, 'eVell.kt Plat-oiojebt• is no 'eant for food
P4TOPes. II unian beings 'is IN; do this ; they tints); to the
eyes aud the foiieh. AOi!ii, when 'eeti the Must'savaeof
men fight, it is yeFy Olcioni.indeed We 'hear of ' their tiug
eall other; but the moment tu monkey's " Monkey is npt"
that indant he begin to use his .1g,44 -04 to 144. Their
teeth are weapons of offence and defentt; Yilç Mir 'teeth
we nse instinctively for much more peacef ii purpoios; SThe4
big habopiis gre introduced to each other for the first time,
they generally optend to yawn. This is really to show each
other their long', sabre-p'e canine teeth, and to say, "Look
_
out ; I have as sbarp tee,. as - • •
. , , .

waggons." The application of a principle on a larger
scale thus proved to be successful by this experiment
is certain at no distant date.—Pall Mall Gazette.

THE CHURCH OF ST. MARY,
WHITECHAPEL.
The church of St'. Mary, Whitechapel, London,
which was burnt down on Thursday afternoon in last
week, was of some antiquity. It was originally a
chapel of ease to the parish of Stepney, and was once
commonly known as St. Mary Matfelon. •` About
the year 1428, the sixth of King Henry VI., a devout
widow of that parish," writes Stow, "had long time
cherished and brought up,. of alms a certain Frenchman
or Breton born, which most unkindly and cruelly in
a night murdered the said widow sleeping in her bed,
and after fled with etch jewels and other stuff
of hers as he might carry ' • but he was so
briskly pursued that for fear he took the church
of St. George, in Southwark, and challenged
the privilege of sanctuary there, and so abjured
the:King's land. Then the constables (having charge
of him) brought him to London,intending to have him
conveyed eastward; but as soon as he was come into
the parish, where before he had committed the
murder, the wives cast upon him so much filth and
ordure of the street, that (notwithstanding the best
resistance made by the constables) they slew him out
of hand; and for this feat it hath been said that
parish to have purchased that name cf St. Mary Mat-
felon; but I find on record the same to be called
Villa beatm Maria de Matfellon, in the 21st of
Richard IL"
Richard Brandon, the supposed executioner of
Charles 1., was buried in the churchyard on the 24th
of June, 1649. From a tract preserved in the British
Museum, "The Confession of Richard Brandon, the
Hangman, npon his Deathbed, concerning the Be-
hea'dirig Of his late gajesty," it seems that he lived in
Rosemary-lane, that on the night eXe'CU-
tion he returned home and gave his wife the sum he
had had for performing his Ace, and that for
three days before his death he was speechless.
He is supposed to have been assisted on the
scaffold by Ralph Jones, a ragman, also of Rose-
mary-lane. At his burial, we are told, "a great
multitude of people stood wayting to see his corpse
carried to the churchyard, some crying out, 'Hang
him, the rogue, bury him in the dunghill! Others
pressing upon him, sayiag they would quarter him
for executing the King, insomuch that the church-
Wardens 'afid inkster.s of 't4l pft'vish wee fain to Come
for the euppressOn of them, and with great difficulty
he was at last carried to Whitechapel churchyard."
' In the east of London, it is clear, the name of Crom-
well bad less influence than in most of the Courts of
Europe. In 1673 the building just destroyed was
erected in place of the old chapel of ease. The re-
mains 9( Parker, the ringleader in the mutiny at the
lore Weielourleci in t4e feAllt.e lere at the cost of his
widow.
'Four or five years ago the church was carefully
restored, only; however, to meet with a fate from
which churches are comparatively exempt, The
Times.

ADVENTURES OF A SHIPWRECKED