The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-05-07 00:00:00

Viadiancous )`.2rfttliffeitrz.

ROME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL

THE BLIND INSTITUTE AT MlLAN.—Arrangements
have been completed by Mr. and Mrs. Richardson-
Gardner with the Italian authorities for the visit to
England of the accomplished blind pupils of the
Milan Institute. They will arrive in London in time
to give the first concert at 41, Grosvenor-square, on
Tuesday, the lith inst., and the second on Saturday,
the 21st. These pupils have never before left their
native country.
THE SCOTCH FASTING CASE.—On Monday the girl
Christina Maghall, residing with her parents at:Strat-
haven, entered upon the eighth week of her fasting.
Dr. Dougall has examined her, and finds no trace of
internal disease, and the medical authorities states
that such a fast is without precedent. She appears to
be gradually growing Weaker. Dr. Dougall has been
requested to prepare a report for the Lancet.
_

_
COME, COME !-Why i; a fellow who has nothing to
boast of but his pedigree like a potato ?—Well, if you
must have it, because the only good belonging to him
is underground.--;;Judy.

_
BURIAL-PLACES •OF PRIME MINISTERS.Of the
Prime Ministers who have ruled in Downing-street
during the present century three only lie buried in
Westminster Abbey—namely, William Pitt, George
Canning, and Lord Palmerston. Lord Sidmouth rests
at Mortlake •, Lord Grenville at Wooton' in Bucking-
shire • the Duke of Portland in the 'churchyard of
St. Marylebone ; Mr. Spencer Perceval at Charlton,
in Kent; Lord Liverpool at Hawkesbury, in Glouces-
tershire ; Lord Ripon at Nocton, in Lincolnshire ; the
Duke of Wellington in St. Paul's Cathedral; Lord
Grey at Howick, Northumberland; Lord Melbourne
at Hatfield, in Hertfordshire ; Sir Robert Peel at
Drayton, in Staffordshire; Lord Russell at Chenies,
in Buckinghamshire; Lord Aberdeen at Great
Stanmore, Middlesex; Lord Derby at Knowsley; and
now, lastly, Lord Beaconsfield at Hughenden, in
Buckinghamshire.

AVERAGE PRICES OF BRITISH CORN.—The follow-
ing are the average prices of British corn for the week
ending April 30, as received from the inspectors and
officers of Excise :—Wheat, 445. 9d. ; barley, 31s. 6d. ;
oats, 21s. 7d. per imperial qr. Corresponding week
last year :—Wheat, 458. 9d. ; barley, 335. 6d. ; oats,
235. 6d.

LORD BEACONSFIELD'S MONUMENT. —The Times (in
a leader) says :—"lt is deeply to be regretted that
among any section of the House of Commons the
bitterness of party spirit should be so rooted as to
resent the tribute of national honour proposed to be
paid to Lord Beaconsfield. .. . If a considerable
body of members are determined to offer resistance
to the proposal of the Government, it will be for the
House of Commons to take into account this change
of conditions. We have no hesitation in saying that
the tribute to Lord Beaconsfield's reputation intended
toke rendered by the vote of a public memorial in the
greatest of our national churches must be deprived of
its natural and spontaneous grace if it has to pass
through the ordeal of a heated controversy in Parlia-
ment. .. . The Conservatives may shrink from the
menace of a rough dispute almost over the grave of
their lost leader."

DEATH OF AGA KMAN.—Aga Khan, the venerable
head of the Khoja community, died on April 12, at
Bombay, at the age of Si (says the Homeward Mail).
His claim to be descended from Ali, the companion of
Mahomet and the Vicar of God, and the daughter of
Fatima, Mahomet's only surviving child, secured him
an almost Divine honour from the whole community
of the Indian Khojas, who were converted to a form
of Mahometanism some 400 years ago. Of late, how-
ever, the belief in his incarnation has been relegated to
women, and the men have contented themselves with
paying a heavy tribute in acknowledgment of his
political and spiritual chiefdom. He fled from Persia
40 years ago, after an attempt to establish himself on
the Persian throne, to which his family are claimants.
He assisted the British with his light horse and his
own sword during the first Afghan war, and received
hospitable shelter and a pension in return. For the
last 30 years he has resided in Bombay, taking the
leading part in all matters connected with the turf
and shika. He is succeeded by his son Aga Ali Shah,
one.of the members of the Legislative Council.
SMALL-PDX IN LONDON.—At the meeting of the
Metropolitan Asylums last Saturday a most alarming
report of the spread of small-pox in the metropolis
was made known. During the past 28 days 1,500 cases
had been refused admission into the hospitals for want
of beds, and in the same period 297 deaths had oc-
curred in private houses.
SALE OF SHORTHORNS.—Mr. Bowey, of Sidding-ton,
near Cirencester, has sold a portion ot his well-known
herd of shorthorns. Although some of the animals
offered belonged to celebrated strains, the prices
realized were generally regarded as very unsatia•
factory. Lord Fitzhardinge presided at the luncheon
which preceded the sale, and alludin:t to his purchase
a few years ago of a shorthorn bull far 4,500 guineas,
said some people thought he was a fool for doing so,
but he was happy to say that up to last year in sales
and service the animal had earned him more than
7,000 guineas, besides procuring him stock which, as
the exhibits from Berkeley Castle showed, had never
beets beaten.—Tuesday's Times.
GENERAL GRANT AS A SMOKER.—General Grant's
famous smoking propensities are declared by the
General himself to be due to the public and the news-
papers. As a cadet at West Point tobacco made him
ill, and he could scarcely smoke at all until the begin-
ning of the Civil War, when he found that a cigar re- '
lieved any heavy mental strain, and so often went into '
battle weed in mouth. On other occasions he smoked
very little, yet to his surprise he found the newspapers
making a point of his smoking, and soon boxes of ex-
cellent cigars were sent to him from all parts of the
country. There were so many that he supplied many
of his officers, and gradually as time went on he ac-
quired the habit, which has now become a necessity.
LORD BEACONSFIELD'S SALARY AS PRIME MINISTER.
—The I .ourt Journal says :—" The death of Lord
Beaconsfield relieves the Exchequer of a payment of
£2,000 a year. This was the pension which the late
statesman drew as an ex-Ca.hinet Minister. It is an
optional advantage which a few ex-Minisers may or
may not avail themselves of, as they think proper..
The salary of an English Prime Minister is a mani-
festly inadequate remuneration. If the matter were
to be regarded merely from a monetary consideration,
it is obvi ma that a man able enough to be a Prime
Minister of England could, if he tnrned his attention
in other directions, earn considerably more than £6,000
a year. It was, therefore, delicately arranged many
years ago that two or three of the principal offices of
the State should carry with them retiring pensions of
£2,000 a year. Mr. Gladstone has never availed him-
self of this privilege. Lord Beaconsfield, being a man
of smaller fortune, accepted the not too overwhelming
bounty of the State. The pension lapses when the
regular salary of a Minister is drawn. Thus from 1874
Mr. Disraeli disappeared from the list, but in 1880
application was made for the £2,000 in the name of
the Earl of Beaconsfield.

AN ITALIAN PROVERB.—The following Italian
proverb about womankind is popular among certain
wretched bachelors south of the Alps
"Lazy if tall,
Cross-grained if small;
If handsome, vain,
Shocking if plain."

A FATAL FlRE.—Shortly before midnight on Satur-
day one of the large residences forming a pile of
buildings known as Shakespeare's-terrace, abutting
on the Dane John in Canterbury, was discovered to
be on fire. In the first place efforts were made to
arouse the inmates, and two servants were safely
rescued. The sleepg apartment of the lady of the
house, Miss Yemen, could not, however, be ap-
proached owing to the extent of the fire, and her
Charred remains were subsequently found among the
dei,ris in the bedroom she occupied. The contents of
the residence were entirely destroyed, and the build-
ing was gutted. The damage to adjoining property
was trifling, from the circumstances that the water
company's mains were laid in the pleasure-rounds
close at hand, and promptly brought into requisition.
DEATH OF A BRIDEGROOM.—An inquest was held on
Saturday at Farnham on the bcdy of William Turner.
It appeared that the deceased, who was a builder, of
Wrecglesliam, drove a few days previous to the village
of Heriard, near Alton, in order to be married to a
young woman in the service of the Rev. G. Jones, the
vicar of the parish. The marriage duly took place,
and the deceased proceeded to drive his wife to her
new home. He had got about three miles on his
journey when he fell from the trap in a kind of faint-
ing fit. His wife attended to him as best she could
until assistance arrived. He was ultimately placed
in the trap in a state of semi-unconsciousness, and the
services of a man were engaged to drive to Farnham.
Before, however, this place was reached the deceased
expired in the arms of his newly-married wife. The
medical evidence showed that death resulted from
natural causes, and a verdict in accordance therewith
was returned.

' MEN'S AND WOMEN'S VIEWS ON BABIES.—with
one half of the adult populationtbabies have, of course,
always been recognised as an integral part of the
social structure. To the feminine mind when not too
confined by selfish vanities, or embittered by
longed disappointment, the baby is apt to appear one
of the most considerablemiterests of life. The mother,
the nurse, and the sympathetic aunt appear to find
an inexhaustible charm in all the events of babyhood.
There is a tender beauty in its fragile form, a delight-
ful surprisinmess and mystery in all its small ways,
which goes straight to the kindly heart of the sex.
Yet while one sex has thus set up the baby as an
object of special regard under 'the form of baby.
worship, the other and harder sex has coldly held
itself aloof from what it has chosen to consider
frivolities. Not only to crusty bachelor uncle, even
to the father himself, the arrival of a baby has com-
monly presented itself in anything but the light of a
joyoiis occurrence. When congratulated by his friends
on the event, he has, perhaps, bitten his lips as there
have arisen before his mind images of a home rendered
noisy and chaotic by the invasion of doctor, nurses,
&c., of a wife continually pre-occupied, of new
doctor's bills, and so on. If given to philosophise,
he might be tempted to ask what purpose is served
in the economy of things by the helpless infantile
condition making such large demands on the time
and energies of others. Nyhen the voice of his wife
woos him to join the feminine company of baby-wor-
shippers, he proves as hard as flint. He says that he
can see nothing in this early and vegetal period of
human existence to attract him, that all babies are
alike, and so on—utterances which are of course
shocking heresies from the mother's ooint of view. In
short, to the male sex as a whole, the baby during the
first six months of its life is apt to appear, if not
something positively wrong in the arrangement of
things, at least something quite unimportant which
calls for no notice, and is best put out of sight as far
as possible.—Cornhill Magazine for May.

pro- 1.

ANTI-JEWISH RIOTS IN SOUTH RUSSIA.—Last week
popular animosity against the Jews broke out in a
slight riot in Germany. A much more serious out-
burst of popular passion has occurred at El izabethgrad,
in Southern Russia. Elizabethgrad, a flourishing
place in Kherson, ten hours distant by rail from
Odessa, contains a community of 10,000 Jews, who are
said to monopolize all the vodki shops in the town.
On Tuesday in last week a quarrel which led to a
general fight arose between the Christians and the
Jews, in the course of which some shots were fired
upon the mob from Jewish houses. The old race.
hatred, fanned by religious fanaticism, blazed out
fiercely, and the Orthodox mob, reinforced by the
peasantry, looted the houses and warehouses of the
Jews. Two synagogues and several hundred shops
and houses were gutted, and it was not until the second
day that the military were able to restore order. Half
the Jews in Elizabeth,grad are said to be left homeless,
and four hundred persons are under arrest.

NOVEL SPORT IN PARIS.—The Hippodrome yesterday
inaugurated the novel sport—novel at least in modern
Paris—of foot races of men-and women (says the corres-
pondent of the Daily News of Monday). The bill
refers to the ancient practices of Greece and Rome,
when the emulation of youth in corporal exei'cises pas-
sionately excited the spectators. I am afraid a good
many paid their money in the mistaken belief that, 149
erst in Sparta, girls would compete with youths. The
male and female races were separate. The men were
attired in a sort of lawn-tennis costume. The girls
wore something between an odalisque and a Greek
dress. They -all ran. The lady race was a very hollow
thing. Most of the girls fell out half way, and the
winner, a slim lass called Frileuse, came in many
lengths ahead.

His SUCCESSOR.—There is no royal road to the
leadership of a great Party; no power of purchase, no
hereditary claim, and while those who probably think
otherwise are struggling for the honour of succession,
the real Leader is silent and undiscovered. When his
times come, he will snake himself known—perhaps a
man without title or position or family pretensions.;
and the crowd of Dukes. Eags, and lordlings, who
are now trying on the clothes of the dead giant, will at
once recognise their master.—Punch.

INHABITED HOUSE DUTY.—Provision is male in the
Customs and Inland Revenue Bill for assessing on the
landlord the inhabited hoßse duty for the year sub-
sequent to the 6th of April, 1882, where houses or tene-
ments are let fora shorter period than a year. If the
duty be not paid by him within 20 days after applica-
tion for payment, it may be levied upon the occupier.
But any amount so paid by the occupier is to be
deducted from the rent on the next payment.—The
Bill also places an interpretation on the clause to the
Act of 1878 which exempts from inhabited house duty
houses that are occupied solely for the purposes of any
calling, although "a servant or other person" dwell
therein for its protection. Here the term " servant "
is to include only a menial or domestic servant em-
ployed by the occupier; and "other person" is to
mean any one of a similar grade ^r description not
Otherwise employed by the occupier, and who is
engaged by him to dwell in the house solely for its pro-
tection.

MORE LIKE IT.—Young Surgeon: "I know I'm
late Flo' ; but I had to go two miles out of my way to
see one of the brickfield hands. You may be sure I
wished him further.—His Intended: Indeed Sir ! I
should have thought if you were so eager, you might,
at least, have wished him nearer.—Funny Folks.

- -
A REAL TEMPERANCE ORATOR.—This laconic but
sensible German ought to be sent out to lecture among
the people on temperance: "1 sail tell you how it vas.
I drank mine lager; den I put mine hand on mine
head, and dere vosh vone pain. Den I put mine hand
on mine body, and dere vosh anoder pain. Den I put
mine hand in mine pocket and dere vas nothing. So
I jine mid de demperance. Now dere is no more pain
in mine head, and de pain in mine body vas all gone
away. I put mine hand in mine pocket, and dere vas
twenty tollars. So I stay mid de demperance."

SIRENS AND THEIR LITTLE WAYS.—Laura has once
been told that it suits her style of beauty to be ex-
tremely animated—so she is always on the sparkle—
even though Brown is telling her, in broken accents,
that "when he saw the judge put on the black cap,
he nearly fainted away," &c., &c., &c.—Whereas
Maud knows that her great charm lies in a certain
hungry look of ineffable yearning towards the infinite,
and plies it on Sir Charles, who is assuring her that
"all he got to eat in Spain was fat pork stewed with
garlic and broad beans, and jolly scrumptious too ! "
Punch.

LIVERIED SERVANTS IN SAN FRANCISCO.—Liveried
servants are just now the rage in San Francisco, ac-
cording to the News Letter, and every carriage is
accompanied by a pair of solemn attendants in sombre
uniforms. This is yet another copy of British fashion-
able society, which the Americans are always secretly
anxious to imitate, despite their national theory of
equality, and even Transatlantic ladies are trying
hard to induce their independent " helps " to don the
cap and apron cf the English servant-maid. As to
the men-servants, the News Letter angrily declares that
they are all foreign importations, and wonders whether
any true American could be bribed to wear a livery.
"Study the physiognomy of those individuals as they
sit perched up behind those glossy horses, exalted
monuments of flunkeyism in this home of the free and
land of the brave, and you will find them to a man
exotics."

WORDS THAT SHOULD LIVE !—ln leaving office in
1868 Mr. Disraeli said in his peroration : No one
knows bettei: than myself that in the course of an
agitated, and now, I am sorry to say, a long political
career, I have done many thingss whEh I regret, and
said many things which I deplore; but a man's career
must be judged by its tenor and character. 1 can
say this for myself with the utmost sincerity, that I
have always sought to maintain the greatness of old
England, that I 'never had one thought of base or
sinister character or of self interest, and that there is
no reward which I more desire, and which I more
prize, than the good opinion of my fellow country-
men in whatever political party they may be ranged."
These words were received with vehement eheering.
_ _

THE LABOUR MARKET.—In London, printers, book
binders, and machinists are fully employed. The
engineers, ironworkers, and smiths are, owing to the
improvements and enlargement of the bridges over the
Thames, busy.—ln the iron manufacturing districts
business is better than it was a month ago.—The emi-
gration movement is extending among all classes of
labourers, and it has been suggested that a national
emigration scheme should be at once organised, under
Government control, to select emigrants. The clergy
of London and the officers of the trade unions, with
the avents-general of Canada, Queensland, and other
colonies, a,ra taking up the subject.— The woollen
trade, now that the Scotch patterns are less in demand,
is reviving in the West of England, and the clothing
manufactories are very active, both the home and
shipping orders being so plentiful that some factories
are working overtime, and all available hands have
found employment.—The boot and shoe industries
and the leather trade remain exceedingly dull, but the
harness manufacturers are busy.—The trade in the
Leeds district continues favourable upon the whole,
the cloth mills and felt workers still running full time,
the only falling off during the week being in the
machine and tool trades, some of which are reducing
the number of their hands. =Painters and paper-
hangers are well employed.—The improvement in the
weather during the past week has materially benefited
the cloth sales, and warehouses and shopkeepers have
been busy.
A CELEBRATED "CASE."—The crust of the world.
—Fanny Folks.

A SILENT FUNERAL.—A singular interment took
place on Tuesday afternoon at the Sheffield Ceme-
tery, the first of its kind in England. The remains
were those of an old lady who had been deaf and dumb
for years. The mourners were all deaf and dumb,
and the service was entirely conducted with deaf and
dumb signs by Mr. Stephenson, the superintendent of
the Sheffield Deaf and Dumb Association. Hitherto
the service in similar cases has been conducted orally
and then interpreted.
THE DRAMA IN JAPAN.—Japanese theatres are
curiously simple in their scenic arrangements. There
are no traps or other accessories, everything is done
by hand, yet the minor details are singularly realistic.
If a man is stabbed the sword is withdrawn, not
bright and unblemished, but by some strange arrange-
ment actually dripping with a perfect imitation of
blood. When the old heroic pieces of classical
Japanese writers are being acted, the performers
assume a set and almost stupid expression and affected
diction, although in a modern piece they speak
naturally enough. The performance lasts from eight
in the morning till midnight, so the audience prepare
for a whole day's pleasure, take their pipes, and are
provided with food by itinerant vendors. They sit
stolidly silent, never smiling or applauding the varied
bill of fare, which generally consists of a farce, a sen-
sational melodrama, and a modern piece.
DISTILLING BY ICE. —M. Raoul Pictet, of Geneva,
so well known for his disooveries of the liquefaction
of gases, announces the discovery of a method of dis-
tilling alcohol by ice. Two kilogrammes of ice are
needed for the production of a litre of alcohol; that
is, for the distillation of 110 gallons of alcohol, a little
less than a ton of ice will be required. The cost of
production will include only coal for working the
steam-engine which drives the air-pump and the
sulphuric acid, the evaporation of which produces the
ice. M. Pictet declares that this will notably diminish
the expense of distillation, and suggests that the
excise on alcohol should be proportionally increased.

CORK GAS.--It is s.prprising how many things which
have been thrown aside as useless are in this age of
scientific discoveries turned to good account. A new
gas is now made from waste cork, the light from
which is purer and softer than coal gas, and does not
smell of sulphur; it i rapidly and easily procured at
a very moderate cost. Successful experiments have
been made with cork gas at the Grand Opera in Paris,
and with most satisfactory results.

A HINT TO BARLEY-GROWERS. - The Brewers.
Guardian thinks that the eagerness with which good
malting barley is now purchased, and the difficulty
with which inferior samples are disposed of at remuner-
ative prices, ought to act as an incentive to farmers to
cultivate this crop with greater care. Continental
agriculturists are making great progress in barley
cultivation and some of the produce of France and
Germany competes favourably with our best growths.
The present system of levying the beer duty also
tends to place a premium on the best malting barleys,
for it is the inferior qualities that are placed in com-
petition with raw grain and other substitutes for
a.rley malt.
NEGLECTED COLDS.—A cold caught and neglected
was, we are told, the cause of Lord Beaconsfield's
death. "Practically," a very experienced physician
tells us, "there are for people with constitutional lia-
bility to catch cold just two efficient remedies, and, as
a rule unless really ill they will take neither. One is
to confine themselves for forty-eight hours to a single
• room with an equably warm climate, and the other is
to stupefy themselves with quinine. Most people
reject the former, because confinement is inconvenient
or irksome; and will not hear of the latter, bmcause
quinine 'disagrees with them,' or 'gives them
headache,' or makes them gi•lly, or is 'quite too dis-
agreeable, worse than the cold.' Consequently, they
bear the annoyance or swallow rubbish, until the cold
has run its course and they are quite ready, if cir-
cumstances are favourable to catch another." It is of
no use arguing with people who hate quinine, any
more than it is to lecture people who hate cod-liver
oil; they either will not take it, or they take it in
quantities which do them no sort of good.

SPONTANEOUS GAS.—Whilst ruefully looking upon
our heavy bills for gas consumed ad /O. during the
past severe weather, who would not envy the inhabi-
tants of Bradford, Pa., which favoured spot is heated
by natural gas. The Philadelphia Telegraph narrates
that "in 1875 an oil company was sinking a well on a
high hill west of Bradford, when, at a depth of several
hundred feet, they struck a vein of gas, but found no
oil, the force of the gas was such that when it was, •
ignited a pillar of more than fifty feet high rose up.'
This would have startled anyone but an American, ,
who is never surprised at anything. "The roar of the
gas could be heard for a mile or more, and so great was ,
the heat that grass and foliage grew as luxuriantly in the ;
depth of winter as in summer for several yards round."
A company was formed to carry the gas into the city,
where it was distributed all over the houses. This gas
possesses great heating power. At first the light was
not steady or brilliant owing to impurities, but means
were soon found to purify it, and now it is unsurpassad
by the finest made gas ; it is so cheap that people
rarely turn it out of their houses. For years the gas
flowed from the wells in unremitting volume, when
a short time since one of them failed and was found to
be half full of oil ; fifteen barrels of excellent oil were
pumped out, and the gas flowed again quite freely.
The same thing happened in other wells, and it is ,
necessary to pump the oil out daily before the gas
will flow.—. Land and Water.
A HOME-THRUST.—UncIe (sharply).—" You should 41
send that boy to boarding school—l was sent before I
was his age.' Boy (timidly).—" Were you a good boy
at home, uncle? "—Fun.
ZULU MARRIAGES.—In the HOUSE of Commons, on
Monday evening, Mr. Summers asked the I,l,nder-
Secretary for the Colonies whether the British
Government in Natal recognised the sale of women,
and sanctioned the right of a native insolvent to in-
elude the marriageable value of his daughters in the 4
assets of his estate. Mr. G. Duff, in reply, said that •;'i.
the Zulus of Natal, who outnumbered the whites by
something like twenty to one, were still, to a great
extent, governed by their own laws and customs.
One ot thobe rastoms was that a bridegroom, when he 3.
asked for agirl in marriage, gave to her father acertain
number of cattle for his consent. This arrangement 1"
would be recognised by the Natal authority, provided
there were evidence that the young lady herself con-
sented. (Laughter.) He had no information on the
second question.
To LORD SHAFTESBURY ON THE CELEBRATION OF
HIS EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY LAST WEEK.—The Factory
Act should be remembered as one of the most satis-
factory Acts of his Lordship's life.—Punch.
THE ZOOLOG/CAL SocrETY OF LONDON.—The fifty-
second anniversary of this Society hai just been held.
The report of the Council stated that the number of
fellows on the 31st of December, 1880, was 3,309,
against 3,364 at the same date of the previous year;
153 new fellows having been elected, and 208 removed
by death or other causes during the year. The total
receipts had amounted to £27,388, against £26,463 for
1879; the ordinary expenditure had been £24,753, and
the extraordinary expenditure £1,825. Amongst the
works carried out in the Society's Gardens in 1880
were the completion of the Inseetorium, which had
just been opened to the public, and contained a collec-
tion of living insects, and the thorough repairland re-
construction of the parrot-house. The number' of
visitors to the Gardens in 1880 had been 675,979,
against 643,000 in 1879. The number of animals on
the 31st of December was 2,372, of which 703 were
mammals, 1,438 birds, and 231 reptiles. Amongst the
additions to the menagerie during 1880 were two
thars, presented by the Prince of Wales, a koala, and
a pair of Koodoo antelopes obtained by purchase.
QUITE SO.—Persons afflicted with very short sight
are not, it is well known allowed in our army; but
in the case of soldiers who have crooked legs, what
ought to be done to them? Why, they should, of
course, be disbandyed.—Judy.
NEW SNAILS.—The Novice, an Austrian paper, an-
riounces the discovery by MM. Robic and Clessen,
well-known natural history virtuosi, the latter espe-
cially devoted to the study of snails, of two new
species of this animal near Predwor, in Carniola.
They are without eyes, and have no need of the organs
of sight, since they live in the dark, in water flowing
very slowly underground. They have received from
their discoverers the name of vitrinella, one of them,
on account of its slender form, being further named

LORD BEACONSFIELD'S JUDGES.—The judicial
patronage which fell to the share of Lord Beaconsfield
was increased by the creation, during his tenure of
office, of four new Lord Justiceships—offices which
follow the established practice regarding Chief
Justiceships, and are at the disposal of the Premier,
Lord Beaconsfield appointed no Chief Justice or
Chief Baron, and he made only one Lord Chan-
cellor, Lord Cairns, who, however, was distinctly his
own choice. The successor to Lord Cairns in the
Lord Justiceship, by Lord Beaconsfield's 'appoint-
ment, was, in spite of his party, Sir William Page
Wood, who was in 1868, as Liberal Lord Chancellor,
again to follow Lord Cairns. The four Lord Justice-
ships created by the Judicature Acts were filled up
by Lord Beaconsfield appointing Lords Justices
Baggallay, Bramwell, Brett, and Amphlett, and he
afterwards appointed Lord Justice Cotton, and the
late Lord Justice Thesiger. if most of these appoint-
ments were merely promotions in ordinary profes-
sional course, Lord Beaconsfield's own hand appeared
in his last judicial appointment—that of Lord Justice
Thesiger, the son of Lord Chelmsford, and favoured
in Lord Beaconsfield's eyes by his youth.—Law
Jour-nal.

QUITE DECISIVE.—" Do you pretend to have as
good judgment as I have?" exclaimed an enraged
wife to her husband. "Well, no," he replied slowly;
"our choice of partners for life shows that my judg-
ment is not to be compared with yours."
FATAL BOAT ACCIDENT.—On Saturday morning, a
boat accident, resulting in the loss of a life, occurred
on the Thames, near Putney. Two clerks at the
Science and Art Department, at South Kensington—
Mr. A. T. H. Campbell and Mr. Herbert Walter—
took out their boat from Hammersmith soon after
seven o'cl6ck for a sail down the river. Coming back
from Putney, just as they were at the bend opposite
Walrond's Wharf, a sudden gust of wind caught the
sail and capsized the boat, and both its occupants were
thrown into the water. They managed, however, to
get on to the boat, where they stayed some eight or ten
minutes waiting for assistance to come to them. As,
however, their position did not seem to be seen,
@ampbell, who is a good swimmer, struck out for the
shore, but when about twelve yards from land he dis-
appeared. The river was dragged immediately, but
it was not till Sunday at mid-day that his body was
recovred. The deceased, who was twenty-three years
of age, was well known on the river. His great grand-
father was Lieutenant-General Sir Colin Campbell,
who was Governor of Gibraltar during the whole of
the Peninsular war, and his grandfather, Colonel John
Campbell, C. 8., who commanded the 42nd High-
landers through the whole of the Peninsular war anpi_
at the battle of Waterloo. His father, who is still
living, is Captain A. W. Campbell, late of the 24th
(Warwickshire) Regiment.

THE GARDEN OF CHlNA.—Around Shanghai lie
50,000 square miles of the "garden of China," which
has been tilled for countless generations. It is a few
feet above the level of the river, which forms a com-
plete network of water communication; and is, after
all this lapse of time, still highly productive, yielding
three crops a year and supporting a population so
dense that the stranger would imagine the inhabitants
had, even upon an ordinary working day, turned out
for a holiday.
A DIFFICULT QUESTlON.—Squire's Daughter.—
"What is this we hear about your father and mother
quarrelling so, Peggy?" Peggy.—" They've each had
a little money left 'em, miss, and I think feyther he
wants the lot. Anyways, they can't agree nohow
whether her money is his'n, or his hem, or his'n and
hers hern."—Fun.

ELECTORS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.—A Parlia-
mentary paper has been issued containing a return
showing, with respect to each Parliamentary con-
stituency in the United Kingdom, the total number
of electors on the register now in the force. The total
number of electors in the counties in England and Wales
is 932,860; in the boroughs, 1,591,451; and in the
Universities, 13,499—making a grand total of 2, 567, 810.
In Ireland the total number of county electors is
168,217; of borough electors, 57,497; of University
electors, 3,747—grand total, 229,461. In' Scotland,
the counties contain 96,570 electors, the burghs 201,529,
and the Universities 12,119—grand total, 310,218.

A REPORTERS QUARREL.—" What seems to be
the matter ?" inquired the editor, as he entered the
local room, and found two reporters rolling over each
other on the floor. "Stop this! What's the trouble?"
"lie says my account of the funeral was all slush,"
panted one of the contestants, climbing to his feet.
"It's twice as
,good as his account of the fire."
" Tis'nt, editor,' objected the other. "I can write all
round him with one hand and lick him with the other.
Look at his funeral business! He says, The corpse
stood in a neat casket, which looked as natural as
life, while the organ strains blended with a fine cross
and anchor of tuberoses, presented to the deceased by
his parents as a token of their esteem.' " " Well,
wasn't it?" demanded the funeral reporter. "See
how he puts up his fire: 'Engine No. 6 got the first
stream on the Fire Fiend, who shot forth his starry
tongue and rolled his eyes savagely as the crystal
drops fell thick and swift on his red and yellow hide.
At this juncture the hose burst, and but for the
prompt arrival of No. 4 the monster would have
strided through the city, leaving a burning pathway
of widows and orphans.'" "So he would," pro-
claimed the reporter. "When 4 arrived he had the
bugle. But look at this for a funeral notice: 'The
mourners were veiled, but not so closely as to hide
their sobs from the keen observer. A dim religious
light prevailed, contrasting pleasantly with the dis-
course, which was calculated to comfort those who
were weary and heavy laden, of which there were six,
all prominent citizens, who officiated as pall-bearers.'
Thai's what I call slush." "What does he know
about writing?" demanded the funeral reporter.
Listen to his fire a minute : The flames burst out in
a common kitchen stove, and, rejoicing in their free-
dom, poured with a wild roar of laughter into the
adjoining room, used by Mr. O'Meara as a tailor's
shop. I.lp the side of the doorway they climbed,
shrieking with fiendish delight towards the reading-
rooms of Mr. Amos Thompson, when they were
checked by the gush of the engines, and dropped
affrighted through the floor into Antonelli's barber
establishment below.' "Call that sense?" "Cer-
tainly ! " defended the author. "That's what they did,
and wrote up the facts. Talk about writing! Look
at this: "The respect in which deceased was held was
testified by the energy displayed by the mourners in
their efforts to secure front seats. Long before the
hour appointed the house was crowded, and hundreds
were turned away. At the conclusion of the • cere-
mony the preacher announced that all who desired to
glance at the features of tLe dead party would please
step forward, and the scene that followed beggar's
description, while the'organ played a sad aria from
Offenbach's oratorio of Solomon.' What does that
mean?" "You just let it alone," defied the funeral
reporter. " ow's this : For hours the hissing
meter and the battling flames wrestled for the masterY•
At length the wearied mass of furious fire, with one
expiring effort, reached its blazing arms towards the
frowning zenith, and with a shudder of despair sank
before its hereditary foe. Loss 00. No insurance.
Call that reporting? I don't." "Don't, oh?" de'
manded the fire reporter.