The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-07-30 00:00:00

SATURDAY, JULY 30, 1881

The Duke of Edinburgh, in proposing the toast of
"The Prosperity of the Dock," said he had no doubt
that this fine dock would tend greatly to increase the
commerce of that important port.

Prince 1-I.9nry said it must- greatly facilitate and en-
courage the commercial relations between this country
and his own.

'1 he Chairman, remarking that national wealth and
power was a temptation to others and a danger to
themselves, &aught the assistance of the Duke in pro-
moting the defence of the Firth of Forth, and in
getting a system of lighting the Firth.
About four o'clock the Prince drove to Edinburgh.
The Leith docks and streets were again lined by the
21st ti ussars, the 42nd Highlanders, and the local
volunteers. The Hussars furnished a mounted escort.
The streets were lined with spectators, who cheered
enthusiastically as the Royal party drove past. On
arriving in Edinburgh the Duke was received in the
Council Chambers by the magistrates and a select
company. The Lord Provost presented an address of
welcome to the city from which his Royal Highness
derives his title.

The Duke, in the course of his reply, expressed
regret at the absence of the Duchess, but reminded the
company that the regulations did not permit naval
officers to take their wives on a cruise with them.
(Laughter and cheers.) He congratulated himself
upon his good fortune in having been enabled, in com-
mand of the Reserve Squadron, to revisit the Firth of
Forth and the old city where many happy days of his
youth were passed. (Cheers.) The Duke then drove
to the Botanic Gardens, where he planted a Hun-
garian oak, ten feet high, and afterwards proceeded to
Leith.

His Royal Highness embarked about six o'clock,
and the squadron got under weigh at seven o'clock for
Portsmouth.

A RicH HAUL.—A couple of weeks ago Cornelius'
de Boer, a Volendam fisherman, was fishing for ancho-
vies in the Zuyder Zee. On drawing in +is nets,
he found entangled in them a large stony mass covered
with mussels. Had it been night-time he would have
certainly thrown it over board again. On inspection
he found the mass was mainly an aggregate of little
heaps cf coins, which examination proved to be mostly
silver pieces 450 in number. They were chiefly
ducatoons ; pieces,
were also a few Spanish and other
gold pieces. They were all dated between 1660 and
1680. There were also in the petrified mass some small
plates, sonic of them whole, some broken.

- .
AVERAGE PRICES OF BRITISH CORN.—The follow-
ing are the average prices of British corn for the week
ending July 23, as received from the inspectors and
officers of Excise :—Wheat, 465. 10d. ; barley, 275. 5d.;
oats, 233. 4d. per imperial qr. Corresponding week
last year :—Wheat, 435. 6d. ; barley, 275. id. ; oats,
265. 3d.

SUCCUMBED AT LAST.—A strange self-imposed fast
has been practised by a Trans atlantic invalid, who
had suffered agonising pain from neuralgia for years
past, and was determined to end her existence. For
over forty days she refused all food, except a little
water, which, in spite of Dr. Tanner's belief, did not
sustain life, and she at lastsuccumbecl, her friends and
relatives philosophioally agreeing that it was useless to
force her to take nourishment as she could easily find
out another mode of self-destruction.
THE AMERICAN WHEAT CROP.—The Chicago Times
says: "The loss in the West Cer.tral States, where
the greater part of the wheat of the country is grown,
cannot be made good by any exceptional productive-
ness. In other regions the corn promises an abundant
yield. From nearly all points come favourable reports
of oats and barley.'
THE INVENTOR OF THE PULLMAN CAR. A corre-
spondent writes to The Times :—"Mr. George M.
Pullman, the inventor of the Pullman car, is at pre-
sent on a visit to this country, accompanied by his
wife and family. Mr. Pullman, who has been on a
tour through Scotland, is at present residing in Edin-
burgh. It is well known that Mr. Pullman is the
possessor of great wealth, and he has recently founded
a city on the shores of Lake Calumet, near Chicago.,
which he proposes should be a model manufacturing
town, constructed in accordance with the most scien-
tific principles, and conducted in a manner equally
enlightened. This town, which already boasts a popu-
lation amounting to several thousands, is called after
the name of its founder, who has embarked no less a
sum than £450,000 in the enterprise."

DISEASE AMONGST HORSES IN BERLIN.—A con-
tagious disease of a febrile type has broken out among
the horses at Berlin. The disorder appeared here once
before, namely, during the war of 1871, and also in
America in 1873. The first case of the present out-
break occurred five weeks ago, and so rapidly has it
spread that the usual number of tramcars on the
Berlin routes hai had to be reduced. It is supposed
that the disease has been brought into the country by
horses imported from Russia. Fatal cases are rare.
THE LABOUR MARKET.—During the past week
some large orders have been received in several of the
large staple trades, which with the prospects of a good
harvests have had a cheering effect on the labour
market. The dividends for the past six months on
our large railways are also of a satisfactory character,
and clearly indicate a steady improvement in trade.
In the coal districts business is dull. There is a
steady- improvement in the iron and steel trades, the
ship building branhces of these industries being parti-
cularly busy. The engineering trades are active.
The orders from foreign countries lately received will
still further improve matters. Boot and shoe and
lace and hosiery manufacturers are doing a fair,
amount of business. In the building, printing,
engineering, and miscellaneous industries of London
business is generally good, and employment for work-
men and labourers plentiful.

TORPEDO EXPERIMETS IN AUSTRIA.—An interest-
ing series of experiments has been going on recently
at the Austrian naval Dort of Pole. The result is
regarded as highly satisfactory, and has determined
the naval authorities to retain the fish torpedoes,
which were originally adopted. In the final experi-
ment a torpedo was fastened to a stake ten to twelve
feet long, and extended from the ship's bows so as to
touch the hostile ironclad vessel below the armour.
The torpedo, exploding by contact, was completely
successful in sinking the vessel attacked. The torpedo
boat itself is in this system certain to be destroyed if
laden and equipped with a crew. The boat employed
in the experiment had a large hole blown in the side,
but did not sink, only because it was empty, and
was during the trial guided from a distance by a
rope.

DISASTERS AT SEA. —There were 32 British and
foreign wrecks, of which 18 were British, two being
steamers, reported during the past week, making a
total of 984 for the present year, or an increase of 238,
as compared with the corresponding period of last
year. The approximate value of property lost was
£3,200,000, including British £1,700,000. Twenty
vessels were lost off the coasts of the United Kingdom,
including 11 fishing boats off the Shetlands, with the
loss of 63 men. Three vessels sank by collision.

FIRST AND LAST.—Bret Harte's first poetic " frag-
ment " commenced in these words—" I sipped the
nectar of her lips; I sipped and hovered o'er her."
And the last two lines were as follows—" Her father's
hoof flashed on the scene. I'm wiser now and
sorer.'

THE PARTRIDGES.—The reports of the prospects of
sport on the Ist of September are cheering. There
was a sufficient stock of birds left last spring, and the
hatching season was unusually favourable, a great
contrast to the two previous years, when a great
many young birds were drowned by the heavy rains
and nests addled. Since the hatching, too, the weather
has well suited the birds, and the hay cutting being
late, few nests were cut out in the mowing. The
coveys, therefore, as far as they have been seen, are
large. It has also been a good time for ground game
breeding, and hares and rabbits are more numerous
than before the Ground Game Act was passed. Young
pheasants can fly well already.
"PUDDING ENDS."—Here is an old sailing-ship yarn
about a rollypoly pudding. There was only one
passenger on board the vessel, who took his mealn in
the after-cabin with the captain and mate, and who
always suspected—mot without reason, it may be—
that those two worthies defrauded him of his due
share of the eatables when they got the chance. One
day a jam pudding or rollypoly appeared at dinner,
just enough for three; and the passenger, who had a
sweet tooth, was instantly on the alert to see that he
got his fair and proper third. "Mr.--, do you like
puddin'-ends, sir ?" the captain asked, with his knife
poised in air ready to cut the delicacy. "No: I do
not like ends, sir,' replied the passenger, who con-
sidered he had as much right to the middle slice as any
one else. " Ah, well, then, me and my mate does !"
was the gallant commander's observation, as he cut
the pudding in two and deposited half on the mate's
plate and half on his own.
A NEW BALLOT Box.—A new ballot box has just
been submitted to the French Government. .It has
two locks, each opening with a different key, and an
apparatus which clips a stub or corner from the ticket
deposited by the elector, and drops the stub into one
part of the box, the ticket going into the other division.
Simultaneously the machine registers on a tablet be-
fore the voter the number of tickets clipped. The
ballots must agree in number with the stubs, and both
with the "tell-tale," and the voter sees for himself that
his ballot.has been cast and taken account of.

A ROYAL SCAPEGOAT.—A Royal scapegoat is a
curious Travancore institution. When the late
Maharaiah was at the point of death, it was neces-
sary before His Highness left this world of sorrows
that his sins should be laid upon somebody else's
shoulders. Accordingly a man was procured to act as
a Royal scapegoat for the consideration of £.500.
When the ceremony was completed (an Indian paper
says) the dying Maharajah felt much relieved, and
tenderly embraced his benefactor. The man-scape-
goat, however, was not allowed to remain in the
country. He was carried to Tinnevelly, and ordered
never to return.

KILLED ON THE RAILWAY.—ShortIy before mid-
night on Saturday a shocking accident occurred to the
Rev. John Povah, Wesleyan minister, of Ely, Cam-
bridgeshire. He got into a train at Peterborough for
Ely. The train left the station for a few minutes to
allow another to pass out, and on being shunted back
again the door of the carriage entered by the deceased
was found to be open and the carriage unoccupied.
Before the train was started, search was made for the
eleceased, but without success. Later on, however,
the body of the rev, gentleman was found, terribly
mangled, a short distance from the station, having
been run over by two trains. The deceased leaves a
widow and three chiidren.—An inquest has been held
at Peterborough, when it was found that the occur-
rence was purely accidental, and a verdict was returned
accordingly. The deceased was 30 years of age, and
was well known and much respected in the district.
Mr. Povah was on his way to the Conference at
Liverpool when the acciclent occurred.

THE SPEED OF THOUGHT. —Engineering says :
Helmholtz showed that a wave of thought would re-
quire about a minute to traverse a mile of nerve, and
Hirsch found that a touch on the face was recognised
by the brain, and responded to by a manual signal in
the seventh of a second. He also found that the speed
of sense differed for different organs, the sense of hear-
ing being responded to in a sixth of a second; while
that of sight required only one-fifth of a second to be
felt and signalled. In all these cases the distance
traversed was about the same, so the inference is
that images travel more slowly than sounds or
touch. It still remained, however, to show the
portion of this interval taken up by the action
of the brain. Professor Dondtrs, by very
delicate apparatus, has demonstrated this to be
about seventy-five thousandths of a second. Of the
whole interval forty thousandths are occupied in the
simple act of recognition, and thirty-five thousandths
for the act of willing a response. When two irritants
were caused to operate on the same sense one twenty-
fifth of a second was required for the person to recog-
nise which was the first; but a slightly longer interval
was required to determine the priority in the case of
the other senses. These results were obtained from a
middle-aged man, but in youths the mental operations
are somewhat quicker than in the adult. The average
of many experiments proved that a simple thought
occupies one-fortieth of a second.
THE SETTER SPOILED.—A story with a moral comes
from the south shore, and is vouched for as true (says
the Court Journal). A gentleman had a fine English
setter of which he made use in the hunting expeditions
and of which he was very fond, finding the dog always
alert, reliable and well trained. One day, however,
the family received an addition in the shape of a parrot,
brought over seas by the sailor son of the housekeeper.
When first the setter came into the housekeeper's
room, he stopped at the doorway and pointed at the
gay bird perched on the outside of its cage at the other
end of the room. The parrot, not at all daunted by
the dog's professional attitude, left its place and came
mincing across the room "with many a flirt and
flutter," and squared itself in front of the setter. The
two confrouted each other for a second, and then the
bird remarked impressively, "You're a rascal 1" The
dog was for a second transfixed with horror at the un-
precedented phenomenon of a speaking bird; then his
tail sunk between his legs, and be slunk away. But
from that day a valuable dog was spoiled, for the setter
would never point again.