The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-08-24 00:00:00

STRIKE AGAINST STRIKE.

The late strikes having in the majority of cases
endd di,amtrouhly for the men on strike, it would
appear that many workmen have become disgusted,
anti are taking measures to prevent similar occurrences
in the future (says the New York Daily Bulletin). In
this regard the coopers seem to be pai Ocularly deter-
mined. as it is represented that most of the men of this
trade were coerced into striking by the Trades' Unions.
The Union is now looked upon with but little favour,
and many of the members have resigned. When the
men struck many of the employers rnfused to make any
'compromise at all, and when the men were willing
to return work was refused them until they left the
Unions. Under these circumstances many of the prin-
cipal establishments in the city became non-society
shops, and every effort was made to keep all Unionists
out. In one of these shops several society men found
employment by nieans of misrepresentations, and
immediately art to work to convin -e the other men
of the benefit of the Union and induce them to become
members. Some six men in this shop were thus led
away by means of threats and porous ions, and a time
was appointed for their initiation. The owners of the
establishment heard of the matter about this time, and
immediately told the men that the moment they joined
the society they should leave the shop. The non-society
men applauded this resolution, and a committee of them
waited upon their employers and stated that all the
men would strike immediately if the society men and
those intending to join the society were not instantly
discharged. The men were discharged, and their
places tilled with non-Unionbta. This is turning the
tal des with a vengeance, and it is said to have occurred
in as many as six ehops. As a reason for it the men
state that that the action of the Unions is necessarily
arbitrary and tyrannical, and that, as they are the best
judges of what prices they shall receive and how long
they shall work, they purpoee to attend to their own
business for the future. _

The late strike, however, had nothing at all to do
with either prices or hours. but was simply brought
about to prove who governed the shope, the employers
or the men. One firm had the temerity to order their
men to put a number on each piece of work, that they
might know what each man did. The men considered
this pal ingement upon their rights, and refused to do it,
and, an the firm insi4ed, they struck. In order to force
the firm to their terms they compelled the men in all the
•.

other sh,ps to quit, and thus several thousand men were
thrown out of employment to aid a matter in which
they bad no interest whatever. Such arbitary inter-
ference the men are determined to resist, not being
willing to allow any society to dictate where they shall
or where they shall not work. Among the coopers
this spirit is sprewline, and it is quite possible that in
a few months thaw who adhere to the Unions will be
unable to find employment.

CUTTINGS FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.
The Dolly Varden Revellera lathe name of a New
Orleans society.

Clergyman lye oat my portmanteau. Traveller:
I pity your grief. Clerg)man : All my sermons are In It.
Traveller I pity the thief.
The account of a recent drowning accident says of
the two victims, that "one was mulled, and the other had
just returned from sea." From this we Infer that each rests
In peacetat the close of a stormy life.
An Indiana town has the following dog ordinance:—
:: It igs that are not collared and labelled, no matter how re-
spectably eLnneeted, will have their narrative amputated
one inch so4th of their ears."
Horace Greeley wrote :—" Women now manage
most of the public companies in Massachusetts," the COM-
111LCU 14 Wunten now worry moss oxSusie puuuc
babies by mastics:lion."
A Long Branch beauty was recently weighed in her
promenade cestume and turned the scales at one hundred
and aixty-live pounds. In her bathing dress she weighs one
hundred and flve pounds.
Au exchange nays—"Othkosh, Wig., claims a baby
born without brains It rays—" Lucky infant mas i" We
can now point to • living precedent. No doubt our exchange
can, arid the baby can point to the exchange. The exchange
asks If it was a lady baby.
The American Poet Laureate hail pothooked the fol-
ios ing alter-dinner thought Oh, kittens, In our hours of
ease, uncertain toys and lull of fleas, when pain and anguish
bang o'er men, we turn you into sausage then."

A coloured gentleman named l'eter (tax, of the ripe
age of 101, was married in Prooklyn on the 27th ult., to Lucy
Green, a spinster of 60. The match was a love one, and that
at first right. If a second eight were triter), she might have
got to he too old. Time presses at 101.
A FINE SATING —The following in it fine saying of
Madden, in his nook on the West mutes "human bature
Is pretty much the prime in all countrit s ; and, as far as my
expert rite goes, bathe various parts of the globe, complexion
has as little to do with its yearnings, its failings, or de
flo,st traits, as clime or creed." It may he a flue saying for.
but it is hardly likely to I. litter*o by a nlna of
setae. The fine tmtts of COltic of the riai kies that could be
, mentioned, lilt were not a little personal to the race, would
look rather Ilack In comparison.
NOT err Cry or A Porr.—The Corinne Reporter
thus speaks of the great American Poet Laureate :—"Tilts
genius and scion of the melan-holy muse was a passenger on
the exprese going Ilast front here this morning. A glimpse
at him aceourted in tangled, unkempt hair, and habiliments
of feudal cut, to say nothing of his general get-up, upsets
many of the romantic notions which we have enjoyed con-
cerning him anti his disjointed glory. llow such mortal
ugliness could be found to flux with the sweetness of pony
puulea the will, and makes us wish that we had escaped the
escruciating ag ,ny of looking upon the aeltrieirg ryhmester.
We hope never to look upon himself or his like again. Good-
bye. 110 Emit and ride your Pegasus through the corn-lielde.
From and afterthls date we'll write our own poetry."
A HOUSE WARMING.—A San Francisco paper says
the house kept by one Iliss Annie Woodward, at the corner
of Pineetreet and Qulnerplace, was wrecked by the en-
pleston of a torpedo, thrown into the hall at midnight, whif
the parlours were filed with company. No person was in-
jured, but the doors and windows were thrown half-way
across the street, and the furnittire WAG ruined. It was a
house-warming that was going on
SERVE HIM RIG/TT very melancholy story is
told by an AmefiClllo newspaper. In referring to the "rascal
fate of a discoverer,' the Virginia Enterprise tells how an
Italian organgrinder was scalped, killed and eaten '• tribe
of Indiana. They kept his organ, and the chief had it Gm.
tintutily grinding in front of his hut. It played nothing but
"Yankee Doo,•le." without any variation. At last an Indian
of an inquiring disposition was appointed to turn It, and he
tried the effect of shifting the stop. To the oonsternation
of the whole tribe the organ set off with the tune of "Pop
Goes the Weasel." The old chief listened for a moment.
seized his tomahawk, and with a fierce yell brained the dis-
coverer of the new tune on the spot.

A