The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-03-14 00:00:00

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m
wing of a,
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dim grey •
first cowl
kr, breaks

dalr. e

, but
It ix
the

Then,
morning light has overspread the sky, and the giant
city slowly .hakes off its slumbers and awakens to the
labour. of the day, the keeper of the stall gathers
together his stock in trads_And tindkr home, fur the,
'pAciwElch be occspies tiv.n the pavecent most be
op-n for the harrying clowd of foe' paesengers
who, eighteen tours out of the twenty.fottr, seldom.,
cease to weary of beatening to sn tto.

. -
▪ /We YAW- Olivia% a Troacm—Fave Iting been &tits-
Sing for an increase of remuneration, and they have
high hopes of the liberality of Lord John Manners, the
new l'oetmaster-General. I may add that in Switzer-
land, as Well as in Great Britain, the difficulty of re.
cruidng the postal etatf at the present rate of salary
has been acknowledged by the State. A proposition
for on increase to the extent of one-third has been car-
ried, MA the commission charged with the conduct of
the I-Leasure has issued a report which contains some
valuable suggestions, They admit the enormous ad-
vance in the prices of the necessaries of life, and main-
tain that the salaries of the lower grades should be
augmented to a greater extent than those of
the higher. The basis of calculation Is rather
• curious one. They reeommend that for all
employ& of medium rank the minimum of 'allay
should be just sufficient for the Nupport of a
fancily of five persons, with 5 per cent, over and above
to reeve as a seduce' fund." Swims ideas of the sum
which would be "just sufficient " for the maintenance
of • family are doubtless different from ours; still, the
principle, apart from ite particular application, is
deer r sing of notice.
Painful as the subject of the Indian famine mast
necessarily be, it may be hoped that the attention now
attracted towards that country may not be without its
results. Many are disposed to contend that India
needs only to be developed in order to her placed far
beyond the reach of sucl cialtatione in future. It is
urged that the true cause underlying these constantly-
recurring calamities is the poverty of the mares. in
times of plenty they can barely live; in days of
scarcity they must inevitably die. India hae, how.
ever, shown a growing disposition to supply her own
wants, for heretofore she has imported largely at con-
siderable cost the very articles which the possessed in
abundance. Lord Salisbury has told us that our true
policy in India is " peace and public works."
On all hands cotton factories are now tieing
to work up the raw material into substan-
tial clothes, while the railways are largely em.
ploying native instead of English coal. Again, the
Wane of China tea to the troops has been dboontinued
In favour of the native grown article. This will be
equally advantageous to our soldiers and to the Indian
tea producers. We know something in this country of
adulterated tea, and there is ne doubt that the pre-
paration which was formerly Issued as • part of the
soldier's daily rations was of a singolarly worthless
description. By the substitution of Assam for China
tea the cultivation of the former will be considerably
increased.

The morbid feeling of curiosity to visit any locality
which liss been suddenly brought into notoriety has
often been noticed by the papers, and I saw • re-
markable illustration of it a few days ago. Having
occasion to go from the new General Poet Office by
way of Newgste-etreet througk the Old Bailey into
Ludgate Hill, more than forty eight hours after the
Tichbornii Claimant had been lodged in the massive
prison which stands in the very centre of the city, my
gaze fell upon • little crowd gathered outside the
entrance to the governor's house, and as their looks
were directed towards the smoke begrimed castellated
walls, it was evident that the fat man within wee the
'object of conversation. I did not stop to listen to it,
but it was manifestly of a very earnest character. This
was on Monday night, and considering that the man
had been there since mid-day on Saturday, the fact
that a collection of persona was there so bug after the
conviction, struck me as being one of the moot singular
instances of metropolitan curiosity that it has ever
been my lot to meet with.