The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-10-01 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

At the Royal Academy of Music on Saturday, Pro.
fessor Sir G. Macfarrysp, principal of the institution,
delivered an address on the study of music, the
occasion being the inauguration of the new academic
tear.
Two of the blocks of Winchmore Hospital were
opened on Saturday for the reception of convalescent
fever patients.
The "Citizen's Gazette" of Hamburg has been
suppressed by the police on account of an srticle on
the Irish Question headed in English words, "Force is
no Remedy." The reason assigned is that the article
indirectly incites the Socialists to violence,
A telegram from a Cairo correspondent states that
the Nile was stationary on Saturday, but rose an inch
on Sunday.
The Crown Prince of Germany has been obliged to
leave Toblach in consequence of the sudden setting in
of cold weather. His throat has lately been examined
again by Sir Morel! Mackenzie, who reports that satis.
factory progress is still taking place.
Queen Christina has not been well received in the
South of Spain, where the partisans of Don Carlos are
most numerous. In Paris there are rumours of the
probability of a fresh Carlist rising.

- Sir William Vernon Guise, Bart., of Elmore Court,
GI ucester, died on Saturday morning, at the age of
72. He was a well-known geologist and antiquary, and
was the founder of the Gloucestershire Archmlogical
Society. He also took an active part in politics on the
Liberal side in his owe county.
The interment of Lady Houghton took place ors,
Saturday morning, in a vault which had been specially
consecrated by Dr. Stubbs, Bishop of Chester, in
Barthomley Churchyard, which is adjacent to Crewe
Hall. Among those who attended were Lord Hough-
ton, Lord Crewe, and many members of the family.
The coffin bore the inscription—" Sybil Marcia, Lady
Houghton, born July 23, 1857; died September 19,
1887."

_
Sir Edward Birkbeck has received the following
letter from Lord Salisbury: "Foreign Office.—Sir.---I
am directed by the Marquis of Salisbury to acknow-
ledge the receipt of your letter regarding the sluggers.
tion that trawlers should fish by day and drift net men
by night, and, in reply, I am to state that the Belgian
Government have made the suggestion to her Majesty's
Minister at Brussels, and that it has been referred to
the Board of Trade of Trade for oonsideretiou,—l am,
sir, yours, &rt., P. NV, Ornmi,"

A Madrid correspondent, telegraptung witn respect
to the Spanish expedition against the island of Ponape
in the Carolines, says that the press of the capital very
imperially admits that the over-zealous Colonial
authorities brought on the agitation among the natives
by molesting a long-established and peaceful Protestant
community.
A discussion took place at the Registration Court,
South Kensington, on Tuesday, in reference to a
number of fake lodger claims, and the Revising Bar—
rister, remarking that the practice of making false
claims wa • not a new one in that and an adjoining
district, said that if it occurred again he would deal
with the matter in a summary way. During the
revision at Whitechapel the alien question arose. Mr.
Hall, who appeared for the Liberals, condemned the
system of spying that prevailed, and recommended
persons supposed to be aliens to give no information to
canvassers.

According to the report of the RegistraroGeneral,
the death.rate of London decreased last week to 14.4,
which was lower than in any week for the past two
years. Of the 1164 deaths, 38 were from scarlet fever,
being three below the average of the last 10 years. In
the Outer Ring there were 1468 deaths, of which four
were from scarlet fever.

A Chinese transport has been lost on the Peseardoes
Islands, together with over 300 soldiers. The English
captain and all the ship's officers were drowned, except
one. _ _ .

George Smart, described as a clerk, was on Tuesday,
at the Mary lebone Police-court, committed for trial,
charged with stealing three billiard balls from the
Coachmakers' Arms Tavern, Marylebone-lane.
At the London Guildhall Polloe•court on Tuesday,
Edwin Stockdale, described as the managing director
of the Essex Printing and Publishing Company, was
summoned to answer a charge of having obtained
goods from Mr. J. Essen, printers' engineer, by alleged
false representations. Evidence was given, and the
further hearing of the case adjourned, the defendant
being realeased on his own recognisances of £lOO.
At 20 minutes past six on Tuesday morning the
residents of Lewisham were alarmed by the noise of an
explosion coming from the direction of High•street.
On inquiry it was found that the boiler of the Dover
train, which left Charing-cross at 5,45 a.m., had burst
whilst the train was approaching the viaduct which
crosses the High•street. The dome of the engine,
weighing *wt., was blown into the air with terrific
violence, and fell into the grounds of the Lewisham
Conservative Club, adjoining the line, where it buried
Itself in the earth. The boiler plates and rivets were
also damaged. The stoker escaped uninjured. The
train ran some distance before stopping, but precautions
were taken to prevent an accident. Another engine
was procured from Grove Park. and the train proceeded
to Dover. Traffic was not interrupted.
At an adjourned inquest at Exeter on Tuesday, into
the death of Mrs. Coombes, another victim of the
theatre fire, the same verdict was returned as in the
previous oases. One of the jurymen expressed his
satisfaction that the summons which had been taken
out against the lessee of the theatre for an alleged
breach of the regulations had been withdrawn, and
another informed the Coroner that the jury were
unanimous in their belief that no blame was to be
attached to the lessee or the manager, and said that
but for an oversight, such an expression of their opinion
would have been added to their original verdict. The
hospital surgeon reports that there are six patients
now remaining in the hospital, and it is to be boped
they will speedily recover.
Three more of the lads who absconded from the
Akbar have been arrested and brought before the
Liverpool stipendiary magistrate, who remanded them.
One of the boys, Sharpe, was charged with breaking
into the captain's cabin and stealing jewellery, and also
with absconding, and the others were charged only with
absconding. Evidence was given to the effect that
Sharpe asked another lad to mind some bracelets and
other things, which he said he had found, but which
had been stolen from the captain's cabin.
At Blackburn on Tuesday, George King, (30, was
remanded on a charge of embezzling moneys belonging
to the Blackburn Corporation, whilst in their employ
as district rate collector. The prisoner, who has been
in the employ of the Corporation for thirty years, is
alleged to have stated that he had not been " straight"
for years, and an examination of his books is now being
made. The_ irregularities are stated to date back four
y ear 3.
A serious accident occurred on Tuesday afternoon
at ttAalambrm Iron Works, Coatbridge, the property
of &LI.- re. Merry and Ounninghame. A pug engine was
being used in the shunting of a number of waggons
within the works, when it exploded and seriously in-
jured three men and a telegraph boy. The injured
were conveyed by the ambulance waggon to the
Glasgow Infirmary, where the life of one of them is
despaired of.
Mr. H. F. Dickens, Revising Barrister, has dis-
allowed the claims of the sergeants of the 3rd and 4th
Militia Battalions of the West Kent Regiment, on the
ground that by removal to Shorncliffe for 23 days'
training they broke their residence, and were thus
disqualified.
A fatal case of poisoning by mushrooms is reported
from Bexley, Kent. A stockman named Danes, in the
employ of. Major Best, gathered and ate by mistake
some of the variety known as " horse " mushrooms,
which contain properties of a poisonous character.
The " Gazette " announces that the Queen has been
pleased to give directions for the following appoint-
ment to the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael
and St. George: To be an Ordinary Member of the
Third Class or Companions of the said Most Distin•
guished Order—Major Francis Arthur Marindin, RE.,
for services rendered in connection with the railways
in Egypt.
Mrs. Reginald Smith met with a serious accident
while out cub hunting with the Hertfordshire hounds
on Monday. The meet was on Tewin Green. In
taking a fence Mrs. Smith was thrown, and dragged
some distance by her horse. Her arm was broken,
and she was severely shaken. Mrs. Smith is a daughter
of Sir H. Holland, M.P.
It is officially announced that the Queen has nomi-
nated Professor Sir George H. B. Macleod, Knt., M.D.,
Surgeon in Ordinary to the Queen in Saotland, to be,
for five years, a Member of the General Council of
Medical Education and Registration of the United
Kingdom for Scotland, in the place of Dr. Andrew
Fergus, deceased.
The date of the visit of the Channel Fleet to Scar-
borough has been fixed for October 14, and it is stated
that Admiral Hewett has given permission to fifty
officers to attend a ball in honour of their visit, to be
given by the Earl of Londesborough and the leading
inhabitants of the borough.
It having been decided to reduce the strength of the
Army Medical Department serving with the Army of
Occupation in Egypt, Drs. Mitchell, Lingard, and Lucas
will come to England. A further reduction will be
made ear y next month.
The Lord Provost of Edinburgh has received a letter
from the Treasury to the effect that her Majesty has
been plea.ed to sanction a grant of a Civil List pension
of £lOO per annum to Sir John Steell, in recognition
of his erninerce as a sculptor.

A. fete in connection with the Dartmouth Habitation
of the Primrose League was held on Saturday at Pat.
shall, the Staffordshire seat of the Earl of Dartmouth.
A beautiful banner, the gift of Lady Frances Legge,
Irci a presented on behalf of the Countess of Bradford
to the Habitation. Lord Dartmouth, who presided,
said there never was a time when the members of the
Conservative party had to bear more obloquy, insult,
and slander than at present. Colonel K. Blaney, M.P.,
replied to a vote of confidence in the Government.
The police of the Harlesden division had their
attention called the other day to the bodies of two men
discovered on a brick-kiln near there, dead. On their
being reateved from off the top of the burning kiln,
where they had no doubt climbed the previous night to
sleep, it was found that they had been dead for several
hours, and that death hsd resulted from the effects of
suffocation caused by the fames from the burning
bricks. The bodies of the men were removed to North
Hyde, Heston, near Harlesden, to await an inquest.
Intimation was on Saturday given that the Home
Secretary had reduced the sentence on Dick Johnson,
the giant cowboy, for assault, from six to two months,
on the understanding that the prisoner entered into
recognisatices to be of good behaviour for a year.
• There has been a large catch of mackerel, and fish
has been very cheap at Ramsgate. The price was at
first l Os. per 100, but as fresh boats arrived it soon
dropped to 45., at which price the bulk of the fish was
sold. Her Majesty's gunboat Avon, which has been
cruising in the North Sea for the protection of the
herring and mackerel fisheries, came into port the
other afternoon, and excited much curiosity among the
visitors.
The death is announced of Mr. J. R. Payne, head of
one of the oldest and most respectable firms of
solicitors in Manchester. The deceased gentleman,
who was an active supporter of local cricket and foot-
ball, met with a slight accilent on a bowling-green in
July, but no serious results were anticipated until a
short time before his death, which occurred somewhat
suddenly. One of his sons is Mr. J. H. Payne, the
International football player and county cricketer.
A shocking accident has occurred at Eaton, Leicester-
shire. Joseph W. Welbourne, aged twenty, employed
at the Ironstone Works at that place, had excavated
the soil for some length, leaving a top crust five feet
thick, which was supported by props. As the work
progressed the supports were shifted, with the result
that eleven cwts. of earth fell at the feet of the youth.
The shock knocked him down a distance of seven feet,
on to some rails, and when picked up he was quite dead,
his neck having been broken.
The vessels of the Channel Squadron at Kirkwall
were opened to the public the other day, with the excep-
tion of the VI inotaur and Agincourt, which were coaling.
The war ships were visited by hundreds ot people. The
Iron Duke was engaged in big gun firing in the morning
and torpedo practice in the afternoon. Torpedoes were
thrown from a launch, and skimmed along the water
with great rapidity.
An accident occurred on the Great Northern Railway
at Spalding the other afternoon, which caused con—
siderable trouble. As a goods train was passing
through the station the spring of one of the waggons
snapped, and a number of them left the metals before
the train could be stopped. The line to Bourn was
blocked, but was cleared in about two hours sufficiently
to allow the ordinary train at 5.30 to proceed A
break-down gang arrived from Peterborough, and the
line was placed in proper working order by eight
o'clock. Very little damage was done to the rolliog
stock Or the permanent way.
The number of actual shipwrecks reported last week
decreased to 26, compared with the previous week.
Twelve were British vessels. Off the United Kingdom
two British steamers, two British sailers, and one
Italian sailer went down. Collision cases decreased to
19, of which number two large foreign sailers sank by
collision. Colliaion cases off the United Kingdom
decreased to nine. Six vessels were reported abandoned
at sea, and four destroyed by fire. A Liverpool sailer
was announced lost with all hands. Total wrecks for
the present year now number 968. Total lives lost in
all bottoms for present year, 1969.
At the annual Conference of the Manchester and
Salford Licensed Victuallers'penthesuppressingeAvseasrlonl cmibaoet
bogus
: Without ac lu
b s resolutiono delay
e nl any.
sinfgoru
atßilnr.Leßnidshenopt,hewyhwo
ceavrisreiedmecaalnl
wtoasd
resolution,licensed
hr
end' etsh emreolviedteratlhlye
surrounded by these clubs, and that efforts to pro-
mote legislation for dealing with them had hitherto
been futile. They had had bjlla framed with a view
of !heir being introduced into the House of Commons,
but unfortunately they had tno succeeded in get.
tine members to back them,

SATURDAY, OCT. 1, 1887.

A fire occurred on Sunday night on the Vineen.t
Farm, in the Isle of Thanet, belonging to the Marquis
Conyngham, and in the occupation of Mr. Basil Hodges
an East Kent agriculturist. The fire extended witp
amazing rapidity, and was not extinguished until
Monday afternoon. The live stock was rescued, but
nearly the whole of the agricultural produce was
destroyed, including several large corn stacks and tons
of newly-thrashed grain. The range of farm buildings,
which had only been erected a few years, was burned
to the ground. The total damage is estimated at about
eight thousand pounds. The fire is supposed to have
been caused by a lighted match being thrown on to a
corn stack by some one passing along the road. Through
the exertions of the Margate Fire Brigade the residence
was saved, though it narrowly escaped the fire. The
property was insured, but the occupier will sustain a
heavy loss, as almost the entire produce of his year's
farming has been swept away.
Fifty-four persons were summoned before the
county magistrates at Liverpool on Monday for allow-
ing dogs to be at large, and fines amounting in the
aggregate to £33 were inflicted. The magistrates
granted an extension of the order for keeping dogs
confined till the end of October.
Earl Percy laid the dedication stone of tho new
Church of St. John the Baptist, at Lower Oaversharn,
on Saturday, in the presence of a large assemblage.
Prior to performing the ceremony his lordship delivered
an address, in which, after excusing his presen -e
amongst them as an entire stranger, on the grounds
of his old College friendship with the vicar (the Rev.
A. E. Molineux), he dwelt upon the hostility and
rough dealing which the Church of England had en-
countered of late years from various quarters, a hos-
tility which, nevertheless, had served only to awaken
in a remarkable degree her latent powers and energies.
At the close of the proceedings the vicar presented
his lordship with a silver trowel, on behalf of the
Building Committee, as a memento of the occasion.
A village publican named Brickenden appeared to a
summons at Canterbury on Monday for illegally selling
beer in a hop garden. The defendant, it appeared,
took a quantity of beer into a hop garden and sold it
to the pickers, who were being paid off. For the defence
It was stated that for the last 30 years it had been the
custom to sell beer in this way, and the defendant
pleaded that be was unaware of the practice being
illegal. The Bench held that the defendant must have
known he was breaking the law, and that he had acted
very wrongly in selling beer to hoppickers just as they
were being paid for their work, as it might have led to
b serious disturbance. They imposed a fine of Ll and
the costs.
Much astonishment was expressed in Blackburn on
Monday night when it became known that Mr. G. S.
King, a district rate collector, had been arrested by
the police on a charge of embezzling Corporation funds.
Owing to suspicious irregularities in his books the
Finance Committee wore hastily called together, and
as a result of their meeting Mr. King was taken into
custody. The defalcations are said to amount to
several hundred pounds. He is a prominent member of
one of the dissenting chapels in the town, and has
been in the service of the Corporation for 30 years..

_
Orders were issued from the War Office on Blondsy
for the military forces at Portsmouth to engage in
operations, in concert with the Royal Navy, from the
12th to the 22nd of October, of a similar character to
those carried out by the army and navy last year at
Milford Haven. The work will take place in Langston
Harbour, between Portsea and Hayling Islands, and
will include the attack and defence of fortified pool.
lions by submarine mining and other means. Major.
General H. A. Smyth, R.A., will again be the Military
Umpire.
The Lords of the Admiralty, who arrived at Porn.
broke Dock in their yacht Enchantress on Sunday,
landed on Monday at the dockyard, a guard of honour
being formed from the Worcester Regiment, and the
usual salute given. Their lordships visited the sever..l
vessels under construction u well as the various de-
partments of the dockyards. They returned to London
by train.
At a meeting of the Walsall Conservatives on Monday
night, a letter was read from Lord Randolph Churchill,
accepting the presidency of the Walsall Conservative
Working Men's Club, and stating that ho hopes to be
able some day to pay a visit to Walsall, but at present
it is out of his power to suggest any definite time on
account of other engagements.
A widely-supported movement is on foot, to cele.
brate, in November of next year, the bicentenary of the
landing of 'VI, illiam of Orange, at Brisham, Devon-
shire. A committee of arrangement has already been
formed at Brixham, and it is proposed to establish
another in London.

The Bishop of gOuthwell has appointed Mr. A. B.
Kempe, of the Western Circuit, to the Chancellorship
of the Diocese, which has become vacant by the
elevation of Mr. Justice Charles to the Bench. Mr.
Kempe, who was Secretary to the Royal Commission
on the Ecclesiastical Court, also holds the office of
C-loncellor of Newcastle.
The Commander-in-Chief on Monday gave his
sanction for an important innovation in the off.parade
dres of the Foot Guards. The custom of wearing the
bearskin headdress OD Sundays when qaartered in
London and Windsor is to be broken, and the men will
be allowed to wear their forage caps as other troops do.
Mr. S. Storey, M.P., has received a letter from Sir
George Trevels an announcing that he will be pleased
to attend a political meeting at Sunderland and deliver
a speed. The probable date of the gathering is
December 12th.

Four Englishmen have been captured by brigands
near Sul's' rna. The English Ambassador has been
requested not to send troops in pursuit lest the lives of
the captives should be sacrificed.
On Monday the Health Congress was opened at
Vienna by the Crown Prince Rudolph. The ceremony
was attended by the unusually large number of 2250
members, among which were included many distin-
guished men of science from all parts of Europe.
Giving evidence at the Bow-street Police court on
Monday against persons charged with soliciting and
assaulting Mr. Wells, when going from the Strand to
Russell-square, a policeman declared that solicitation
was now boing carried on in London with the greatest
impunity. The magistrate replied that that was not
to be wondered at, since constables could not arrest
women unless they were given into custody by the
per son solicited.
Rumours are current in the lobby of the French
Chamber to the effect that M. Grevy intends to resign.
The anxiety consequent on the frontier troubles with
Germany, in conjunction with the unsettled state of
home politics, has had a disturbing effect on his general
he‘lth. M. Emanuel Arago, French Minister at Berne,
is spoken of ai his successor.

In revising the list of voters for South Kensington
on Monday, Mr 0..1. Williamson heard arguments in
support of a claim that 10 of the police attached to
the "section house" of the station in High-street
were entitled to vote on the property qualification.
Intimately the claim was allowed.

A deplorable dro Pining fatality occurred at Accrington
on Saturday afternoon, two lives being lost. A number
of girls were playing on the bank of a mill lo'ge, when
one of them, named Marsden, four years of age, fell
in. A man named Hughes, a railway carpenter, jumped
In to rescue her, but after a brief struggle both he and
the child were drowned.

A singular occurrence is reported at Tankerton
Beach, Whitstable. A party of visitors were seated
in one of the tea booths, when they heard a report as
of a cannon, followed prepently by another. The latter
proved to be attended with the arrival of a missle in
the little toy bazaar close to the railway leading to the
railway station. Several of the articles exhibited for
sale were smashed, and the flying debris struck the
young person in attendance upon the side of the face
with such violence as to cause blood to flow freely.
The ball is supposed t 3 have been fired from a small
cannon in the grounds of Tankerton Castle.
Five members of a family named Harris, residing at
Maids Vale, appeared before the Marylebone magis•
trate on Saturday to answer a charge of assaulting a
detective-sergeant who had gone to their house to effect
an arrest. It was submitted that three of the de.
fondants— ladies—had acted under the impression that
a person had wrongfully got into the house, and they
were bound over to keep the peace. The twe male
defendatts were fined k,th and £5 respectively, with
the alternati,e of imprisonment.
A telegram prom Walton•on•Naze states that a pilot
cutter reported to the Sunk light vessel that a French
fishing boat has been lost on the Long Sands, and 15
hands drowned; five saved.