The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-08-02 00:00:00

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UM* "UMW. Wtl .ILI Correspondent's ..,pinional

Although there is perceptible diminution in the
gaitivs of the metropolis', the London wawa In evidently
dying hard. One of the most brilliant assemblages of the
peat few monthe was, that at the garden party given by
the Prince and Princes. of Wales at Chiswick on One
of the closing days of July. Amonget the distinguished
guests were the Czarewitch and the Cze.revna, who
have been making a stay of several weeks at Marl-
borongli House; Prince and Princees Christian, who
are shout to pay a visit to the Hague ; the Duke of
ranibridge, the Duehrere id Cambridge, the Grand
Dir,dx,are nf btecklrulurgh-litrelitz, and the Duke and
Duchess of Tech. Princess Lonnie and Princess
Beatrice were unable to join the company, for they
were, with the Queen, enjoying the pea breezes at
Osborne. It wee, as may well be supposed, a magnifi-
cent affair, for Chiswick is a lovely spot, 1412,1 the
Prince of Wales's gardens stretch down to the very
bank if the river, vi here the stream is comparatively
clear and freefrom the traffic which is its characteristic
on • nexrer approach to London.
The fierce heat which so suddenly burst upon us
last week found the inhabitants of the capital, as well
as those of taler plates, utterly unprepared for it.
Not more than 4ix Or seven weeks have el .pied since
we were shivering under the effecin of cold north-east
winds, and when winter wraps and great costa entirely
en
pip sede thy lighter garments which we area :cuetotned
to &won ate with the cheerful time of summer. All at
onus we seemed to have been borne from the frigid
Into the torrid zone as if in a single bound. Tues-
day, the 72nd of July, wits the hottest day which
has been experienced in London for • very long
time. The sky appeared as though it were an
Immense sheet of burnished brass, outstretched over
• vent population sweltering from the tropical
hest of the sun. The glorious luminary of the
day, whose beams in spring time are eo welcome, was
now pitiless in his attentions, and sent down his vertical
rays unchecked by a cloud or =tempered by a breeze.
At night it was difficult, if not impossible, to sleep,
and even in the neighbourhood of the river, where
there is generally a current moving and purifying the
atmoephere, the ale wan still, hot, and oppressive.
Next day, however, there was some relief, foe the
heavy thunder storms which broke over the north of
England had an undoubted effect for hundreds of miles
around. They let in • rush of cooler air, and how
grateful was this to the people of perspiring London
can be best appreciated by those who went through
such a day. The thick mist that had arisen as the
result of the fervent blaze slowly disappeared, and as
the welcome breeze passed over the great city, there
was a universal feeling of thankfulness that for the
time the visitation was at an end.

The hletro,olitan Hospital Sunday Fund has now
been distributed, and the Lord Mayor, who presided
at the final meeting of the Council, expressed his
satisfaction at the sum which had been gathered. It
exceeded £27,ooo—an amount which hie lordship
looked forward to seeing doubled next year. The
principles which guided the distribution of the Fund
came in for some criticism. It was, for instance,
pointed out that a Dopensary in Holloway, which
received on an averarze VOO a year from collections in
the local churches and chapels, had £3B only allotted
to it out of the Hospital Sunday Fund. One of the
managers contended that after an appeal for a general
object bad been made, it would be next to impos-ible
to have a collection for a local institution, and that
practically the £3B from the general fund would
supersede the £2OO which might otherwise have
been obtained in the immediate neighbourhood.
This view was, however, strongly contested by the
Lori Mayor and the other members of the council,
who held that there need be no interference whatever
with appeals for local purposes. It is difficult to say
which of these conten.ions is the correct one, for 119 yet
II can scarcely be a matter of certainty that Hospital
Stunk), will render it useless to ask for contributions
towaris local institutions.

A few days ago I attended an interesting experiment
with • new description of life raft, which was made
upon the ornamental waters of St. James's-park. The
raft consists of a flooring of sailcloth and netting, cup-
ported upon air-bags, each of which has a screw valve
by which it may be inflate I. When in a state of col-
lapse, the raft, which reoemblee the frame of • boat,
may be stowed away inside the bulwarks of a stip, so
as to form a seat. It weighs ite4 than half a ton, and
occupies not more than three feet and a half of space.
As it will accommodate from 90 to 100 persons, and
according to the inventor, a gentleman named Parrott,
is capable of being thoroughly inflated and ready for
use in five minutes, it is hoped that practical use will
be made of such an appliance. As the structure is so
portable, there can be no objection that it is unaielaty
and inconvenient of etowsge. Its buoyancy in the
water was thorombly testod, for a number of qamint.
to whom the wetting of a suit of clothes was no obj-ct
whatever, leaped overboard, and then climbed up the
sides f the raft by meson of ropes suspended from its
ides, without in the least degree interfering with the
specific gravity of the structure. A few of these on
board the NortMed on :Le 22nd of January last would
in all probablity have saved the awful sacrifice of life
which then took place.
Under the auspices of the London and Middlesex
Arcideolo kat Society, an interesting excursion was
made to Hampton Court • few days ago. This is a
favourite resort both of the Londoner and of the country
snitor ; and it is certainly worth all the praise which
has been devoted to • description of its charms. On
the occasion of which I speak, the object of the ex-
cursionists was not so much to admire the scenery as
to gather aome historical details respecting the manor
which was mentioned in Domesday Book. The palace,
as it now appesra was the joint work of Henry VIII.
and Cardinal Welsey, and at the present day is
nominally a Roya residence. The building itself, as well
as the s ,o 1 mei the ,rounds, were all made the object
of hapection, and the company of Arches slogista re-
tunnel to town iii the evening by water, pleated alike
at having escaped for a few hours from the heat of
London, and with the practical information which had
been the reoult of the day's visit to one of the most
beantiful spots in the neighbourhood of the meta °poll.,
The letter-carrion of London, who have for mine
time past been petitioning Parliament for an increased
male of remuneration, have joat hell a meeting with
a view farther to advance their cause. It was there
stated that this movement had been going on for ten
years, and that, as yet, there was no redrew. Con-
sidering the enormous increase in correspondence, that
the Post Office is • remunerative dela iment of the
State, and that upon the prompt dcotharge of duty
on the part of the army of ett i•carriers the
gravest interests often depend, it wil occur to
many that wages at the rate of a guinea per
week is not a very high rate of pay. nes,
men have long hours of labour, they perform
their tacks amid all weathers; they are entrusted
with large sums of money conetantly icing through
the dost, and few can be surprised that reoey sometimes
yield to temptation—a weakness whie la, when dis-
covered, is invariably visited with a paniabment of
five years' penal servitude.

Some curiona facts were stated at the recent half-
yearly meeting of the Metropolitan Railway COM-
PanY• This line, an your readers are aware, connecta
the city with the West-end, end for the greater part
of the distance is carried under the street/ of London.
When the scheme was first projected, it was treated
by many as chimerical. The idea of constructing •
railway thromh miles of gas and water pipes, and
through mazes of intersecting sewers, seemed at first
a hopeleas one, yet it has not nnly been done, but
each is the perfection of one engineering skill, that
between the Farriegdon-strett and King'scroiis 'da-
tion+ there is even a fine beneath the original under-
ground one. Well, in the first six months of the present
year, although this railway is mil, seven or eight miles
in length, the trains upon it have travellaithe enormous
distance of 550,000 miles. Every twenty four hours a
thousand trains pass over the line, and since the day of
the opening the company have conveyed three hundred
millions of paesengete without a fatal accident. That
I. equal to ten times the whole population of the
United Kingdom. The time for the running of the
trains has lat.ly been curtailed by forty minutes in the
morning cud thirty minutes at night, no that the
tunnels I ave thus seventy minutes Linger for ventila-
tion than was formerly the case. This is an advantage
which is highly appreciated by all who have o.caron
to travel over the underground railway. Every effort
Is made to purify the atmosphere; in such weather
as we have lately had, • journey on the Metropolitan,
for however short a diatance, was not a prospect to be
anticipated with pleasure.
It has often been alleged that the English ars noto-
riously deficient in the art of Cookery, and the ether
day a meeting was held in London, at which it was
resolved to take the cook, in hand with a view of
teaching them the elements of their business. One of
the speakers made rather a singular statement. It was
to the effect that it might take sixty years to teach
some people how to dress a potato. Granting that
this may be an exaggeration, there can be no doubt
eat the evil results of bad cooking. To say nothing of
wreetefulnees, which, as prices stand at present, ought
to be a consideration, indifferent cooking may, as has
boss well pointed out, have disastrous effects upon
ree moral constitution. Captain Du Cane, the
Director-General of Convict Prisons, has remarked
that while much of the crime in this ccuntry
Is attributable to drunkenness, a considerable pro-
portion el that drunkenness may be due to bad cook.
in Ths moral of this is therefore to keep the