The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-05-22 00:00:00

THE TRADE IN PERFUME.
(From the Pictorial World.)

The trade in perfumes in this country has grown
from small beginnings to immense proportions. The
favourite perfume, taking all the world into the cal-
culation, is the attar of rose. It is produced in moderate
quantities in Persia. The name comes, we believe,
from there. Turkey, however, now sends abroad far
larger quantities than Persia itself. The distillation
and manufacture of attar of rose is a large and im-
portant branch of industry of Adrianople. In the
northern parts of the country the produce of 1873 ex-
ceeded by thirty-five per cent. that of the previous
year, the quantity distilled being some 121,886 ounces,
valued at about £lOO,OOO. It is chiefly exported from
Philipopoli to England, France, Germany, and
Austria; and recently merchants in the United
States and Germany have opened correspondence
with firms in Adrianople, with the view of establish-
ing agencies to further entend this branch of commerce.
They now import it direct from the producing districts
of Roumania. Great care is necessary in the culture of
the roses for distillation, and the prevailing tem-
perature affects the crop seriously. Attar is largely
adulterated before it reaches the consumer. It sells
for about 30s. shillings an ounce. The highest priced
perfume is the oil of ylang-ylang, signifying the flower
of flowers. The price paid is ,t5O in gold per pound.
The flowers only grow in the Philippine islands. The
yield does not exceed a couple of hundred pounds a-year.
France, however, is the most extensively engaged in th e
production of genera perfumery of any country in the
world—the south of France and Piedmont, mainly:
Montpelier, Grasse, Nismes Cannes, and Nice, figure
largely. The two last named are the most extensively
engaged in the violet culture, and alone furnish an
annual growth of about 13,000 pounds of violets. A
harvest of 100,000 pounds of orange blossoms is pro-
duced in Nice' and Cannes is accredited with 200,000
pounds. It takes 500 pounds of orange blossoms to
produce about two pounds of the essence, which is
termed neroli oil. This oil sells wholesale at
about £l2 per pound. Cannes also produces
about 9,000 pounds acacia blossoms. The magni•
tude of the perfumery industry in France is such
that from there half of the .ieforld is sup-
plied. One distillery in Cannes annually uses 140,000
pounds of orange blossoms, 140,000 pounds of rose
leaves, 32,000 pounds of jasmine blossoms, 20,000
pounds of violets, and 8,000 pounds tuberoses, as well
as a vast quantity of sweet herbs—this, without taking
account of the operations of the hundreds of other
distilleries. The lavender flower grows in the South
of France, and is also distilled. The Orient still holds
a place in the perfumery world. The oil of the
I patchouli flower, which grows in East India, sells at
about £lO per pound for the finest, while the poorest
costs about £7. The oils distilled from spices, such as
cassia, form ingredients in a great many perfumes.
Numerous oils distilled in various parts of the world
are in use as ingredients, among which are bergamot,
lemon melisse, angelica, and a large number.of others.
Not a, little of East India gum, myrrh, and olibanum
is used in preparing incense for churches.

EXTENSION OF THE KINDERGARTEN
SYSTEM.. .
t
Remarking on the " Kinaergarten " System for teaching
the youthful mind, in an easy and pleasant way, the elements
of arithmetic and many important facts in elementary
science and history, the Globe has the following article :-
-

There is a rumour in educational circles that the,
London School Board is intending to extend its use of
the Kindergarten system. We shall be heartily glad
if this news is true. With bits of paper and 1?alls pf
clay and a few sticks, the German instructors teach
children to devise endless combinations of form, by
which, at the same time that they derive amusement,
they unconsciously learn the elements of the sciences.
These sports develop tastes and impress facts on the
mind in a way that no mere dry lesson could possibly
do, but- they require teachers of more than usual
intelligence to plan and vary tliem. Talt9, for
instance, the figures on pricked paper by *hich a
German master in the Kindergarten will sometimes
teach the delighted children the grouping or
position of the stars. If you merely require a
class to learn the names of the chief stars and their
distance from the earth, you may oppress young brains
with a few barren facts; but if you take a sheet of
black paper and prick out Orion as,a big warrior, and
mark his belts with stars of red gelatine, you have im-
pressed for life the character and name of the constella-
tion on the minds of so many children. In the same
way, with pricked paper held against the light, the
German master teaches his Kindergarten classes the
shapes of rivers and the outline and character of the

! celebrated monuments of the world. Years after
' when ene of those children hears of the Pyramids, of
St. Peter's in Rom, or St. Paul's he will remember
those lines of light, with all their curves and
arches. There can be no doubt that the Kindergarten
system of Gerrnaay develops a child's mind sooner
4ad,wlrer than our esiti old AB C system. Children
are net born students. Their young brains work
slowly, and require constant change of thought.
They like to be doing something, and here the Ger-
man master with his puzzles and card baskets, toy
houses cut paper and pierced paper, meets the child's
necessities. After all, the main object of early instruc-
tion is o rouse and gradually inform the faculties. If
folding slips of black and white paper into all sorts of
fantastic patterns teaches children neatness, patience;
and ingenuity, and makes them handy and dexterous,
there is surely something gained and so much acquired
for any future employment, whether it be handling a
rein or holding a pen. To do the smallest thing with
perfect conscientious exactitude is in itself a moral
lesson of the first importance. It is something to have
taught a child to mould a pig in clay, and to have
enabled him to imitate the exact curve and symmetry'
ot the. original. An eye for form can be educated by
cutting out figures in black taper, like the grows and •
tigers of the Kindergarten, better than all the strippled
chalk French heads which fashionable drawing-masters
bring as copies to London schools.
There are critics of the Kindergarten who think its
puzzles and lumps of clay and paper flowers are girlish
and trivial, and prefer the dry, hard monotony of our
own old systern. We strongly disagree with them.
Children must be led, not -driven, up the steep hill of
knowledge. If you can lure them through the Kinder-
garten pass, the first rough stiles and plashy places, the
ascent becomes a pleasanter clamber. Presently they
will find flowers among the crags,' and kindly voices to
urge them On, and friendly hands will reach out
to them, and there will be rivals struggling by
their side, who will rouse their energies. The
Kindergarten's motto is an excellent one, "Play
and Work." Children fresh from the nursery require
more play than work, and the more they can
be taught playfully the better. How much the
mother teaches a child without one apparent effort.
It learns the names of all familiar things as an amuse-
ment, and is triumphant over every freshly acquired
word. Why should a similar acquisition become painful
to him when seated on a form with half a dozen com-
panions? The ordinary elementary knowledge, such
as the simple rules of grammar, the multiplication
table, &c., if learnt with enjoyment, would take no
time. It must be learned, and learned thoroughly, but
there is no reason why it should be taught with pain,
or be beaten in with the Cane:

: There are, of course, and must be, painful and
laborious stages in the path of knowledge. A Double
First was never won in a merry and social way. No
great success in intellectual pursuits can be gained by
mere playful ease. But these great questions are
suited to maturer periods. The first steps should be
through flowery fields, and such the Kindergarten has
spread before children. Will the rough old path at
some future time be all down and roses? No, Time
will never quite level this rough old road. There will
be always a certain amount of pain to the young mind
in stringing together dry facts, the real use of which it
can only ascertain in future years; in mastering the
reigns of monarchs to whom it is at this particular sea-
oon shamefully and disloyally indifferent. The first
book of Euclid, though wisdom itself, is not to be
swallowed like a cheesecake. Greek choruses, though
gull of art and the most subtle poetry, are not to be
run through like fairy stories. They have been so, and
they will be so, and there is no Kindergarten for
inaturer students.
' The old system of school instruction, with its eternal
toB C and incipient multiplication table, there is no
übt greatly needed improvement, and .the Germans
ave supplied it. Between the two systems a new one
'nay perhaps arise which will lead children on a
pleasant path to wisdom. These classes of puzzle
reakers, transparency manufacturers, modellers and.
cutters, acquire knowledge and undergo mental dis-
cipline without knowing it, and if in this or any other
way we can decoy our descendants pleasantly along the
path we once trod with tears and groans, the sooner
the new road is cut perhaps the better.

7

MR. FORSTER ON THE WORK OF
THE SESSION. •
The Right Hon. W. E. Forster M.P., responded to
the toast of "The Houses of Parliament," at a dinner
which followed the unveiling of the Lister statue at
Bradford on Saturday. He said he had been con-
siflering why they should have proposed such a toast.
What were the Houses of Parliament doing at this
pirticular instant? Positively he did not know how
to return thanks for what they had done in the
last session. At any rate he did not think they
had done much harm. That was certainly some-
thing to say. He was really in a difficulty. They
had passed, or as good as passed, an Artisans'
Dwellings Bill, giving certain powers to towns
thlroughout England which, he was proud to say,
Bradford could have done without. But after all, it
was a very comfortable state of things when their re-
presentatives could thus come among them, and when
asked to return thanks for the toast of the Houses of
Parliament to be in a difficulty as to what such thank,
should be about. Did it not show that the country
was in a very prosperous and enviable condition? He
should imagine that there would be very great difficulty
in any member of the French and German parlia-
ments, or that of Italy either, finding himself in such
a difficulty as he now laboured under. He was afraid
that any member of any of those three parlia-
ments would have to say that there were very great
and desperate questions now. before them, affecting
the very existence of their country's life. He was not
going to say anything savouring of party feeling or of
the present House of Commons, although they unfor-
tunately sat where they ought not to sit. He would
say this on behalf of those in power, giliwever, that
although they were so sadly and unfortuglirely situated,
still, so far as he could judge of them, and although he
was sorry to have to look at a great many more than
he could wish, still if the country got into difficulties,
he believed that independently of all party feeling
they would do their duty as well as any House of Com-
mons had ever done it.
glistellantons "31iitellxgaite
HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.
LANCASHIRE WORKING MEN IN LON DON.—
The invitation given by the Council of the Working
Men's Club and Institute Union to the Preston Work-
ing Men's Club to send a contingent of their members
to spend a couplvf days in the metropolis resulted in
a special train arriving at Euston Station yesterday
morning, with upwards of 200 men and their wives.
They were met at the station at 8 a.m. by Mr.
Hodgson-Pratt, vice-chairman of the Council, Mr.
erank E. Thicke, and Mr. George Savage, members
of the Executive Committee, who conducted them,
accompanied by some members of the St. Pancras
-Club, to the Mission-house School-room, Burton.
crescent, where they were entertained at breakfast.
They afterwards proceeded to the British Museum, where
they spent two hours. They then went to the National
Gallery, the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster
Abbey. From Westminster they proceeded by steam-
boat to the Tower of London. At 5.30 they were en-
tertained at tea by the members of the Bedford Insti-
tute, in Spital-square, after which, notwithstanding
the fatigue of travelling all night, many of them visited
the various theatres, but not before they had expressed
in becoming terms their appreciation of the kindness
they had received. Nearly all the excursionists visited
London for the first time, and their demonstrations of
delight at some of the sights they witnessed were loud
and frequent. They return this evening to Preston.
MINISTERIAL INFANTICIDE. One of the
measures at present before Parliament is an "Infanti-
cide Bill." Will that, if it passes prevent the usual
Massacre of the Innocents? If iedoes not pass, will
it fall itself a victim to the crime which it was pro-
posed to check ?—Punch.
"TOUGHENED GLASS "—Lieu tenant-General
Sir Henry James writes to us ( The Times) as follows :
"Under this head you refer to a process by which glass
is made in such a manner that it 'practically ceases to
be brittle.' But there is no allusion to the account of,
apparently, a similar discovery in the time of Tiberius
by Pliny, Dion Cassius, and Suetonius :—` In the reign
of Tiberius, it is said, a combination was devised which
produced a flexible glass;_ but the machinery of the
artist was totally destroyed, in order to prevent the
value of copper, silver, and gold from becoming de-
preciated.'—` Pliny,' B. xxxvi., chap. 66. According
to one account, Tiberius ordered the artist to be put to
death. I hope M. Francois de la BastiA will reap the
reward which the Roman artist ought to have received,
instead of death."

THE POPE'S BIRTHDA4. —An Occasional Cor-
respondent of The Times, writing from Rome on the
14th inst., says :—" Yesterday was the birthday of his
Holiness Pius IX. He has now entered upon his 84th
year. • 'His elastic step, serene brow, bright eye,
ready word, robust voice, and unfailing memory,'
' show, says the Voce della Verita, that in him the laws
of nature have been set on one side. Certainly he has
attained a good old age; he has surpassed the years of
Peter by a complete lustre, and in three years more he
will have accomplished the 33 years of the Master;
but, except for the accidental circumstance—easy of
explanation—of his having occupied the Pontifical
Throne for a longer period than any of his many pre-
decessors, a miracle can scarcely be recognized in the
age he has attained."
OUR GREAT TOWNS.—The Registrar-General
makes the following estimate of the population of the
great towns in the middle of the year 1875 calculated
• on the assumption that the present rate of increase is
the same as that which the Census shows to have pre-
vailed in the ten years 1861-71 :—Loudon (the "regis-
tration division"), 3,445,160; Glasgow, 534,564; Liver-
pool, 516,063; Manchester, 356,626, and Salford,
135,720, making together , 492,346; Birmingham,
366,325; Dublin, 314,666; Leech*, 285,118; Sheffield,
267,881 ; Edinburgh, 211,626; Bristol, 196,186; Brad-
ford, 168 9 ,305 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 137,665; Hull,
133,932 ; Portsmouth, 122,632; Brighton, 111,089;
Leicester, 109,830; Sunderland, 106,342; Nottingham,
92,251; Oldham, 87,437; Norwich, 82,842; Wolver-
hampton, 71,718. •

THE COINAGE OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS.
Mr. John Evans, F.R.S., President of the Geological
Society, lectured at the Royal Institution in London,
upon The .Coinage of the Ancient 'Britons and
Natural Selection." He said that 'a prevalent idea
about the Ancient Britons was that. they painted
themselves bine, sat under the mistletoe, and practised
obscure rites; :whereas there was evidence, despite
Cmsar's written Assertion to the contrary, that they
had a coinage as far back as about 150 years before
Christ, and the presence of a coinage intimated a cer-
tain amount of civilisation, and of progress in arts and
commerce. New
.coins must bear some resemblance
to their predecessors to imss current at the same time,
and the gradual depreciation of a coinage by a govern-
ment which robs its subjects, say by gradually sub-
stituting for gold coins others which it is not easy to
tell from copper, also occupies tune. By these and
other changes in ancient coins periods of time can be
roughly measured. The earliest British coins seem to
have been copied from coins of Grecian origin, current
in Gaull