The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-06-19 00:00:00

HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

"EARTH TO EARTH."—We (The Times) have
authority to say that, by permission of his Grace the,
Duke of Sutherland, a collection of basket and othe
perishable aoffins, constructed on the principles acla
cated by Mr. Seymour Haden, may be seen at S
ford-house on Saturday, June 19, from iour to
o'clock, on presentation, by ladies or gentlemen 1".
terested in the subject, of an ordinary visiting card.

"THAT CLEVER CZAR ! "—We have all hear('
of Julius Csar's " Veni, vidi trici I" and Sir Che:ll
Napier's "Peccavi" despatch. The last achievenien
in the line of epistolary brevity is the Czar's despatch!
in answer to the proposal of General Ivanoff, 00111,
manding on the Central Asian frontier, to annex
territory. It was a blank, with the direction phone'
cally spelt—" General Tye enotigh."—Punch.
CONVICT LABOUR.—A correspondent virit?ii
to the Globe :—" The suggestions contained 11:
"0. E.'s " letter of the 12th as to the " employraen,„
of convict labour in our coal pits and ironworks 0"
tends to show his ignorance of the working of eithersi
Ist. You cannot, unabw three years, make a "°°3
cutter" of any man Who has not been brought up WI
from a boy, and only then after he has undergone,,
much severer punishment than any "hard labour
would entail. And in nine cases out of ten a 113,en
generally fails to adapt himself to the position he 17,,
to work in in that time. The same rule applies
ironworks. You can employ a certain number
labourers but you must first of all secure tn.
1 Ot
"skilled to find employment for them. Ido
think the Government could ever find a suffiow
number of convict colliers, furnace men, or puddles
and mill men to keep even the smallest colliery or iron'
works going.

SALES OF BENEFICES. A Parliament
paper has been issued respecting the sales of benefice,
under the Lord Chancellor's Augmentation Act. TP"
advowsons of 95 benefices were sold from Noverabe,,r'
1863, to April last. Among the purchasers Wei"
clergymen and titled persons. Lady Burdett Coll
purchased one for £6,000, the age of the incumbee
being at the time 71. Under the 23rd and 24th se°.
tions of the Act there had been 14 sales of livings, t.he
money not being applied in augmentation of the lir
oome. Not one clergyman appears in the list as Paz:
chaser. The names of the parties with the purchase'
money in every instance appears in the retali
Another part of the document shows a return ePri
benefices in the patronage of the Crown or the
Chancellor, or or any Bishop or Corporation, &c., tAbe,
advowson of which had been exchanged for the et'
vowsons of other benefices between the Ist of Noveo
ber, 1864, and the 31st of October last. There are °
many as 185 benefices mentioned, with the particulaoJ
according to the order of the House of Commo"
dated the 10th of March last.

How BRILLIANT ACTORS HAVE RISEN.---A
cent writer on theatrical matters says :—The fate
even brilliant actors is often extremely sad. The vicr'
will never tire of reading of how poor Mrs. Siddoso,
driven from the London boards by a failure that iy,e6,
not her fault, tramped about over the country i();
years, till at last she had another chance at Drury-158'
and then, supported by Smith, Palmer, and Ferrel
she won the most brilliant success, and then went WO
to a plain supper, her old father shedding tears of Jog
as he sat at the table too delighted to eat. Edlugil;
Kean, an unknown youth, acted at Dorchester on
rainy night to a house almost empty, but roused kit;
self to the utmost "to act well his part." One of t
three men in the boxes listened in silence, but vdia,,,
the play was over invited him to breakfast
next morning, and staggered him by saying,
name is Arnold; I am the manager of the DruPx:
lane Theatre." On the boards at London be was ou'e
culed by all the actors because he was so small, but,
put so much genius into his performance that ber°_,,
he finished the first act he had triumphed. Garrn
acted at an unlicensed theatre at the east end,,
Loudon one night. He was short of stature and
,t;
name was not given. When he came on the ;Wu rig
sight of the audience disconcerted him. In a lit
minutes he recovered, and was Richard himself. P"-_A
the tremendous passions of the lustful, savage morteri,,
swayed his body, and appeared in his face, but if
audience hesitated till when, after dismissing the
putation, he flung away the prayer-book, then
whole house burst into rapturous applause. Fre'"
that moment his star suffered no eclipse.
A COLOURABLE PRETEXT. —A nice, if not
over-nice, young lady-friend of ours declares the
nothing in the world shall ever tempt her to w
mauve, lest she should be classed among les viauv"`"
sujets.—PuNcH.
A LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION. —Very Credit.
able are the efforts made by our Indian fellow-sti,,m;
jects to master the English idiom, but success is
always consequent upon conscientious endeavour (eur
the Pictorial World). Not long ago'we had an instal
of an Indian student of English who, in the course °A
a pathetic narrative of the death of a greatly-beloveii
and well-known fellow-countryman, allowed hiluqj
to say that the widow in her first paroxysm of grla
" wallowed on the ground," vowed that "she wow'
never wag her tongue again," and "felt generallif
like a toad under a harrow;" while as a dun
to the affair, "the Supreme Court adjourues
at once on its original and appelate sides.
The latest files of Indian papers give another
instance in which our Hindoo friend soul
to have gone a little astray in his notions 01
what constitutes a letter of recommendation. Writtilig
to his English patron to intercede for him, and eft,
parently fearing lest the recommendation should
the requisite force, he says :—" Write, sir, please, like
this —I insist upon you giving this man an appolo
ment at once! I won't hear of your saying you WI
no vacancy in your office." Our fellow subject luel
be congratulated upon his mastery of emphatic ha'
guage, but if he had seen many letters of recommer
dation he would have known that they are, as a riu-e°
almost useless and wholly spiritless. If his conceptloo
of them could but be carried out, they would be few°
in number and a great deal more to the purpose tha!
they generally are. As it is, they raise in a moniell•
hopes which wither for a month and then die.
INDEPENDENCE. —Elder sister (condescendinglo
"See, Ethel, you had better come and walk in WY
Shadow. It will be cooler for you! "—Younger Sistle
(who resents patronage), "You are very good, MaUat;
but I have a shadow of my own, thank you! "—Fusco'

AN ESCAPE.—In London, on Tuesday after—
noon, three boys and a little girl, were sitting uPOISI
I
the parapet of the Thames Embankment, betweeo"
Waterloo and Hungerford Bridges, when a sudden VI:
of wind blew one of the boys on to the pavement aei
the girl into the river. A cry kr help was raised, 50
a gentleman who was passing slipped the collar froto '
his Newfoundland dog, lifted up the animal, and coat
dropped him into the water. The child at the.'
moment rose to the surface, and the sagacious brut.;
turned his head in her direction, seized her by that
collar of her cape and, directed by his master, ain
with his little burden Sw
lrden to the adjacent stairs. Thl
gentleman called a cab, placed the child in it, anif
drove off to the Endell-street Baths, whence the gill
was taken home little the worse for her immersion.
The owner of the dog refused to give his name, but
observed that the dog's name was ' Ready."

TEACHING THE TEACHERS.—AS compulsori
education is now a "burning question" (so it WO '
three centuries ago—how history repeats itself IL
Punch begs to suggest a few novel Acts to the respect-
ful consideration ot Members of Parliament. Gentle'
men of the House of Commons will be good enough to
take out their pencils and note-books. Mr. Punch
begs to inform them that he will givt his hearty suP'
port to any and all of the following measures, when
they come up for reading a second time :—A Bill for
Teaching Members of Parliament generally the differ-
ence between frivolous questions and important in"
quiries.— Punch.
A NOVEL DUEL !-- A story comes from South
Russia that a new development of the so-called
"American duel" has made its appearance there. Tw°
young men, rich, of good family, and intimate friendg
for a long period, recently became enamoured of All
actress. The immediate result was a coolness and die'
trust which ended in the transmission of a challenge
from one to the other. Both men had frequently give°
proofs of personal courage, both were familiar with
the use of arms, both were young and fond of life. IL
was agreed, therefore, that the dispute should be dr
cided by lot in the" American" style, but without the
use of sword or pistoL The man who drew the shorter
straw was to give up home, position in society, and
wealth, and retire to a foreign land to begin life aneW
empty-handed. The drawing duly took place, and tbe
loser, after spending a few days in the settlement of
his affairs, and the bestowal of his possessions for pub-
lic purposes, left his native place on foot, without a
knapsack on his back or a coin in his pocket, to take '
position as tutor in the neighbourhood that he might
earn sufficient to pay his fare to America.

- -
A CASE OE " ITINTAILTALI."—The limas of
India gives the following :—" About two or three
weeks ago a case of untarjali, occurred near Calcutta,
and the crime was repeated on the same spot on
Thursday last. The victim, according to the account
of an eye-witness, was carried to the river side amid t
crowd of people, with the usual accompaniment 091
tomtoms and other discordant noises such as the
Hindoos call music. His head dangled over a stretcher
much too sLort for him, and as he raised his hand to
shield his face from the glaring light, his son and heir
opened an umbrella and held it over him by way of
protection. Arrived at the river, he ref reAhed himself
with a draught of milk and a smoke, chatting mess- '
while with his sympathizing relatives. Last SaturdeT
still found the man quite equal to his milk awl 4
tobacco, and in no particular hurry to start for tiol
other world. Resenting this somewhat unreasonabil
tax on their impatience, his friends carried him
to another spot on the river, and immersed him win
he was drowned. Such crimes ought to he punished P"