The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-09-17 00:00:00

Our Foul= Coutspoubnit.

,L We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
txtentify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.

There can be no question that, as the competition
of life grows keener, an occasional change of scene
for the dwellers "in populous city pent" becomes neces-
sary, as well as desirable. So far as the Londoner is
concerned, change of scene is easily within reach.
In these days of cheap excursion trains no one can
have cause of complaint. At the same time it should
be remenThered that the real benefit of the autumn
holiday lies in the fact that it supplies also a change of
occupation. If people wish their brief period of rest
to do them any good, they should take care that
they do not carry about the shop with them, as
though it were some colossal snail-shell which they
are unable to shake from off their shoulders. They
require absolute change, and it is this which gives a
yachting cruise its great charm. In the days which
men of middle age can even now remember, it was the
custcm to rusticate in a farm-house; the post came in
at rare intervals; there were no telegrams; the farmer
and his wife provided lodging and board. There was
nothing to do except to wander about among the
fields, to eat the apples, to contemplate the cows and
pigs, to throw stones in the village brook, or to loiter
in the shade of the thickly-grown wood, where the
nuts were ripening. It was this entire transmutation
of habits that gave the autumn holiday at once
its charms and its use. We did not carry our cares
about with us; but left them at home and knew
nothing of them ; and as completely as people changed
their whole habits of existence, so did they lay aside
the occupations that had previously been engrossing
their attention.

Such a thorough revolution of habits as that above
sketched is now almost impossible except for those
who are the fortunate owners of a yacht. Now, the
large proportion of those who make holiday carry
London with them. The post reaches them twice a
day; the telegraph wire inexorably finds them out.
'Worst of all, their mode of life differs little, if at
all, from that which they follow out the whole
year round. They rise at about the same time,
take the same conventional breakfast, the dinner is
very much what it is at home, the daily habits are not
altered in any respect; and with the one exception of
the waves and of the regular morning plunge in their
waters, life is but little different from that of London.
They take with them their business and all its cares,
so that the holiday becomes little more than the mere
shifting from one place to the other. If it be possible,
the invocation ought to be, "Begone, dull care!"
But in the majority of cases this is not so, and so the
best has to be made of business and pleasure at the
same time.
The Parisians have lately been discussing in the
columns of their newspapers the merits of the English
stage, and have asked why it has been struck with
sterility during the past half century. It is admitted
that this arises from no want of good actors, for no
country in the world has at present an equal number
of intelligent, well-trained, enthusiarsttc, and excellent
ornaments of the dramatic profession. There is no
lack of genius among the countrymen of Shakspeare ;
but it is contended that there is a want of a good
dramatic school, and oddly enough it is maintained
that English energy has been directed to commercial
and colonial enterprise to too great an extent to
enable the people to appreciate the beauties of the
Temple of Thespis. Instead of imagining dramatic
situations, Englishmen, according to the French
journalists, prefer to realise them at the bottom of
gold mines, in deserts, or in jungles. An Englishman,
we are told, prefers the real to the unreal;
the solid and substantial to the shadowy and the
idealistic; and there is no doubt that there is some
truth in this argument.
On our side there might be something to say as to our
commercial and colonial enterprise absorbing the entire
energies of the nation. France has of late manifested
considerable restlessness, and an ascendancy in the
direction of her relations has been obtained by
the forward school of her politicians. There are those
e 'lon this side of the Channel who hold that jealousy
the commercial prosperity of other countries has
had its share in inducing France to adopt an attitude
of bravado. The Treaty of Commerce has been put
an end to, not by England, but by France; and recent
legislation in the French Chamber with regard to the
mercantile marine was looked upon here as an attempt
to wrest from us a share in the enormous oceanic carry-
ing trade which we possess. Among the signs of an active
spirit of competition and rivalry on the other side of
the Straits of Dover, are the great maritime public
works, the enlargement of commercial harbours and the
improvement of communications between the sea-
coast and more or less out-of-the-way districts inland,
which have been begun or effected during the last five
or six years. No sooner had France recovered from
the stupor which followed the great defeats in the war
with Germany, and paid off the huge indemnity de-
manded by her victorious foe, than she set to work to
compete with England, not upon the field of battle as
she had often done in centuries gone by, but for the
trading pre-eminence which we had attained in the
markets of the world.
Mr. Longfellow has described in graphic language
the effect produced upon the contemplative mind by
the sounds sent forth from the belfry of Bruges,
"bringing back the olden times." The peal of
distant bells at eventide has upon some mental con-
stitutions a peculiarly softening effect ; while the
morning chimes, floating up some valley through the
bright calm sunshine, are pleasant enough to listen
to. But in a crowded city, where the sounds of
bells are pent in between narrow streets and tall
houses, bells are liable to lose the poetry which they
possess for the meditative mind in the quiet retreats
of rural life. No longer does their soft music fall in
gentle cadence upon the ear. "Ring out, wild bells,
to the wild sky !"is the injunction; and they do ring
out with clanging notes incalculable in number
and diversity. Where the steeples are high above the
houses, this does not so much signify, as the sound is
carried away over the habitations. Big Ben of
Westminster, for instance, is heard for miles, not so
much because of his powerful tone as because of the
height from which he sends out his warning voice
over the metropolis. But in large towns it becomes
more and more the practice to build storey upon
storey, owing to the increasing value of land; and
the residences being thus higher than the bells,
enclose the sound and to a great extent prevent its
escape.
The harvest all over the world this year seems to
have been a great disappointment after the expecta-
tions of it which had been formed in the brief burst of
July heat. The continental countries which are of
importance to us are France, Russia, Roumania, and
Austria-Hungary. The French yield is 15 per cent.
below an average : the Roumanian crop is 58 per cent.
below an average in Little Wallachia, and 40 per
cent, below in greater Wallachia; the Austrian .
Is 7 per cent. above an average; but the Hungarian
is 10 per cent. below. The Russian harvest is 20
per cent, below an average in Bessarabia, 22 per cent.
in Courland, and 2 per cent. in'Esthonia. In Hungary,
the Danubian Provinces, Poland, and the Baltic
possessions, the wheat crops are bad generally, as well
as in France, and good only in Austria, Middle and
Southern Russia, The last-mentioned country has
been visited with several inferior harvests in succes-
sion, and has not much old wheat on hand. On the
other side of the account, however, it will be borne in
mind that whatever may be the deficiency in the
American crop, the United States have had a run of
four exceptionally abundant harvests, and must con-
sequently have a large old stock to draw upon. There
are, moreover, othet sources of supply on which we
can draw, such as India, Australia, Egypt, and Chili,
all of which are food-producing countries.
From careful estimates which have been made of
the French vintage it appears that no extraordinarily
large output of -wine is expected from the present
"comet year." The total anticipated yield for the
seventy-five departments where the grape is culti-
vated, is rather over thirty-two million hectolitres.
It remains to be seen whether the quality of this wine
will justify the popular belief in
.the benign
influence of a comet upon the yield of the
vineyard. The fact that the second comet did
not, like the first, bring with it warm and
genial weather, tends rather to shake the faith
of those who have been taught to believe that a
comet year is an exceptionally fine and dry one. Had
the first erratic celestial visitor not been followed by
a second, the tradition would have been well main-
tained; a splendid comet was accompanied by beauti-
ful weather. But unfortunately just at the time that
the second comet was to be seen below the car of
,7rsct Major, the weather was rough and inclement
even for the English climate, and the farmers were
heartbroken at seeing the results of months of patient
labour ruined by the pitiless descent of rain' day by
day, when some bright sunshine would have been of
incalculable value.
Country vilitors to London have otten marvelled at
the street cries which resound through the streets
even in the hours of Divine service by the vendors of
peri habl e wares. Thl ignsconoruiliotylAglarzei
Tera ments with the teach.in
fails to occur to the mine; and when the sojourner in
the capital has returned to his quiet borne he more
than ever appreciates the calm which Sunday far
away from town seldom fails to bring. Sunday has
been described as "one of the bright out-courts of
immortal glory," but there can be no doubt that this
ideal description was not written amid the jarring
sounds to which Londoners are compelled to lien on
a day when in the peaceful landscape and the silent
plain even tho sounds of Nature are subdued and the
i
murmur of the brook is softened n accordance with
the aeociT cx the eared day,

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silent
ad the