The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-11-20 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

- BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Intelligence received at New York from Alaska
states that a cyclone, accompanied lay earthquake shocks,
occurred at Sitcha on the 26th ult., causing much devasta-
tion.

A sum of 3,600• dols. in all has been forwarded to
Ireland by the Branch of the Land League at Rochester,
New York.
-Under the head of "Conscience Money" in The
Tinves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer acknowledges the
receipt of £75 on account of under-estimated income-tax of
1877 and 1878 from "W. X."

During the four months ending September 30 the
number of passengers carried by the Great Eastern Railway
Company's boats via the Harwich route was 26,583, being an
increase of 46 per cent. over the same period in ISM
It is reported that the first silver dollar coined in
the United States has been found. It is held by twenty-eight
different American citizens.

Wheat shipments from California are now on a large
scale-100,000 quarters weekly. Canada is offering fine e
to make up the wants of North Europe.

_ .
Agricultural labour, in the North of England at all
events, would now seem to be in excess of the demand, for
at the Newcastle hiring fair the wages given to women for
the half-year ranged from ninety shillings to £7, with an
average of about £5 10s., while men took from £7 10s. to
£l2, the average being about £9 10a., whil lads got about
£0 10s. A large number of men and women remained un-
engaged.

- -
Mr. Adam, M.P, in taking farewell of his consti-
tuents at Kinross, said the great difficulty in the future of
the Government was the question of Ireland. It was im-
possible for any one to predicate what would be done in that
country. Like children crying for the moon, the Irish
people wished to have something much more than any
Gov,•rnment could possibly, give them. While they must
make great allowances for the way in which Ireland had
been governed for centuries past, the law must not be set at
nought; but, if it were, decided and vigorous action must be
taken.
Petitions to the Home Secretary have been signed
in Chelmsford, Saffron Walden, and other plaoes, praying
that the sentence of death passed upon \Man Wright for
the murder of John Prior, a gamekeeper in the service of
Lord Braybrooke, may not be carried out, on the grounds
that the prisoner had no intention to kill the deceased,
that the finding of the hats of the two men and a button
from the prisoner's waistcoat on the ground suggested
that there had been a struggle, and that the jury stronglY
recommended the prisoner to mercy. If there be no in-
tervention, the sentence will probably be carried out at
Chelmsford Prison on the 22nd inst.
At Brunn, in Moravia, the regular customers of an
old-fashioned beerhouse had bet' incommoded for some
time past by the prevalence of a very strong and obnoxious
smell. The police, accompanied by a chemical inspector,
having examined the cellar, discovered in a dark recess
behind the staircase a small, self-supplying petroleum well.
It is expected that a petroleum•seeking fever will be the
consequence in the vicinity of the town
A signalman, named William Lee, for 17 years em-
ployed by the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway, has met
with an accident which resulted in death. The man travelled
from Camberwell in a train from which all the passengers
alight at Ludgate, and the train is then shunted into Holborn
Viaduct Station empty. He walked along the. Plain line
metals towards the Liplborn Viaduct signal-box, and was
seen by the station-maatet and another official to suddenly
step between the metals along which the shunted train was
coming. Shouts were raised, but these failed to alarm him,
and he was knocked down, and, the wheels passing over him,
was so injured that he died in a few hours afterwards.

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