The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-05-28 00:00:00

guage has ne-ver been employed with more sincerity
and more effect than in the passages in which the
Queen thanked Sir Robert Peel, on his final retirement
from office, for the services she declared he had
rendered the country and the Crown. We have
just received another and a striking illustration of the
fidelity and gratitude exhibited by her Majesty to a
great and zealous public servant. Even had the death
of Lord Beaconsfield awakened a less conspicuous
tribute of homage from the nation, it is certain that
the Sovereign would not have been backward in tes-
tifying her sense of the loss the Empire has expe-
rienced. As it is, her Majesty's grief is in harmony
with the general sentiment of the community. She
cannot forget the Statesman who served her with
simple and steady loyalty. And this beautiful
sentiment of lavish gratitude is reserved, we
may be quite sure, for any other servant of the
Crown who proves that he deserves it. It is
the peculiarly human character of all the Queen
loes, says, or thinks, that has endeared her to
the English people—the most sentimental, because the
most domestic race on earth. Thus her Majesty's
Birthday is kept by them with no idle ceremony,
but as a recurring national festival, more consciously
felt and more profoundly honoured as the years
roll on. It is their wish, their hope, their prayer, that
the Queen may be spared to reign over the British
Empire for yet many years; and to this desire
may be added the aspiration that the later part
of her Reign may be as happy and prosperous as its
commencement, and may continue to embrace a united
people and an uncurtailed dominion.

CUTTINGS FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.
Mrs. Fennell says her minister's sermons are "
little obscure, but," she says, "I do love to sit and watch the
expression of his mouth."
In describing a new organ, a rural musical critic
says—" The swell died away in a delicious suffocation, like
one singing a sweet song under the bed-clothes."
A Louisville paper has felt called upon to correct
an error of the types. It says :—" For one of the worst of
men, read one of the wisest.
A Philadelphia journal says a sad blow has been
struck at one of the chief gastronomic dainties of the
Cannibal Islands owing to trichina having been discovered
in an American missionary.
A prominent lumberman in one of the States, has
his coat-of-arms painted on the panels of his carriage, with
the Latin motto, " Vidi," which, by interpretation, is "I
saw."
"This engine won't work, said a fireman to the
chief of the New York Fire Department.—" No wonder,"
was the reply; "it was made to play."
- -

At a wedding in a church in New York, the parson
having several persons to marry, said, after entering the
building, "All those who want to be married, will please
rise," whereupon every single lady present instantly arose
from the seats.

An old lady in Tennessee, living in a sickly district,
being asked how she accounted for the unusual mortality in
her neighbourhood during the present season, said, "Dear
me! I can't tell ; so many people are dying this year that
never died before ! "

"Bitten by an alleged mad dog" is the mild way in
which it is put in Baltimore, to avoid hurting the dog's
feelings should he merely be labouring under a temporary
aberration.
Some one tells a story of a Yankee steaniboat
passenger watching the revolver light of a light-house on
the coast, and exclaiming, "Look 1 the wind blows that
light out as fast as the man can strike it."
A Virginia auctioneer pulled out a revolver and an-
nounced, " If any man goes frolicking about while this sale
is going on, I shall interrupt his career. Put them guns over
by the fence, an' leave 'em thar."