The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-04-12 00:00:00

Misititantous 4nttilionut,

HONE, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

GOLD AT CAYENNE.—Mr. R. Gurney Woold-
ridge sends for publication the following extract
from a letter received from his brother, Mr. Frank
Wooldridge, the newly-appointed Consul at Cayenne:
—" Something might be said about the gold diggings
here. There are more than 20 mines up the creeks, in
which all the Coolies are employed. Every mail takes
from 70 to 80 kilograms of native gold. All for France.
Any stranger who chooses to come here will be allowed
Ito work. He will have to pay for the cession of land
by the French Government. lam surprised so little
is known in England of this. The other day an Ameri-
can company sent a vessel with adventurers and
machinery they went up exploring. No difficulties
were placed in their way; but, unfortunately, they had
to temporarily abandon it through the bursting of their
machinery, which blew a lot of them overboard. It is
the discovery of gold which has stopped the cultivation
of the colony, leaving it poor in trade. Every body has
the gold fever here; and as soon as any one has a little
money away it goes in renting land to look for gold."
ORIGIN OP THE HORSE DISEASE.—The vege-
table origin of the horse disease is the subject of a
paper in the American Naturalist by Mr. Moorehouse,
of New York. He examined the matter exuding from
the nostrils of the affected animals, and, besides the
regular pus, found no leee than three kinds of vege-
table organisms, all in states of vigorous development,
One wee a species of minute lichen, known as
Urctotaria scruposa. Theme were in every form of de-
velopment, there being hundreds of fragments in a
single drop. Another was an unknown species of
AspergiUus, also giving evidence of propagation and
growth. The third form was an unknown species,
not hitherto described. In order to prove that these
spores were floating in the atmosphere, they were
caught on moistened glees in the atmosphere in the
vicinity of the disease. This is regarded as bringing
the atmospheric and vegetable origin of this disease
nearer to demonstration. hut yet not as proving it, as
the atmospheric vegetable spores may have simply
found a favourable aides in which to germinate in the
mucous matter given off by the disease.
THE SERVANT GIRL QUESTION IN CANADA.
—The American correspondent of The Hour writes:—
The servant girl question, which has taken a protean
variety of forms in this hemisphere, has at last culminated
hi • concerted effort, which, if it spreads to any considerable
extent, will be calculated to till the lunatic asylums with the
heads of families. It is not log since that the servantegirla
of Dundee met together and organised a strike, and made it
sumessiul. The logical result of this idea is that of a trades
union, and one has already been formed by the servant girls
of Ottawa, Canada The distance of Dundee was • safeguard
against strikes there, but Ottewa is a near neighbour. The
spit° Air had no difficulty in crossing the Canadian frontier,
and I fear that the trades union will cross with equal else.
This outlook is discouraging, especially at this time of the
year, when house-cleartog is commencing—especially aa in
the proposed reciprocity treaty with Canada Congress failed
to Inserts clause prote. tins American housekeepers agaimt
the Dominion trades unions.

EXECUTION OF AN ITALIAN BRIGAND. A
fact worth recording, if only for the extreme rarity
(writes • Naples correspondent), is the execution of a
brigand at Catanzaro on the 24th inst. Nicola Villetta
had long been the terror of the neighbourhood; he bad
committed many murders and violent assaults on the
person, and terminated his crimes by asesasinatiog a
man who had been • witness against him. He was
tried by the Court of Assize of Catanzaro, together
with nine of his band, on the let of April, 1871, and
was coidemned to death with two of his accomplices.
Of course, there was an appeal, which was rejected on
the 19th of April, 1872 ! One of the three died in
prison during the year. another was reprieved, and
Villetta warn executed on the 24th, two years all but a
week after his condemnation.

BISWIRCH'S " DJUBLI."—A correspondent
relates how, having rung the bell at the door of Signor
Castelar's ante-room, foil of the expectation of seeing
that distinguished man, he was suddenly confronte
with another celebrity—Bismarck himself rose to meet
the visitor, and, in the politest manner, inquired in
what he could be of use to him. The likeness of Senor
Castelar'e porter to the powerful German statesman is
no great that the journalist, who is well acquainted
with him, could find nothing wanting in the counter-
feit presentment, except that the three hairs usually
dispersed across the Chancellor's bald head were dressed
in • different fashion by his double. The prevalent
craving for "sensation "will be unduly indulged if one
eminent man surrounds himself with the effigies of his
compeers.
COLD COMFORT.—A correspondent of the Neu,
York Bulletin writes from Blark• Fork, Wyoming
Territory, stating that there had been no remarkably
unpleasant weather in that part of the Rocky Moon-
talus this winter, though he has to admit that the
mercury has been down to 40 deg. below zero. He
says The dressed biiffalo-skin lodges of the Indians,
hid in a well-sheltered nook, are not uncomfortable.
This region is pleasant, though at times the wind blows
so that it almost takes the hair off a man's head. The
snow drifts away in immense piles, and, what is re-
markable, it will not pack; in other words, it lies an
loose that a man stepping on it does not stop until his
foot has touched the ground. This is the reason why
travelling in these mountains is so difficult during
the winter season. But it is remarkably healthy, and
electricity abounds everywhere. When a man touches
his blankets during the dark nights a stream of fire
follows his fingers, and at every point there are electric
flashes. These are not inconvenient, as might at first
appear, but seem to send a healthy glow and elasticity
through the system, which it is imp iewible to describe.
Men need no artificial stimulants, though truth compels
rue to say they have not been entirely done away with.
The air is fresh and buoyant, surcharged with oxygen,
which sends the blood bounding to the fingers' end.
In all the world there is not a more healthy and in.
vigorating climate,"

TIMF.B OF BIRTH AND DZATII.—The registrar
of Cumbernauld, Dumbarton, has been, as he says,
curious to ascertain whether it 1, true that birth' and
deaths occur more frequently in the night than in the
day. Dividing the 24 holm into four periorli of six
hours each, he finds that among the 3,600 people in his
district there were 128 births in the year 1872, and
that as many as 42 occurred between midnight and
C a. In, and 31 between noon and 6 p.m., leaving only
28 and 27 respectively for the other two periods pre-
ceding midnight and noon. The deaths were other-
wise distributed, the majority occurring in the day-
time. There were 74 deaths in all; 22 between 6 a.m.
and noon and 20 between noun and 6 p,m., making 42
In the daytime, and leaving only 16 each for the two
periods between 6 pm. and 6 114113. I