The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-09-24 00:00:00

HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

AVERAGE PRICES OF BRITISH CORN.—The follow-
ing are the average prices of British corn tor the
week ending Sept. 17, as received from the inspectors
and officers of Excise :—Wheat, 51s. id. ; barley, 355.
7d. ; oats, 225. Bd. per imperial qr. Corresponding
week last year s—Wheat, 325. 11. d. ; barley, 395. 5d.;
oats, 20s. 7d.
SILK CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES.—Cocoons
and eggs are now being raised in Louisiana, Georgia,
California, Utah, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and
Missouri, the former realising two dollars a pound,
and the latter from three to four dollars an ounce.
An attempt to promote silk culture was made in
California some years ago, but it proved unsuccessful.
Now a determined effort is being made to introduce
the industry, as both the climate and soil of the State
are specially favourable.
A HINT TO SPORTSMEN.—A correspondent of the
Daily News, wiiting from Switzerland, says :—" I
wonder that English sportsmen who can come abroad
in September do not more frequently betake tkem-
selves here in order to shoot chamois. The ..,pen
season commences at the end of August, and lasts for
a couple of months. All that is required is a rifle, a
guide, and that power of endurance of fatigue without
which sporting is mere luxurious cruelty. Chamois
are plentiful. Only yesterday I saw six or seven
quietly feeding on the hill opposite to my windows.
With good luck a sportsman might shoot two each
week, and as he could sell them for 60 francs apiece,
this would materially aid in covering cost. It is cal-
culated that every deer shot on a Scotch forest costs
the tenant.f the forest about £lOO. Therefore very
few can indulge in this amusement; whilst it is, at
most, a very artificial sort of sport. For a fifty-pound
note, or even for less, a month's chamois hunting
might be indulged in with that amount of personal
risk that can alone ennoble or even excuse shooting.
In the lakes, too up here there are large and excellent
trout, which the inhabitauts seem unable to catch,
but which, when the sky is clouded and the wind is
not too high, take an artificial minnow from a boat
voraciously."

THE ALBERT MEDAL.—The London Gazette of Tues-
day night states that the Queen has been nleased to
issue a warrant, amending warrants regulating the
award of the two decorations styled respectively 'The
Albert Medal of the First Class" and "The Albert

Medal of the Second Class,' for gallantry in saving,
or endeavouring to safe, life at sea and on land. It is
now ordained that the award of either of the medals
_

shall be made only on a recommendation to the Queen
by the Principal Secretary of State for the Home
Department, provided always that the preliminary
steps and inquiry concerning the award of the Albert
Medals severally inscribed For Gallantry in Saving
Life at Sea" shall be,las heretofore with the President
of the Board of Trade.
CATTLE RANCHES IN THE CANADIAN NORTH-WEST.—
Professor M'Eachran, of the Veterinary College,
Montreal, has just returned from a trip to the Bow
River district of the Canadian North-West, where
Mr. Cochrane is establishing a large cattle ranch
100,000 acres in extent. He has expressed a high
opinion of the climate and capabilities of the country,
and states that the cattle are left out during the winter
season, requiring neither artificial food nor shelter, and
are in good condition in the spring. The Cochrane
Ranch Company have already purchased from 7,000
to 8,000 Montana cattle, at prices ranging from 20
dols. to 30 dols. per head, and a number of pedigree
cattle are also being imported from other parts of
Canada and from Great Britain for breeding purposes.
THE MACHINERY WORKED BEAUTIFULLY.—A dealer
in hardware on Jefferson Avenue has had a straw-
cutter standing on the walk in front of his store for
some days past to catch the public eye, and yesterday
forenoon two boys discovered it and had considerable
sport feeding papers under the knife (says the Detroit
Free Press). They were still at work, one at the
wheel and the other feeding all the old papers he
could find, when along came three Canada Indians
with something less than a thousand baskets hitched
to them. They were evidently father, mother, and son,
and when they saw the straw-cutter at work they came to
a dead halt and exhibited great curiosity to know how
the old thing chewed up papers in that manner.
After some conversation between them the Indian
put down his basket and made a closer inspec-
tion. The boys fell back to give him a fair show,
and as he picked up a long strip of paper the squaw
began turning the wheel in about 4-6 time. The ma-
chinery worked beautifully, and a grin of quiet delight
had just commenced to spread over the red man's
face when the end of the paper was reached and the
knife sliced off the end of his forefinger. There
was just one howl, accompanied by a jump three
feet high. When the Indian landed he was as
silent as the grave and as straight as a bean pole. He
looked from his finger to the straw-cutter and back,
took in the general laugh from the sidewalk without
giving himself away, and with the dignity of a Sultan
he walked over to his baskets' resumed his load, and
marched off with his wounded hand in his -pocket and
his nose set on a bee-line for home.
How A YOUNG LADY OBTAINED A MINE. —Among
the many prospectors in Utah a year ago were four
young men, who were rewarded by the discovery of a
valuable mine (says the Salt Lake Herald). One of
the young men had a lady friend, and it was decided
to name the mine after her, and to so fix the title
that, in case of their death, it should be hers. Last
winter, while working upon their claim, the whole
party was buried beneath a snow-slide; and now the
young lady is planning what good she will do with the
65,000 dols. that has been offered her for her neat little
legacy.
A NAVAL ENGINEERING EXHIBITION.—A proposi-
tion has just been set on foot for an exhibition of naval
and submarine engineering appliances, which is to be
held in the early part of next year at the Agricultural-
Hall, London. It is intended to cover the wide field
occupied in the production of machinery and mechan-
ical contrivances employed in or connected with, the
construction and equipment of ships of all classes. A
prize of one hundred guineas is to be given for the best
means of saving life in case of shipwreck, and a ei econ d
prize of 50 guineas for the best invention of a humane
character connected with seafaring matters. A large
diving tank is to be provided, in which various systems
of diving, both natural and mechanical, as practised
in different countries, will be exemplified. A course
of lectures on naval architecture, mechanics, and other
cognate subjects, will be delivered during the exhibi-
tion, and it is to add to the interest of the affair, in-
tended that the catalogue shall contain special articles
on matters pertaining to the exhibition in addition to
useful and authoritative information relating to the
various branches of trade and manufacture repre-
sented.
THE LABOUR MARKET.—lncreased firmness is mani-
fested in the iron trade, and there is a larger demand
from both the colonial and home markets. Business
in steel rails has much revived, and contracts are being
obtained at increased prices. The number of furnaces
in blast in the country is nearly 600. Collieries in
South Yorkshire are now well off for orders, and the
output is greater than it has been for the last three
years. In Staffordshire the men are much better em-
ployed. In Scotland the miners are seeking an increase
in their pay, and, in order to obtain it, they have
resolved to work shorter time, and thereby decrease
the output. The leather trade continues fairly active,
and prices are well maintained. The complaints of
dullness among woollen manufacturers are disappear-
ing. The linen industries are improving. From
Ireland the reports are decidedly more encouraging,
and hopes of a fair winter trade are expressed in well
informed circles. In the metropolis business keeps
fairly active, the workmen in the building, engineering,
and shipbuilding trades being particularly busy.
Printers and bookbinders have been dull, but the
Christmas literature will, it is expected, at once in-
crease the demand for labour.—The bright weather of
the past fortnight has materially improved the pros-
pects of trade both in the manufacturing and agricul-
tural districts of the West of England. Nearly all
the corn has been got in, and most of it is in far better
condition than was anticipated. Keep for cattle is
abundant, and throughout the country districts there
is a better tone. The sugar industry continues quiet,
but the local refiners are in full work, and get rid of
all they produce. The building trade in Bristol is
improving every week, and houses are selling more
readily and at better prices. The staple industries of
Bristol, the leather, clothing, and shoe manufactories,
are showing increased activity. The autumn is gene-
rally an active time, but the factories have experienced
nothing like the present activity for six years. Irish
orders are brisk, and so are foreign exports, chiefly to
South America, India, and the Cape.
A VETERAN SPORTSMAN.—Mr. Horatio Ross of
Wyvis, Ross-shire, has long been noted as a sports-
man, and although he is now past eighty, he still goes
as heartily to the hills as ever. On Tuesday, the 6th
1 inst., he wrote :—" Yesterday was my eightieth birth-
day. I wished to kill a stag on my ` natal ' day, and
was fortunate in killing a right and left—l never made
a better right and left. When I shot my first stag,
the herd—a very small one—went off at speed and
dived into a deepish burn. When they reappeared on
the opposite side they were a long way off (about 200
yards), but I had the good luck to get another—both
fair deer fifteen and thirteen stone.'
SUPERSTITION ABOUT FEATHERS.—" T. C. G. " in
Notes and Queries, says :--The superstition that
person would not "pass away" (die) on a pillow filled
with wild fowl feathers was universal in Scotland in
former days. Ido not think the root of truth in this
is far to seek. The feathers of all game birds, also of
Pigeons, have a heavy disagreeable smell, which it used
to be thought impossible to get rid of ; and no one,
sick or well, could sleep comfortably on such a pillow.
A poor person would not accept the feathers at a gift.
These were the days when feathers were cleaned at
home; now good cleaners have ways and means at
their disposal unknown to country folk, and perhaps
many a grouse and partridge feather is used instead of
being burnt.
SUPERSTITION ABOUT BLACKBERRIES. —Once more
the blackberry is not without its folk-lore, and there is
a popular superstition that the Devil always puts his
cloven foot upon the blackberries on Michaelmas Day,
and on this account it is considered highly unlucky to
gather them during the remainder of the year. Mrs.
Latham in her West Sussex Superstitions (Folklore
Record, i., 14), relates the following anecdote which
happened to a farmer's wife living near Arundel.
'She is in the habit of making every year a large
quantity of blackberry jam, and finding that less fruit
than she required had been brought to her this autumn,
she said to the charwoman, her assistant, "I wish you
would send out some of your children to gather me
three or four pints more." Ma'am ' exclaimed the
woman, 'don't you know this is the 11th October?
' Yes,' was the answer. 'Bless me ma'am ! and you
ask me to let my children go out blackberrying! Why,
I thought that everybody knew that the Devil went
round on the 10th of October, and spat on all the
blackberries, and that if any person were to eat one on
the 11th, they, or some one belonging to them, would
die or fall into great trouble before the year was out.
No, nothing could persuade me to let any children of
mine go blackberrying on the 11th of October.' This
superstition prevails in Ireland as well as in various
parts of England. There is also a popular notion
that, when the blossoms of the blackberry are seen
at the commencement of June an early harvest may
be expected, —T. F. TRIBTLETON DYER, in The
Graphic,

ABYSSINIAN SOLDIERS IN LONDON.—On Tuesday
morning a number of soldiers belonging to the army
of king John, of Abyssinia, passed through West-
minster on their way to Liverpool, where they will
embark for their native Country. The object of their
visit to England was to pass a course of education at
the School of Musketry, at Hythe, in order that they
might make themselves competent to become in-
structors to the Abyssinian soldiers. They appeared
to be very intelligent men, and although not tall in
stature, they were smart, well-built fellows, and
comported themselves in a manner which showed
they had been carefully drilled and disciplined. They
were accompanied by one of the staff sergeants from
the College at Hythe, who states that the Abyssinians
have been most earnest and attentive in their studies,

and that they return to their own country quite com-
petent to impart the necessary instruction to their
fellow-soldiers.

LOOKING FOR GOLD.—There are at this time scat-
tered through the mountains of California 2,000 pro-
spectors. Their lives are spent in looking for signs of
gold. They are poor, and their dress proclaims it.
They live on hope and scanty food, and never refuse
to "take something." Pick in hand, their sharp
eyes are quick to spy a speck of gold in the frag-
ment of quartz turned up. The country is covered
with their little shafts and with stakes marking

their pre-emption claims, always 1,200 feet plonk
the supposed outcrop of the vein. Of 1,000
so marked, perhaps one or two may amount to
something, and one in 1,000 of these adventurers, after
a life of privation, may succeed in realizing a small
competency. But they average happier lives than
most people. They imagine themselves prospective
millionaires. A bit of quartz with three specks of
gold seen through a magnifying glass sets them wild.
There's million's in it. But their gypsy life and its
happy excitement unfit them for quiet enjoyment. In
age some give it up, and go back to the wilderness and
to the excitement of prospecting adventure.
NOTES ON WIDOWHOOD.—Speaking of widowhood
(says the New York correspondent of the Rochester
Democrat), some instances have occurred in this city
of extraordinary duration. Mrs. Alexander Hamilton
survived her husband fifty-one years. Had her life
been prolonged three additional years she would have
reached a full century. The inscription which marks
her grave is a model of simplicity. It reads thus:
"Eliza, daughter of Philip Schuyler, widow of
Alexander Hamilton, born at Albany, August 9, 1757.
Died at Washington, November 5, 1854. Interred
here." Another prolonged instance was that of Mrs.
Capt. James Lawrence, the widow of the captain of
the Chesapeake. She was 25 at the time of her hus-
band's death (being seven years his junior), and she
survived him fifty-two years, being 77 at the time of
her death. On the other hand, Mrs. Washington,
widow of our first President, only survived the latter
less than three years. One of the most striking in-
stances of widowhood in British records is found in
Mrs. Garrick. She was 55 at the time of her hus-
band's death, and survived him forty-three years, thus
reaching the extraordinary age of 98. The longevity
in this case is the more striking when one recalls the
remark made by this woman to Dr. Johnson as they
gazed on her husband's portrait, "that death was
now the most agreeable thought."
HEARING THE CUCKOO FOR THE FIRST TEKE.—A
correspondent of Notes and Queries, writing from
Worksop, says :—Hereabout, and at my old home
in Derbyshire, and I have no doubt all through
the Midlands, it is the custom to turn your money on
hearing the cuckoo, for the first time. If you have
gold, you will have plenty of it till the cuckoo comes
again; if silver, you will always have enough; and if
your store is only " copper," you will never be short.
If you hear the bird suddenly close at hand on the
right it is good luck, and the reverse if heard on the
left.
THE AMERICAN TOURIST.—M. Albert Wolff, who
has been travelling in Switzerland, describes it as a
curious country inhabited by two races, French and
German, and where only English is spoken. "Every
three or four years," he says, " when I return to
Switzerland, I find the same Americans in the same
hotels ; their life is regulated like a Geneva clock;
some come to Switzerland to admire Alpine nature,
others to eat slices of bread and jam which after
the Jungfrau form the grandest spectable that it is
possible to contemplate. This is not a chrono-
meter in the whole town of Geneva regulated with
more precision than an American tourist: there is not
the smallest unforseen element in his movements.
From December to April he is at Nice ; from May to
the end of June he embellishes Paris; July sees him
again on the shores of the lake of Lucerne. On the
Ist of August the Americans break off into two
groups • one goes to Oberland by way of Interlaken,
the other goes to Chamounix to worry Mont Blanc.
In the second fortnight of September they meet on the
lake of Geneva, where they remain until it is time to
return to Nice."
TIMBER IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. Though the
agricultural capabilities of British Columbia may not
be so great as other parts of Canada, its mines are
doubtless very rich, and from a recent report of
Professor Dawson, of the Dominion Geological Sur-
vey, its forests are of great importance. Many
first-class mills have been established in various
parts of the country, and the total annual product is
stated to be about 200,000,000 ft., of which 25,000,000 ft.
is exported to other countries, 25,000,000 ft. used
at home, and 150,000,000 ft. sent to California.
Professor Dawson estimates that 110,000,000
acres ( or two-third of the whole province)
ire covered with timber. The Douglas fir
or Oregon pine is the most valuable commercial tree.
It frequently exceeds eight feet in diameter above the
ground, and rises to a height of from 200 to 300 ft.,
forming large and dark forests. The western hemlock
an i red cedar are the other important trees of the
province, both of which, the latter especially, grow to
a great size. When the great plains of Canada become
populous, the mines and forests of British Columbia
should be of great importance, and their produce
ought to provide a large and profitable traffic for the
Canadian Pacific Railway.
A WANT OF 'UNION IN THE AUSTRALIAN-COLONIES.
—Lord Ellesmere, who has been on a visit to the
Australian Colonies, has been much struck by the
want of union among them, not only as to their fiscal
systems, but many other matters. Addressing a
meeting at Worsley on Saturday, he said that even
in the matter of railways each colony had a different
gauge. The result was that goods sent from one
colony to another had to be transhipped, which was a
great evil and a source of great inconvenience. If
Australia, instead of being split up into four colonies,
could be induced to go -in for federation of govern-
mesas, it would become a vast empire in the southern
hemisphere, which might rival any country in the
northern.
THE BEET-ROOT SUGAR YIELD.—The Journal des
Fabricants de Sucre gives an estimate of this season's
yield of beet-root sugar in Europe. Germany is put
down for 570,000 to 600,000 tons ; Austria will pro-
duce 475,000 ; France, 375,000; Russia, 225,000;
Belguim and Holland, 100,000 : in all about a million
and three-quarters of tons, or 80,000 more than last
year. In Austria and Germany the factories are
already at work ; but the French and Belgian crops
are late, and, in consequence of the excessive rains,
great fears are expressed in the reports as to the quality
of the yield.
LUMINOUS PAINT.—As people in the country villages
have been unable to see the apertures in the wall
letter-boxes after dark, Mr. Rea, the Post-office
surveyor for the Eastern Counties district, has caused
the apertures of the wall boxes in the neighbourhood
of Cambridge to be encircled with luminous paint.
The experiment has been successful.
RATHER DISAPPOINTING I—A Long Island man dis-
covered a sulphur spring on his farm and for a time
visions of coming wealth danced the raquet through
his brain. After planning what style of a car-
riage he would ride in, and where he would
procure the marble for the front of his new resi-
dence he organized, a stock company, inducing
several capitalists to take hold with him. A quantity
of the water was sent to New York for analysis and
the company sat down to quaff fluid sulphur and await
returns. They came in an autograph letter from the
chemist in these words: "If you will move your old
stable about twenty feet from your well, you will have
less sulphur."
THE LAND QUESTION IN SCOTLAND.—A meeting of
farmers was held on Monday in the Ellon district of
Aberdeenshire, at which a resolution was unani-
mously passed indicating the necessity for land law
reform. It was resolved to petition the Government
to consider the present depressed state of agriculture
with a view of removing its causes, and the necessity
was urged for a measure for Great Britain similar to
that recently passed for Ireland. It was further re-
solved to appoint a committee to confer with land-
lords and demand a revaluation of farms.
AGRICULTURAL PROSPECTS.—The fine weather has
made everybody busy. It has also improved the con-
dition of the root crops, dry sunshine being now the
one thing needful to bring mangels and swedes to
maturity and a fair weight per acre. Trifolium looks
well, and the fine weather has doubtless resulted in a
fair breadth of tares being put in very favourably.
Store stock does not improve in value SB the bulk of
winter fodder must certainly be small. One of the
difficulties of the position is where to obtain sound
seed wheat; present appearances suggest that it will
have to come from the Continent to Europe.—Mark
Lane Express.
AN ECCENTRIC WILL—Mr. Charles Elliot, a well-
to-do farmer of Knox, Me., who died last month,
aged 73 years, left a will containing some queer
features. Among other things it provides : " I
further bequeath and say that if Charles or George B.
Elliot, legatees above named, or either of thenn or
any one of my grand-children (though yet unborn),
or their 'children shall use tobacco in any form, either
to smoke or chew, or drink any ardent spirit or
alcoholic liquors in any way, unless prescribed
by a physician under oath that it is neces-
sary and that to last but thirty days, after
this my will is approved by the court, they shall
for each offence of using drink as aforesaid be cut off
from their dower in my property for six months for
the first offence and one year for each subsequent
offence and for one year of total abstinence of its use
his or their dower to be restored as before provided.
Their said share or shares se cut off to be disposed of
and divided the same as provided in the case of their
decease." In a codicil Mr. Elliot adds other restric-
tions, as follows :—"That said section shall include
gambling in the ordinary sense of the term or betting
money or other valuable consideration subject to the
same limitations and conditions as aforesaid in the
section relative to tobacco and ardent spirits."
EDMUND GALLEY. —Mr. Edward Johnson, M.P.
for Exeter, has received the following letter from the
office of the Secretary of State :—" Whitehall, Sept.
12, 1881. Sir,—With reference to your recent appli-
cation on behalf of Edmund Galley, I ain directed by
the Secretary of State to acquaint you that, after full
consideration of this case, he has decided to grant him
a sum of £l,OOO as compensation, and that the
Treasury have at his request authorised an advance
for this purpose from the Civil Contingencies Fund.
The money will be transmitted at once to the
Governor of New South Wales who will be instructed,
through the Secretary of State for the Colonies, to
invest it in the purchase of land for Galley's benefit,
or to remit it to him in any other way that he may
think best." The case has excited considerable in-
terest in the west, Galley having been well known
there,

PAST PASSAGE FROM THE CAPE. —On Sunday
morning the Union Company's Royal Mail steamer
Pretoria, Captain Larmer, arrived in Plymouth front
the Cape, having made the fastest run known. She
left Capetown on August 30 at 4.50 p.m., eight hours
after the ill-fated Tu,eton sailed out of the port of Algoa
Bay, St. Helena, 4th inst., 9.30 p.m.; and 'Madeira,
14th, 10 a.m. The length of passage was 18 days 11
hours, 15 minutes or with 5 hours 25 minutes total
detentions excluded, the actual steaming time was 18
days 5 hours 50 minutes. The time occupied in the
run to Plymouth from Maderia was 3 days 18 hours.
The Durban of the same company's service, had
hitherto made the best run, having reached Plymouth
on July 24, 1881 vitt St. Helena, in a passage of 18
days 17 hours 35 minutes minus detention, actual
steaming time 18 days 9 'hours, 10 minutes. The
Pretoria has earned on this occasion about £l,OOO as
premium alone for her quick work, this being outside
the regular mail subsidy. It is the largest sum ever

granted.
THE LATEST WooLvviali INrANT.—The monster
lately tried at Woolwich Arsenal is one of a very
expensive and gigantic family of 100-ton guns, destined
for the fortifications of Gibraltar and Malta, and
seeing the enormous scale of everything connected
with them, incloding their cost to the country, it is a
matter for congratulation that results so satisfactory
were realised. This huge engine of war is 341 t. long,
tapering down from 6ift. at the breech to 2ift. at the
muzzle, the charge is 4,500 lbs. of powder, the shot
weighing 2,000 lbs. The incidental arrangements
necessary to make things "go off" smoothly and
pleasantly include the use of a horse and cart, a tram-
way and trolly, and a highly complicated system of
hydraulic machinery for • traversing " and " depress-
ing " the gun and ramming home the very responsible
"charge.' All being prepared, it was discharged
with a mighty roar, which filled the air with smoke,
dust, and debris, the registered velocity of the pro-
jectile being 1,570 ft. per second.
A NICE CHANGE.—Giddy Thing.—Good gracious,
Mr. Mole! and have you actually been spending a
whole month at Slocum Podger ? Why, you must have
had it all to yourself! Solid Young Man.—Yes, that's
what I liked. Giddy Thing.—Oh I—Judy. .

A FACT FOR NATIJRALISTS.—A few days ago a
party of gentlemen were shooting in the neighbour-
hood of Blackwood, near Gelligroes, when a valuable
setter bitch woo bitten by a viper. The poor animal
almost immediately showed symptoms of the venomous
bite of the viper, in fainting, sickness, and ozcasional
vomiting. On the following day the keeper visited
the same spot, and discovered the reptile basking on a
heap of stones, and a number of young vipers around
her. When he approached her, he could plainly see
the mother opening her mouth, and the young vipers
crawling in. Whe i killed, eleven young ones made
their appearance, alive and active' and of the same
colour as a mackerel. The length of the viper was
2ft. 6in., and the young vipers 6in, each.
DISUSED BOOKS FOR THE SHIPPING.—The TiMahaa
published the following letter: "Sir,—The tens of
thousands of disused books and magazines sent during
the vresent year to the Missions to Seamen, 11,
Buckingham-street, Strand, London, W.C., have all
been placed on board outward-bound ships by
the 24 chaplains and 39 Scripture readers employed
in 46 seaports. Would your readers collect from their
neighbours parcels, hampers, boxes, or sacks of dis-
used Bibles, Prayer-books (specially), hymn-books,
reading books, magazines, and periodicals for sailors,
and send them to me, or to the Missions to Seamen
chaplains at any of the principal seaports, but
specially at South Shields, at Nile-street, Hull, at
Portland, at Plymouth, at Falmouth, at Newport
(Monmouthshire), at Cardiff, or at Penarth ? Our
small printed book-notices placed on church boards,
would serve to relieve many bookshelves for the
benefit of merchant seamen', fishermen, and bargemen.
Yours faithfully, WILLIAM DewsoN, Commander,
R.N., and Secretary.—Missions to Seamen, 11,
Buckingham-street, Strand, London, W.C."

SUICIDE OF AN ENGINEER.—The Port Elizabeth
Telegraph of the Nth ult. reports the death, by his
own hand, of Mr. John Hamilton Wicksteed, C.E.,
resident engineer of the Van Staaden's River water
scheme, and engineer to the Town Council of Algoa
Bay. He had been missing for several days from his
office at the Town-hall, and his greatcoat, portman-
teau, and travelling-bag were in the office, apparently
prepared for a journey. Search parties were set
to work in various directions, and at length his
body was discovered in the bushes between Shark's
River and what is known as Happy Valley, on
slightly rising ground, but surrounded by bushes. The
deceased was lying on his back with a single-barrelled
pistol in his right hand, the butt near his chest, and
the muzzle of the pistol in the direction upwards
towards his head. From examinatien it appeared
that the weapon must have been discharged into his
mouth, for the ball had come out at the top of the
forehead, near the left temple. There was apparently
no indication of struggle, and the surrounding bushes
were undisturbed. Mr. Wicksteed had not been in
good health lately, and he had occasionally showed
great signs of depression of spirits and an overworked
brain. The coroner's inquiry resulted in a verdict of
" Tempory insanity."
THE CROPS IN MANITOBA.—The last reports to
hand from Southern and South-Western Manitoba,
dated the middle of August, state that the harvest was
expected to yield an average of fully 25 bushels of
wheat to the acre, and oats a still greater quantity.
Many instances, of course, occur of much larger re-
terns-410 to bushels of wheat and 90 bushels of
oats to the acre—but there a i.O t..stences where
the wheat will probably only yield from 15 to eo ...a
oats 50 bushels per acre, which, of course, tends to
pull down the general average.
THE MARKET OF THE WORLD.—England becomes
more or more the market of the world, and the latest
illustration of this is the consignment of frozen game
and fish which a day or two back found its way from
New South Wales to the Lord Mayor of London. TO
that august civic functionary have come not only thir-
teen kargaroos, twelve brace of ducks, and a lot of wild
turkeys, but such hitherto unknown delights in the
shape of fish as flatheads, schnappes, and guard fish.
What they are like the public here do not, of course,
as yet know; but they may constitute a distinct gain
to the European kitchen. The advent of the Lord
Mayor's present is only the earnest of what Sydney
proposes to accomplish. We may shortly expect to
feast upon frozen kangaroo and schnappes, always
supposing that they stlit the public taste. We cannot
find everything we want in England, but we evidently
know how to get it.—Daily Telegraph.
FATAL TRICYCLE ACCIDF.NT.—On Friday in last
week Mr. and Mrs. Edward O'Brien, of Tottenham,
left home for a trip by tricycle to Buntingford, Herts,
intending to return in the evening. They reached
Buntingford safely, but on their return, in descending
a hill, the speed of the machine became so increased as
to alarm the riders. Mr. O'Brien endeavoured to stop
the tricycle by giving it a turn, and his wife jumped
off at the same moment. This had the effect of throw-
ing the tricycle over, and the gentleman was thrown
out with great violence. He fell upon his head, and
his wife, who had escaped with a shaking and a few
bruises, on going to render assistance, found her hus-
band insensible. He never spoke afterwards, and died
in a few minutes. An inquest was held upon the body,
and a verdict of "Accidental death" returned.
DISCOVERY or A NEW CoAL SEAM.—The mining
engineers of Lord Dudley have just discovered at
Broad Lanes 'Colliery an acre of coal fourteen yards
thick, at a distance of six yards from the surface.
The coal is of excellent quality, and will be get by
moans of open works, shafts being dispensed with. As
the district is thickly populated, the cavities will be
filled up with earth as the coal is removed.
A REAL SALVATION ARMY.—The London Fire-
Brigade.—Pun
THE POPULATION OF INDIA.—What is to be the
ultimate population of India? A census just com-
pleted gives the total at nearly 253,000,000—an in-
crease on the last census of nearly 13,000,000. There
appears to be an excess of women over men of over
5,000,000, which for social reasons is no doubt a less
striking disproportion than exists in this country.
This progression of population is a natural result of
the order which British rule imposes on India, but it
immensely increases the responsibility of the Govern-
ment, and renders it all the more necessary that the
famine fund should not be diverted to any other
channel.
WASTE LANDS.—The waste lands of the United
Kingdom cover 31,861,040 acres, 9,551,616 acres of
of which are in England, 4,747,371 in Ireland,
15,226,110 in Scotland, 2,230,840 in Wales, and 105,103
in the Channel Islands. Of this great area, about
11,861,010 acres are supposed to be not worth the
interest of money spent in cultivation of any sort, but
the remaining 20,000,000 are fairly well fitted either
for good pastures, root crops, or arable land.
JOYS OF THE SEASIDE.—Brown: "What beastly
weather! And the glass is going steadily down! '
Local Tradesman "Oh, that's nothing, sir. The
glass has no effect whatever on our part of the
Coast "—Punch.
HEIGHT, WEIGHT, CHEST GIRTH, ETC., OF MAN.—
It appears, from certain tables prepared for and ipub-
lished in the report of the Anthropolotnetric Com-
mittee, that the mean height at five years of age is
3ft. sin., and at fifty years, 5f t. Sin. The mean
weight with clothes, for which 71b. was allowed, was
4st. 91b. at ten years, and list. BPb. at seventy. At
ten the mean chest girth was 264 n., at forty 36iin.
Strength, as indicated by the drawing power of the
arm, showed a mean equal to 351 b. at the age of
eleven, 801 b. at from twenty-five to thirty years, and
701 b. at fifty years.
A MAN SHOPPING—If you want to torture the
average than, send him shopping (says the Boston Post).
More misery cannot be heaped upon him, especially
if he has got to go to a store where the clerks are
ladies and he doesn't know exactly what he wants to
buy. A lady clerk has such a way of utterly crush-
ing a man and making him realize his ignorance. We
had a little experience the other day. We wanted
enough cotton to pack a set of jewellery in a box some
two inches square. This cotton we set out to purchase.
We had an indefinite idea we could get it at a big
variety store on Tremont-street, and we drifted
around that way. But when we got there and
looked in, we didn't have the nerve to enter. It was
crowded, and we didn't know which way to turn after
we got there, and we felt that we should get lost there,
and altogether it was no use. We wouldn't do it. So
we went round to Tremont Row and finally found a
store that was comparatively quiet, and there we
entered and explained to the best-natured looking salee-
woman that we wanted some cotton batting. She
said they had it for fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five
cents. We said we'd take the best, and away she went.
Soon she returned, followed by a boy with a roll of
cotton about the size of a beer cask. That was handed
to us. We gazed at it and concluded that it Was
more than we needed for that jewelry box. We said
to the lady: "Madame you are mistaken. We don't
desire to start a wholesale cotton mart, we don't
desire to get up a corner in cotton, we don't run a
burlesque troupe. What we want is about enough
cotton to fill a box two inches square." Several lady
customers overheard us and looked at us and the roll
of cotton. And they kind of snickered, and the clerk
looked at us with a glance of contemptuous pity that
was worse than the laughter of the customers. We
finally got the cotton and fled from the store, but we
had got to feeling so annoyed and mortified that we
didn't get over it all day. And we rather enjoy shop.
ping, for a man,