The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-10-15 00:00:00

SATERDAY, OCT. 15, 1881.

THE AMERICAN ARCTIC EXEDlTlON.—According to
advices from San Francisco, it appears that on the
2nd August the Stars and Stripes were planted on
Wrangell Land, in the Arctic Regions, which was
annexed to the United States. The ceremony was
performed by Lieutenant Reynolds, at the command
of Captain C. L. Hooper, of the United States
revenue cutter Corwin. The Corwin is at present
endeavouring to find out traces of some missing
American whaling ships, and of the Jeannette,
American vessel, no tidings of which have been heard
for some considerable time. In the course of the
search, the Corwin, after a hard fight with floating
ice, lasting about twelve days, got to Wrangell
Land, which it is said has only before been
seen at a distance. A party from the Corwin
went ashore, and a flag of the United States
was planted in a cleft in the name of the Republic.
Tied to the staff was a bottle containing the informa-
tion of the landing and the annexation. A tin was
also suspended in which was a cope of the New York
Herald dated 22nd of March, 1881. Immediately the
flag was floated to the breezes salute was fired from the
Corwin' whilst three hearty cheers rang out from the
crew of the vessel, responded to by those on shcre.
Not the slightest trace of the Jeanytte could be seen.
The Corwin tried to reach Herald Island, but was
forced to go eastwast. It was stated to be the intention
of Captain Hooper to go in the direction of Wrangell
Land again with the hope of falling in with the ship
Rogers and gleaning some news of the Jeannette._

A MEETING OF FAT MEN.—Roton Point, on Long
Island Sound, was lately visited by a number of gentle-
men, large in habit, heavy of tread, but very light of
heart. The most ponderous of these weighed 427
pounds, and the least among them, the " infant " of the
party, as he is endearingly called, turned the scale at _
225 pounds. They went to Roton Point to participate
in the fifteenth anual meeting and clambake of the
Fat Men's Association, and that they did so with some
effect may be judged by the fact that the following
edibles were disposed of by themselves and their
friends :—One thousand chickens, 1,000 lobsters, 1,000
pounds of blue fish, 5,000 ears of corn' 100 bushels of
ni rou clams, 50 bushels of oysters, 5 barrels of hard
shell crabs, 200 pounds of tripe, 3 barrels of sweet
potatoes and 3 barrels of other potatoes.
_ _

MORE THAN SEVEN.—Qranny : "Go away now,
Eva, and don't worry; I'm busy. There's a proper
time for everything, you know.—Eva " Is there,
Gran? Then what's the proper time for hooking sugar
out of the sugar-basin ?"—llun.
AN AESTHETIC WIFE.—" Say, I'll tell you some-
thing if you won't blow it," was the way one man
saluted another on Twelfth street yesterday (says the
Detroit Free Press.)—" All right—go ahead."—" You
won't give it away until I say so ? '—" Not a word."
—" Well, my wife has got to be an sthetic."—:" No?"
—" Sure's your born. I have suspected that she was
working that way for some time past, but it's only
within a day or two that I became positive."—" Well,
that's wonderful. Say, how does she act? "—" Lan-
guid—very languid. She lops around, drawls he - -
words, writes sad poetry, and the sight of an old pie-- _
tin or a banged up chromo entrances her. Congratu-:
late me on my luck."—" I do—l do. That is—"—. F.;
" What ? "—" Don't build hopes too fast. Re sure
you are right and then go ahead. I labored for a
whole year under the delusion that my wife was de-
veloping as an msthetic, and when I came to talk with
her father he said she was always more than half•idiot
by nature. Go slow—go slow. The difference between
an msthetic and a fool is so mighty small that you
can't afford to make a mistake and be placed in a
box." . .

A POLITICAL LOVE STORY. —The son of an old
Jacksonian Democrat, living near the Maryland
border, in Pennsylvania, having been successful in his
suit for the affections of a young lady, asked his sire
one day after dinner for permission to marry (says the
Brooklyn Eagle). The old gentleman lowered his
spectacles, and glancing over them for a moment or
two, quietly asked :—" What's her father? Is he a
free-trader or a protectionist ? "—" I don't know what
he is now," rejoined the prospective son-in-law, "but
when I first visited Mary he was both."—" Both?
Nonsense! "—"Yes, both; he protected her every
time we tried to sneak off, and he was the freest trader
with his boot that I ever came across."
DOMESTIC.—Train up your children in the way they
should go. Ergo, children ought to rise with the
lark, but they should not disturb their parents with
their larking.—Judy.
KILLED BY A BULL.—A.: shocking occurrence took
place on Tuesday at Sundridge Park, the residence of
Sir Edward Scott. Several men were engaged in
whitewashing some farm buildings, when it became
necessary to remove a bull from one end of a shed to
another. For this purpose Henry Lush, the cowman,
unfastened the chain to which the animal was attached,
when it immediately attacked a man named Kendall.
It was beaten off, but turned upon Lush and pinned
him to the wall. It renewed its ferocious attack on
Kendall, and the son of Henry Lush, aged about four-
teen, stopped it with a pitchfork and rescued his
father. Lush, however, died soon afterwards, the
bull having broken nine of his ribs and caused fearful
internal injuries. The animal was afterwards shot by
order of Sir Edward Scott.
THE LABOUR MARKET.—During the week the iron
trade has been very animated. Many manufacturers
in Staffordshire have withdrawn their quotations, and
will only do business on special terms. Increased
activity has prevailed in the coal trade during the last
fortnight, and the advance of is. per ten has not in any
way checked business. In the cotton trade things
have assumed their former aspct, in spite of the stop-
page of mills during the last fortnight. Over 52,000
bales of cotton have been used on the average during
the past five weeks. The prospects of the new
American crop are not so good as were at first antici-
pated, and it is expected that the price will keep high
for some time, but this does not affect the trade, as the
out-turn is very large at the present time. Mills in all
parts of Lancashire are in full operation. In the Man-
chester district the engineering business is somewhat
unsettled. In Nottingham, Northampton, and
Leicester, business is good. A. similar state of things
is als found in the metropolis, where preparations for -
executing winter orders have commenced.

ANOTHER CHANCE GONE !—lrate old Uncle (to
Nephew). " Unnunctual again How is it you never
can keep an appointment? ' ,
—Out-at-elbows Nephew
(coolly). "Because I've never had a, good 'un to keep,
Sir. Now, if you'll get me something light, under
Government, frorn'twelve to two—"--[Exit uncle.]
—Punch.
FROGS EATING FlSH.—Frogs do considerable injury
to young fish in breeding ponds (according to a report
of a German fish-breeder, uho has been suffering from
their depredations for some years past). Having
peopled a pond with young carp of one or two inches
lon, he soon noticed that a number of green frogs ap-
peared, and shortly discovered that the floating breed- -
log-boxes were rapidly losing their inhabitants. One
day he espied a large frog dexterously climbing up one
of the boxes, and watching the young brood within.
Suddenly froggy seized a little carp with his forelegs,
and pushed it down his throat, then swallowed a
second, third, and fourth, when the fish-breeder forth-
with put an end to the marauder's meal and life, and
speedily cleared the pond of all its innocent looking
frogs,
THE LAW OU MARRIAGE.—At a meeting of the
Oxford Diocesan Conference last week, attended by
more than 300 members, including some of the prin-
cipal laymen of the diocese, it was moved by the
Chancellor of the diocese, "That in the opinion of
thia conference all restrictions of marriage on the
ground of affinity depend on the same principle ; that
it is impossible to do away with any one of these restric-
tions without striking at the root of all the rest • and
that any alteration of the present law is to be depre-
cated." The motion was carded after some discussion
without a dissentient vote.
FRENCH DESSERT IN SEASON.—War-nrAtS to crack.
Punch.
WOUNDS OF THE HEA.IIT. —The Lancet says :—"lt
is generality supposed that wounds of the heart kill
immediately, and a correspondent has sent to us a
stag's heart with the left auricle practically annihilated
and the upper half of the left ventricle torn completely
through by a bullet, so that three fingers can be
readily passed through the wound into the cavity.
Notwithstanding the extent of the injury, the stag
ran about sixty yards, the first ten yards up hill.'
The fact is that wounds of the heart are but seldom
immediately fatal, if ever so. We know of no case
of absolutely instantaneous death from a wound
of the heart in any part, or however extensive.
The experience in the battle-field corresponds with
that of the sportsman, who never saw a deer -1
shot through the heart that did not ran some ;
distance.' Wounds of the apex kill comparatively e
slowly, in from one hour upwards; and in one -
case mentioned by John Bell, in which the apex .
was completely severed from the rest of the
organ by a sword cut, the man lived twelve hours. -
Indeed, out of twenty-nine collected cases of injury to - - •
the heart, only two were fatal within forty-eight hours, 7
and in the othere death resulted in periods varying horn • •
fonr to twenty-eight days. Recovery may take place --
even when the wound is extensive, for a bullet leas been --
found embedded in the substance of the heart after a '
lapse of six years from the date of the injury, the
patient having died from a disease of another organ in
no way connected with the lesion. Some little time
elapses before the blood wholly escapes from or fails to
enter the cavities, and the walls continue to contract ,
and propel some of it into the vessels for a much longer
period than is usually thought to be the case."
IMPROVEMENTS IN C-fpuus.--,The new pier at Li-
massol was opeped by Sir Robert Bidaulph on the 6th
inst. with great ceremony, in ,the presence of a large
assemblage of European?, and Cypriotes. The Mayor
and the Mufti Novo present, and preseicted ad-
dresses tn the High Commissioner, dwelling on the
shipping facilities provided by the new pier, and the
prosperity of the country ever since the British occupa-
tion. Sir Robert llicklulph, in reply to a toast in his
honour, ealled attentien to the great expansion of the
trade of lAniessal within the last three years. In 187 S
the exports amounted to £85,900, and the last year to
£143,577.

ri vo;t

-
DID You HEIFER ?—Was the tune the cow Is pre-
verlsially reported to hive died of played on the
"veal "-ii eollo ?—deun,

COUNTERSIGN.—Throughout the siege of Stan*
derton we had given a girl'a name for the countersign.
The men liked it, 'Every night some of them felt that
the gurison Was watched over by her he loved best, „bit
and it came to be the evening's topic with them who
she was to be when the orders were read out. It put .-A1
us about a little to find names, but we did it, only
standing oui. against Jemima, and published a fresh
name every night. The Ara name we hit upon was V-
Alice. Many of us had an Alice we loved at home,
the
ait4
we put her in the front rank. Later on, when the *lt
fort was clean enough, we christened it after her,
and Fort Alice is now the official title of the fort •-tr
which held Standertou, Many were the discussions .
the men had over these names. Violet was one, and I -
remember hearing an obstinate fellow silenced, on 4.1-
ebjocting that it was a flower, not a "gal," by acorn.
rade who explained that "Violet is the flower, we all
know that, but a girl's called Violette, with a 'he."
Another time, when the password was Mag, the fol-
lowing chnversation took place outside the fort
between a sentry and a late-comer.—Sentry. "Who -
comes there ?"—Late-comer : " Friend. '—Sentry :
"Stand, friend. Advance one, and give the sounter.
sign." Late-comer : "I don't know it."—Sentry
"Why, it's Mag ! " Late-corner: "Oh, Magi"
Sentry: "Pam, Mag, all's well."— Blackwell's M.
sine. -