The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-10-09 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Almost all the flax-spinning mills in the district of
Belfast went on Monday on short time, and, until further
notice, will only work thirty-seven aid a-half hours in the
week instead of flfty-six hours, or four days instead of six.
A project has been started for the opening of a 'Erni.
versal Exhibition in Rome in 1885. It has been supported
warmly in Naples, and a committee has been formed here
for aiding the preparations. Of course, a country which as.
pires to have big ships, a big army, and to send out its people
on voyages of discovery, must have a Universal Prhibition,
and nerhaps it is the soundest of its ambitions.

Railway engines in Kettywar, in the Bombay
Presidency, are deified by some of the more ignorant
natives. Thus at Limri a potter who had long been ill vowed
certain offerings to the "engine god" if he would cure him.
Soon' akerthe potter recovered, dud he duly offered a cocoa-
nut to the engine, much to the edification, and probably the
refreshment of guard and driver.

In an Encyclical letter, dated the 30th ult., the
Pope adverts .to the solicitude of the Popes for the Slav
countries, and thanks Providence for affording him the
opportunity of testifying his paternal affection for them.

Mr. John Sanger writes to state that the rumour
of a lion having escaped from his menagerie in Surrey is
unfounded. He has no lions travelling in England at pre
-
Nut. _ _ _ _ _ _

A meeting was held on Monday night in Newcastle-
on-Tyne, when it was agreed, after a statement by Mr. George
Crawshay, to hold a public meeting to protest against the
going to war with Turkey as unjust and contrary to the
well-being of England, and further that no such war should
be entered upon without the consent of Parliament.
Three persons have been suffocated at Bassano by
the fumes from a vat of wine in fermentation. The first
had descended the vat and the others perished in endea-
vouring to rescue him.
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-
The fan trade of Paris is very considerable. It
includes every style and grade of those graceful adjuncts to
a lady's toilet, from the one franc article that is used for an
hour and then flung aside, up to the exquisite reproductioniof
some artistic fan of the days of Louis XV., with a mounting
of carved mother-of-pearl, and a leaf painted by some famous
artist

On Monday evening, at Eastbourne, an inquest was
held on the body Of the Rev. Samuel Henry Carter, of Jarvis
Brook. The deceased preaehed at the Congregational
church on Sunday morning, and after his sermon, whilst the
congregation were linging a hymn, he fell down in the
pulpit and died before medical assistance could be obtained.
Deceased was sixty-nine years of age, and the cause of death
was syncope.
"A droll toy," says the Academy, "which would
meet with ready sale at river sides, and by ponds in public
parks, can be made by taking a decoy-duck of wood aD4
spreading over it a coat of papier-mache. When dry, split
the paper ducli,thus formed, remove and reunite the 14ves,
put within at the bottom an oval boat-shaped piece of irood,
glue it down, and paint and varnish the whole. A duck thus
formed will float for several days."
Sir H. Drummond Wolff, M.P:,' speaking at a dinner
at Portsmouth on Monday evening, alluded favourably to the
Employers' Liability Bill. Referring to 'Leland, he thought
a leading obstacle to beneficial legislation was the contrariety
of opinion among the Irish members. Anticipating the pos-
sible early meeting of Parliament, he said that a measure to
restore peace to Ireland till there was an opportunity of
further legislation would meet with support on both sides
of the House.

Among the benefits in the late session was an Act
to Abolish Imprisonment for Debt in Scotland, and for the
better punishment of fraudulent debtors. The Act is to
come into operation on the Ist January, on which day al
debtors confined are to be liberated, but each discharge is
not to affect the remedies of creditors.

The Glasgow News i states that not since 1874 has
the month of September seen such a tonnage put into the
water as has been launched from the various yards on the
Clyde during the past month. Even in the great year of the
trade referred to the aggregate tonnage for September was
only 100 tons more. The total tonnage put out by the
various firms on the river last month was 24,900 tons, as
against 17,962 tons in the ccrresponding month last year.
Inquiries have been made for several new vessels, and should
these be booked in addition to the orders already filed, a
good winter season for the trade will be assured.

Sir William Merewether died suddenly on Monday
night. So unexpected was the sad event that Sir William
had made preparations for proceeding to Southampton to
meet his old friend Sir Bartle Frere on his return from South
Africa on Tuesday. Sir William's unexpected death was
due to strangulation of the bowels.
- - - -

Dr. Diplock has held an'inquiry as to the death of
Thomas Stocker, aged 12, and Charles Nutcher, aged 12,
whose dead bodies were picked out of a pond at Acton.
Nutcher was an orphan. The evidence showed that on
Monday afternoon the boys left their homes for a walk.
They were seen going in the direction of a bricktield at
Acton, where there was a ptind containing water to the depth
of•ilve %et. In the evening the boys' clothes were discovered
on the bank of thesond, 5.n7d upon search being made the
bodies of the deceAed lads werejound in the water, where
they had been apparently bathing. The jury returned a
verdict of "Accidental death.'

"Foliage Tints" and " Monastic Hues" are the
fashionable autumn colours for dresses in Paris, appropriate
to the ciiing year and the religious situation. Thus the
clerical tints include "Bishop's purple," " Carmelite,"
" Francisan," " Capucin,"&c., while in the leafy hues there
are "golden moss," "ripe vine branch," "autumn leaf,"
"silver poplar leaf," and "blushing vineshoot," besides
"contented duck," "anxious frog," and "alarmed mouse."
The expenses of the candidates at the late Berwick
election are as follows :—Captain Milne Rome, M.P., £4sf;
Mr. McLaren (Lord Advocate), £477.

An explosion of fire-damp occurred in the Old
Stonelaw Coal-pit, Ruttgrglen, on Monday. Three miners,
named James Evans, James Lyle, and John Robertson, were
proceeding to work, when an uncovered lamp which
Robertson was carrying ignited the gas, and the three men
were badly burned.

During September between fifty and sixty thousand
sheep were carried by special trains on the Highland Rail-
way, and the traffic at present shows no diminution.
Among the recent publications of the Survey of
India is a memoir on the geological structure of the Ram-
kola and Tatapani coal-fields, by Mr. C. L. Griesbach. These
coal-fields form the eastern arm of the great central area of
Gondwana rock, which stretch westwards from Tatapani for
upwards of 200 miles to near Jabalpur, and thence by a long
southeastern prolongation to near ?'arnbalpur, where they
conic into close relation with the Talchir field in Orissa.

In London, on Monday night, a crowded cougre-
pation was present at the harvest thanksgiving service in St.
Paul's Cathedral. The sermon/was preached by the Bishop
of Bedford, who said that if law, was to reign supreme in all
things they we landed at onoe in fatalism and Reeessity ;
and not only Alt there no room for prayer or for answer to
prayer, but there was absoluttly no room for religion and
for moral responsibility. Against that conclusion they all
instinctively rebelled.

A Madrid telegram says the boiler of a steamer
named the Marra burst on Tuesday in Bilbao harbour.
Fragments of the metal were carried horizontally for a dis-
tance of 100 metres, destroying the parapet of a bridge
about seven metres off. Two persons were killed by the ex-
plosion, and several more or less injured.

Mr. Gladstone has broken his rule against present-
ing books to local institutions in favour of the Morpeth
miners. The right hon. gentleman sends to a local institu-
tion, as prizes for the most successful mining students,
copies of his "Gleanings," and he makes the exception ex-
pressly on the ground that the Morpeth miner have chosen
as their member.of Parliament Mr. Burt, "who may justly
be considered as a representatiye of the working classes in
general."
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The Irish National Land Leape ha fil extended it
organisation to Great Britain. Branches have been esta-
blished or are in course of formation in several of the
larger towns. It is intended to hold a series of meetings
throughout the coluary during the winter for the purpose of
explaining and extending the principles of the League.

- - - - -
"Hall Guinea.—Your kind letter has made me
quite happy, and it is so good of you to care so much,
after all the trouble you have met with. We shall not be so
troubled now. There is nothing to reproach yourself with
in all this. Write soon, as it makes all the difference."—
Advertisement in The Times.

The Commander of the United States steamer

Alert reports the discovery of a submarine volcano near Sau
Alessandro, an island in the Pacific.
On Monday evening the Queen, with Princess
Beatrice, Prince Leopold, the Grand Duke of Hesse, the
Hereditary Grand Duke, the Princesses Irene and Alice of
Hesse, attended by the Ladies and Gentlemen of the House-
hold, went to a gillies' ball given by the Prince and Princess
of Wales at Abergeldie.
There were 26 British and foreign wrecks reported
during the past week, making a total of 930 for the present
year, or a decrease of 27S as compared with the correspond-
ing period of last year. The approximate value of property
lost was £730,000, including British £BlO,OOO.

The Queen attended service held in Balmoral Castle
on Sunday morning. In the afternoon the Prince of Wales,
attended by Captain H. F. Stephenson, C. 8., R.N., visited
Her Majesty.
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M.Adolph Fraissinet, formerly deputy for Mar-
seilles, and now Treasurer for the Department of Herault,
was in 1878 the winner of a prize of 100,000 fr. in the lottery
connected with the City of Paris Loan, and he has again
taken a similar stun in the last drawing of the Credit Fon-
der Bonds.

A tablet te the memory of the late Prince Alamayu
of Abyssinia will shortly I>e placed by the Queen in St.
George's Chapel, Windsor, near the cenotaph of the late
Princess Charlotte. The tablet is being designed by Mr. R.
R. Holmes, librarian to the Queen.
The foundation-stones of two new honses in extension
of Mr. Spurgeon's Orphanage for Girls were laid on Monday
by Mr. Palmer, M.P. for Reading, and the Rev. Hugh Stowell
Brown, of Liverpool. the buildings being called after
the towns named, each having largely contributed towards
the outlay involved.

Early on Saturday morning the weather in the
north of Scotland naderwent a sudden change, and all over
the Northern Highlands snow fell in large quantities. The
Cairngorms, the Grampians and the Ross-shire hills,were
covered with fresh snow to a considerable depth, and the
atmosphere was bitterly cold. Hail and sleet also fell in the
evening.

The Court Journal says there is every reason to
believe that Parliataent will meet for the transaction of
bushtess in November, and will not, as is usual, he prorogued
until February.

An inquest has been held in London at the Sessions
House, Westminster, as to the death of a woman, unknown,
who was found in St. James's Park on the morning of the
28th ult. The deceased was well dressed, aged about 3-5,
and wore a wedding ring ; her linen was marked " S. L.
Dr. Batterham stated that death was caused by tke deceased
having taken more than 200 grains of chloroform (about a
dessert spoonful). The body was well nourished. A verdict
was returned of " Death from poison, but how administered
the: e was no evidence to show."
A "go-as-you-please " pedestrian competition com-
menced on the preceding Monday at the Bingley
Birmingham, and concluded on Saturday evening. The
hours of travelling were restricted to twelve hours per diem,
and the entries numbered 31. These conimenced their
week's labours at 12.30 on Monday. Sonic 10,000 people were
present at the finish on Saturday, when the following was
the result :—Noreinae, 336 miles ; Cartwright, ;',4.72 miles
3 lapi ; Day, 361 miles 7 laps ; Ai:Kilian, 337 miles ; Nlason,
314 miles 1 lap; Parry, 313 miles 4 laps ; M'Carthy, 300
miles; Hide! 303 miles; Palmer, 305 miles 0 laps ; Carless,
307 miles; Simpson, 304 miles 2 laps ; and Robson, 300 miles
t, laps.

Up to Tuesday the Duke of Portland and party, on
the liAngwell Moors, Caithness, had bagged 5,420 winged
game and,27 splendid stags.

The office of the Census Department in Craig's.
court, Charing-eross, London, is now open, and the prelimi-
tiary operations of taking the census are in progress, he
country has to be mapped out into about 35,000 enumeration
districts, the limits and area of each having to be clearly set
forth. Instructions and forms have to be prepared for
5,000 census officials, and about seven millions of schedules
and many thousands of other forms have to be printed and
despatched.

Prince Napoleon was at Billach the other day,
travelling under the title of Count Mocalieri. The Prince
was accompanied by a young lady and by young Georges
Lachand, the son of the great advocate of the Paris Bar.
He only staid for a short time at Billach and never left his
carriage, and, it seems, was much annoyed at the crowd of
idlers who gathered round the vehicle while the horses
were being put to. The strict incognito he had been at so much
pains to maintain was completely destroyed by his great
resemblance to the portrait of Napoleon 1., which, painted
hi fresco, adorns the walls of the little inn where the Prince
changed horses. History repeats herself as well in small
things as in great (remarks the Court Journal). Was not
Louis Seize recognised at Varennes by his jikeness to the
effigy upOn the crown piece he flung to the ihniceeper as the
great lumbering doiteh he occupied drove from the inn
door?

The new. French agar Dm-, which cazac into
operation onit.he first of the present month, creates a bounty
of upwards of 2s. 6d. per cent. upon the export of moist re-
fined sugars of all descriptions. Hitherto in Prance the
bounty has been given only upon loaf sugar, on which it is
now reduced nearly one half.
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The Paris correspondent of the Globe, writing on
Monday, says :—" Winter appears to have set in really. The
first ma /Thal& de marrons, or vendor of roasted chestnuts,
has made his entry into the capital, heralding the cold
winter as the swallow does the summer. There was a show
of furs in the Bois de Boulogne yesterday afternoon. Many
&lady was wrapped up to protect her from the cool wind
which swept over the lake, and regret was expressed at the
sudden change in the weather."
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According to a caravan news received at Tiflis, the
second son of the Khan of Merv, with a corps of 9,000 men,
is waiting near the Taschkond river to march against the
Russians under General Scobeleff's command. His younger
brother is assembling a corps of reinforcements. The eldest
brother fell last year at the battle of Geok Tep6, fighting
against the Russians. When the second corps joins the first,
an attack will probably be made.

The annual meeting of the Amalgamated Society of
Railway Servants was opened at Cardiff on Tuesday after-
noon, under the presidency of Mr. 31activer, M.P., who
delivered the customary address. The general secretarythen
read his report, which dealt with the reduction of working
hours on railways, the Employers' Liability Bill, the pro-
posed legislation on the report of the Royal Commission on
Railway Accidents, the compulsory inspection of steam
boilers, and certificates of competency to engine-drivers.
Several other subjects were treated.
Mr. Guildford Onslow-, Mr. Quartennaine East,
Mr. Helsty, of Lymington, and Mr. Edmund Kimber had an
interview with the Claimant in Portsea Convict Prison, on
3fond4'. The Claimant was looking much better and stronger,
though not so stout. With the three first-named gentlemen
the visit lasted only the regulation half-hour, but with his
solicitor it was prolonged a little over an hour, apd was
spent in the discussion of the legal proceedings pending.—
Daily Telegraph.

- - -
Another anecdote is to be added to the many
legends of Arabs and their horses. It is said that President
Grevy, wishing to have two entirely white Arabian mares,
had researches made for that purpose in Africa, and that
after some trouble the animals were found. But the owner
a soheik of the usual disinterestedness, refused to sell
them; and when told they were destined to the ruler of
France he offered te present them to M. Grevy, who, of
course, refused, and sent a nice present to the scheik.

Thenew penny postage stamps havirjg proved success-
fnl, the Post Office authorities are about to issue halfpenny and
thYee-halfpenny stamps of a new design and colour. The new
halfpenny postage stamp is to be green, and of the same size)
as the present penny stamp. In consequence of this altera-
tion the shilling postage and shilling telegre.ph stamps will
be changed from green to a brown colour.
A meeting of the Committee of the Risoa Explosion
Relief Fund was held at NeWfort last Saturday, the Mayor,
Mr. Henry Russell Evans, in the chair. It was reported
that the total fund reached £12,000, and that harvest thanks-
giving collections were coming in remarkably welL Further
sums were expected from this source. The subscriptions
which had been opened in several towns had not yet been
received. About £3,000 more is required to continue the
present allowances to widows and orphans.

The sarcophagus of Roger of Tuscany, Bishop of
Lausanne, who was buried in Lausanne Cathedral in /220,
was opened a few days ago (says the Geneva correspondent
of The Times). The body was almost intact, the features
were perfectly recognizable, an,d the six and a half centuries
had not sufficed to destroy the textures of his episcopal
robes.

An unusual capture has been affected at Aigues
Mortes, on the Mediterranean coast, between Marselides and
Cette. Two whales were beaten up on the rocks, and, after
a desperate struggle with some fishermen, were successfully
taken in tow, and dragged into the waters of the canal,
where they disported themselves in perfect health. One of
the monsters measures about eleven yards in length, and
the other, a younger one, about six yards. It is very rarely
that cetaceans are found in the Mediterranean.
The Moscow correspondent of the Cologne Gazette
says that the news about the marching of a Chinese army
towards Kuldja and a a battle having been fought has
turned out to be pure invention. sews of a genuine eha-
racter has, on the contrary, been received from Kaschagatch,
according to which things on the western frontier of China
are perfectly quiet. The Chinese frontier posts remain as
before composed of Mongol invalids armed with bows.

The Times of India of Sept. 18 says :—"Mr. Vivian
Ashley Eden, son of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, was
out shooting at 'Curse:mg when a snake crossed his path. He
tried to kill it with the butt-end of his gun, but the charge
exploded l
kand lodged in his abdomen. He ingered ten hours
and expired."

The Royal buckhounds go out forest hunting this
month preparatory to the opening of the regular hunting
season in November. A number of red deer have already
been captured in Windsor Great Park by Mr. F. Goodall, the
Queen's huntiman, and his assistants, and conveyed to the
Swinley paddocks in readiness for the forthcoming sport.

On Sunday night, while attending divine service
at the Wesleyan Chapel, Great Homer-street, Liverpool, s.
man named Daniel Ellis, fifty-seven years of age, fell sud-
denly from his seat in an unconscious state. A medical
man, on going to his assistance, found that life was extinct.
The body was removed to the residence of tile deceased,
where his wife stated that her late husban'a had been
during the last three weeks under treatment for heart
disease.
Last week 2 453 births and 1,353 deaths were re-
gistered in London. Allowing for increase of population,
We births exceeded by 32, whereas the deaths were 7 below,
the average numbers in the corresponding week of the last
ten years. The annual death-rate from all causes, which
had been equal to 20r5 per 1,000 in each of the twoprecediniz
weeks, declined to 191. During the thirteen weeks which
ended on Saturday last, the death-rate in the metropolis
averaged 21'3 per 1,000.

Lieut.-General Henry Richmond Jones, C. 8.,
Coknel of Carabiaeers, died rather suddenly on Sunday, at
Brqhton, at the age of 74. The deceased commanded the
Carabineers in the Crimea from August, 1853, including the
battle of Tehernaya, the siege and fall of Sebastopol (medal
with clasp fifth class of liecijidie and Turkish medal) ; he
served in the Indian campaign, commanded at Kirkrowlie
Gengral Penny's column, when Penny was killed by the
enemy's first sot; he commanded the Cavalry Brigade at
the capture or Bareilly, for which he received his C.B.
commanded the left column with Lord Clyde's forces in the
Trans-Cogra campaign and pursuit of rebels (Raptee medal).
A Sunday Society is to be inaugurated in Glsstgow
this mouth, and ill probably arouse considerable anta-
gonism in that strict Sabbatarran city. The object of this
society, as of the other branches, will be the 'aliening of
museums, Art-galleries, libraries, and gardens on Sundays.

M. Offenbach, the celebrated composer of opera
bouffes, died on Tuesday morning rather suddenly, the gout
from which he had long suffered flying to the heart. This
most successful and pcpular composer was a German, and
born at Cologne in 1819. It was only on Monday he attended
the rehearsal at the Varlet& of his latest work, Le Cabaret
de Lilas. The list of the operas he oomposed is legion.

The Earl of Jersey last year let a quantity of land
to labourers and workmen at Middleton Stoney for small
farm cultivation. The result has been so satisfactory to the
earl, and also to the tenantry, that the former has decided
to increase the quantity of ground to be so let.

A public meeting of the inhabitants of Westminster,
presided over by Colonel lialleson, was held on Monday even-
ing in the Riding School at Knightsbridge. Resolutions
were passed, not without some opposition, protesting against
the action now being taken in the name of Englafid with
reference to the Albanian subjects of Turkey, and declaring
that the Porte its fully justifitd in resisting the attempt
made upon Dulcigno until the clauses of the. Treaty of
Berlin favourable to herself shall have been carried out.

A proclamation by the Lord-Lieutenant's authority,
has been posted throughout county Galway offering a re-
ward of £l,OOO to any person or persons who shall within
six months give such information as shall lead to the con-
viction of the person or persons, or any of them, who com-
mitted the murder of Lord Mountmorres. His Excellency
also offers a fall pardon to any person concerned in or privy
to the murder, other than the person or persons e‘lie
actually committed the same, in case of his giving such in-
formation as shall lead to the conviction of the persons or
any of them concerned in the murder. The reward will be
paid on conviction by Mr. Denneby, the resident magistrate
at Oughterard.
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An inquest has been held at the Horton Infirmary at
Milburn on the body of a man named Coleman, who died on
the previous day from injuries received while endeavouring to
remove a large piece of timber which lay on the rails in
front of an approaching train on the Great western Rail-
way. Coleman and two other men were engaged carrying
wood across the line for the erection of a hut, and Coleman
appears to have left a plank lyiLg across the rails while he
went to the hut to speak to his comrades. In the meantime
a train approached, and the driver, seeing the obstruction,
shut off the steam and put on the brake. At the moment
when the engine was within three yards of him Coleman
Jumped towards the wood and endeavoured to remove it,
lie was struck on the shoulder by the engine, thrown into
the four-foot way, and the train of 30 coal waggons passed
over him. A verdict of " Accidental death" was returned.