The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-03-06 00:00:00

"Woodman, spare that tree,
Touch not a single bough;
In youth it sheltered me,
And I'll protect it now."

The sentiments in the two poems are almost identical,
though Campbell's are incomparably the more grace-
fully andpoetically expressed. If Mr. Morris had
never seen Campbell's verses the resemblance is, I
think, a very " curious literary coincidence." I
wonder whether any comments were made upon it at
the time Mr. Morris's song appeared.—" W. D." in
Notes and Queries.

WHAT'S THE ODDS ?---Why should M.P.'s fight over
the choice between Quinquennial and Septennial Par-
liaments? After all, 'tis six (minus one) to the one,
and half-a-dozen (plus one) to the other.—Punch.
LICENSED VICTUALLERS AND THEIR VOTES. —Mr.
Knatchbull-Hugessen, M.P., replying to Mr, George
Candelet, of Manchester, sets forth his views as re-
quested with respect to the action of the licensed
victuallers and brewing interests at the approaching
general election. He says that if the trade persists in
demanding pledges from candidates to vote for or
against particular measures, and if they throw their
organisation into the scale against Liberal candidates
who refuse such pledges, the infallible result will be
that they will turr against them the fulfforce and
weight of the growing public opinion against intem-
perance, and will regret, when too late, that they have
suffered themselves to be entrapped into becoming
political partizans. Their wisest and most prudent
course, says Mr. Hugessen, is to stand well aloof from
any political organization, `to vote as individuals
according to their political views, and so maintain
their independent position that questions affecting
their trade may be considered impartially by men of
both political parties. _

PROPOSALS -DT AMATEUR FINANCIERS.—The Pall
Mall Gazette remarks :—" The Chancellor of the Ex-
dchequer is probably favoured more than any other
Minister with suggestions as to the proper mode of
conducting the duties of his office. Ingenious plans
for raising revenue are submitted for his considers-
tion in shoals; stamps on railway tickets, taxes on
everything that can be taxed, from pianofortes to
ships' chronometers, are proposed by amateur finan-
ciers, who not unfrequently announce that in
the event of their projects being adopted they
will expect to be adequately remunerated for the
service that they have rendered to the Exchequer.
It is to be feared that most if not all of the letters pro-
pounding these schemes ultimately find their way to
the wastepaper basket, and that the writers obtain no
compensation for their trouble beyond that of an
acknowledgment of the receipt of their communications.
Yet it cannot be denied that there are many articles
in common use that seem to invite taxation, but which
escape scot-free apparently without just cause. Why,
for instance, should not bicycles be subject to a licence
duty? A small tax on perambulators would also be
not altogether unpopular."
THE CONFLAGRATION AT URFA.—About five weeks
ago a fire broke out in the little town of Urfa, better
known to the European public by its Biblical name of
Ur, and highly venerated throughout the Orient as
the birthplace of Abraham (caps the Daily Telegraph),
The house in which that celebrated patriarch was born
is still standing in Urfa; it is called "Bet Chalil
Allah "—the house of God's friend—and hundreds of
pious pilgrims visit it annually. When the
conflagration took place on the 24th of January,
many of the inhabitants of Urfa took refuge in
Abraham's dwelling, and carried thither all
their valuables, persuaded that the flames would
respect the structure in whish so holy a
personage first saw the light of day. Strange "to say,
their faith in the inviolability of this ancient sanctuary
was justified by events; for while the fire raged all
night long in Urfa, destroying a large number of
houses in the vicinity of "Bet Chalil Allah," that
edifice, as well as one or two buildings immediately
adjacent to it, remained absolutely unharmed. This
triumphant vindication of its protecting virtue has, so
It would appear, greatly enhanced its reputation for
sanctity; and doubtless the pecuniary results of the
present year's pilgrimages will enable the Urites to
surmount their losses by fire in a highly satisfactory
manner.
MUMPY AND GRUMPY.—First Boy: "Hallo, Billy,
got the mumps? "—Second Boy: "Yes, an' a wish
you'd got 'em as bad."—Pun.
THE MARRIAGE OF DWORCED PEnsoNn.—The Eng-
lish Church Union has just passed the following reso-
lution :—" That this meeting of the English Church
Union desires to convey the expression of its thanks to
Mr. Blennerhassett for his endeavour, by his ' Mar-
riage law Amendment Bill,' to relieve the clergy of
the Church of England from the statutory obligation
Imposed upon them by the Divorce Act of 1857 in re-
gard to the
_re-marriage of divorced persons, and, at
the same time, to record its opinion that the clause in
the Bill by which marriages solemnized in the places
of worship of all recognized religious bodies are placed
on the same footing—as far as the presence of the
Registrar is concerned—as marriages solemnized by
the clergy of the Church of England, deserves the
cordial support of Churchmen."
THE DUCHY OF LANCASTER.—The accounts for the
Duchy of Lancaster for the year ended the 21st of
December, 1879, show that the total receipts in the year
year were £76,185 19a, 21 The disbursements, in-
cluding £41,000 paid for Her Majesty's use to the
Keeper of Her Majesty's Privy Purse, amounted to
£58,463 is. Bd. The balencs (less £ll4 6s. 7d., due
to capital) amounted to £17,276 is. 101. The capital
account shows that the balance of stock on December
21, 1878, was 256,239 3s. id; on December 21, 1879,
it was £58,277 7s, sd.
PEsandiaT PRECEPT.—Hope for the worst.—Punch.

THE CZAR'S COOLNESS.—A Paris paper vouches for
an incident proving the Czar's coolness. Old Prince
Suwaroff, grandson of the famous general, is amis.
bouloa to go and play whist every night with his
Sovereigtt The evening of the explosion at the
Winter Palace, not having beard the news, he went
as usual, &nu found the Imperial family assembled.
The Czar, after a few minutes conversation on what
had occurrrd, said, "Well, suppose we now pro-
ceed to our whist." After playing two rubbers, the
Czar said, "lam going to visit the injured; wait
for me." Returning shortly afterwards, he said,
"Let us resume our whist,' and played two more
rubbers.
VERY PRONOUNOED.—S Nell (to old gentleman) :
' Can yen tell me, Sir, if the next station is Ernill ?"
—Old Gentleman; " Ernill ? I don't know such a
place. If you mean Herne Hill—yea,
s it is the next
station,"—Fun.
LOYAL TO DITTY AND UNSHAKEN IN CouhAQZ•
The Evening Standard says :—" in the narrative f
that attempt on the Czar, the interestp the details o
which has not faded out notwi the
feverish
of .
thstanding e evens',
rapidity with which history is enacted nowadays,
aend Swiss
tin-
shaken
did under Louis
nothing more redeems the hasoness of the scene than
the fidelity of the Imperial Guards from Finland.
These brave soldiers
behaLveodyalmuto dutychas th
the aPpalling chaos around
XVI.
shaken in courage 131
than, their first thought was. not of them-
s Sovereign. When
selves but of their
colonel of the ' the explosion
took place,
tb°ofc the disaster, raengra V ran up
to the theatre
fr cried, "To
sentinel, one Go d n ouro —his name
i arms," when A
deserves
to be recorded—rose from his prostrate con-
dition on the ground, where •he had been overturned
shock, and rung the alarm-bell, Fifteen unin-
by the
en answered to the summons and , rushed into
Jared in dl .
h • the p 'dace ee ess of peril. There was in this an
unrefieoting courage and self-forgetfulness which
Bkould fill every true soldier with pride. When the
pr6obrajenski Regiment was called up to the relief
of their comrades of the Finland Corps, the latter re-
fused to yield the post of honour and danger until
they were ordered off by their own officers. The
wounded were taken to the hospital in court
equipages. At the moment the remnant of the Fin-
land detachment was about to return to its barracks,
it was discovered that there w,tl4. hobefly
,of proper
rank to carry back the reginientia *c`olours:— All bad
bean either killed or mutilated. Telitchkine, a non-
commissioned officer, who was already in &carriage on
the eve of starting for the operating room, insisted on
getting out, and, although hacked in the head and in
the left arm, insiated on bearing the standard of his
corps back to quarters. Once having laid it there, he
quietly went to the surgeons and submitted to their
necessary cruelties with the calmness of a stoic, Such
men as this renew our faith in mankind. This
obscure sergeant had in him the - timber of genuine
heroism."

A NEW APPLICATION or THE TELEPHONE —The
Court Journal says, " The Times is about to apply the
telephone to the purposes of Parliamentary reporting.
It is Edison's instrument which is to be used, the same
which is already employed on a small male in the City,
to enable busines houses and individuals to communi-
cate with each other through a central station. The
reporter instead of writing his turn 'as at present will
speak it into the instrument in The Ti;nes' room adjoining
the gallery of 'the House of Conumns. At the other
end of the wire in Printing House•square an operator
will sit at a type-setting machine, and the speeches '
will go into print without the medium of manuscript
at all. This will economise time and manual labour,
but will require a considerable amount of mental dex.
terity, so to speak, on the part of the reporter. The
Times' report of Parliament, like that of the other
leading morning papers, is toa great extent an original
composition. Except in the case of verbatim reports,
the speeches are filtered through the reporter's mind,
and are presented always wholly in the reporter's own
words. To dictate a good report, presenting the whole
of the speaker's argument in, say, one sixth of its
original compass, will therefore be no easy matter."
STRANGE, BUT TRUE.—That the Czar should find the
Winter Palace "too hot to hold him.—Funny Folks.

AVERAGE PRICES OF Burma CORN.—The ollow.
ing are the averege prices of British corn for the week
ending Feb. 28, as received from the inspectors and
officers of Excise :—Wheat 435.; barley, 355. 2d.;
oats, 22a. 3d. per imperial quarter. Corresponding
week last year :—Wheat, 38s. ; barley, 33. 10d. ; oats,
190. 7d.

AMERICAN AND CANADIAN FOOD. The total
number of live cattle landed at Liverpool during the
week was 413, of sheep 522, and of pigs 150, the con-
veying steamers being the England, the Lake Winn!.
fred, and the Pennsylvania. The imports of dead
meat amounted to 4,600 quarters of beef, 1,000 carcases
of mutton, and 369 carcases of pigs. The Wyoming
brought 1,888 quarters of beef and 650 carcases of
mutton; the Celtic, 624 quarters of beef and 200 car-
cases of mutton; the City of Chester, 940 quarters of
beef, 150 carcases of mutton, and 164 pigs; and the
Pennsylvania, 1,148 quarters of beef and 200 pigs.
AN ENznarerio SPORTSMAN.—The following list of
animals shot by the Itsjah of Vencatagiri, a well.
known chief in Southern India, and his followers last
year is interesting :—Two tigers, two cheetas, one
bison, two porcupines, six bears, three hyenas, 13
elks, 11 stags, 51 wild hogs, 85 deer, three chamois.
Of these his Highness shot one tiger, one cheeta, and
29 other animals, while the other tiger was shot by
the Rajah of Bobbili during a short stay at Vows-
tagiri, and the rest of the animals were killed by the
Rajah's party.
THE WISDOM TEETIL—It is frequently said that
uncivilised people havean advantage over the civilised
in their exemption from unsoundness of teeth. Among
the civilised, the " Wisdom-teeth " are very apt to
become impaired, and these with other defects are
looked on as results of civilisation. But Professor'
Flower, of the Royal College of Surgeons, in a dis-
course, to the Odontological Society on abnormal den-
tition, accompanied by examples from all parts at the
world, showed that "defective condition of the
wisdom-teeth is no monopoly of the most highly
civilised races, but may also be found among the
moat abject and degraded of the whole human
species." In the Eskimos and other Mongol races,
the instances of entire absence of wisdom-teeth are
numerous.

SCHOOL ATTENDANCL—The Neue Pre* PreSSe makes
the following comparison of schools and school attend-
ance in different European countries :—Germany, with
a population of 42,000,000, has 60,000 schools, and an
attendance of 6,000,000 pupils; Great Britain and
Ireland, with a population of 34,000,000, has 58,000
schools and 3,000,000 pupils; Austria-Hungary, with
a population of 37,000,000, has 30,000 schools and
3,000,000 pupils; France, with a population of
37,000,000, has 71,000 schools and 4,700,000 pupils;
Spain, with a population of 17,000,000, has 20,000
schools and 1,600,000 pupils; Italy, with a population
of 28,000,000, has 47,000 schools and 1,900,000 pupils;
and Russia, with a population of 74,000,000, has
32,000 schools and 1,100,000 pupils.

EXTRAORDINARY TENCH CATCHING IN SWITZERLAND.
—A rather curious incident of catching tench on a
small mountain lake in Switzerland is reported in the
last issue of the German Fishing Gazette as follows
(says a correspondent of Land and Water) :
Towards the middle of February several inhabitants
of Brevine, Canton Neuenberg, were engaged in cut.
ting holes (for the purpose of procuring water) through
the ice of the frozen lake of Tuillibre, near the village
of Brevino, when to their great astonishment a great
number of tench jumped through the holes just made,
and, gaspinff after air, teimbled upon the icy cover of
the lake, quite at the mercy of the surprised villagers.
About 2501 b. of fish were thus caught in the space of
a few minutes. The lake-3,125ft. above the level of
the sea—was deeply frozen over, and it appears that
nobody had thought before this occurrence of making
openings In the ice and covering the holes with straw
In order to prevent them from freezing in again, and
thus to provide air for the imprisoned fish. The tench
was near suffocating, and in their desperate condition
actually jumped through the holes in the ice as soon
as they were cut in order to satisfy their craving after
fresh air."

THE POPULATION OF SWEDEN.—The report for 1878
on the statistics of the population of Sweden has just
been published. The population at the close of 1878
amounted to 4,531,863, being an increase for the year
of 106 per cent. About 15 per cent, of the whole
population now reside in towns, there being a steady
increase in that direction since 1830. The great
numerical excess of..the female population has been
for many years decreasing; at present the ratio is
about 1,055 women for every 1,000 men. The mor-
tality for the year shows the very low figure of 181 per
cent., although there were severe epidemics of scarlet
fever and diphtheritis. The total number of deaths
(excluding children born dead) was 81.418.

SUPERSTITION IN RUSSlA.—Witchoraft in Russia is
still firmly believed in by the peasantry to Judge from
a statement in the Cologne gazette, which affirms that
there is setreely a village without its " Kaldnnya,"
(witch), "Klikusha" (screaming woman), or " Ynro-
divi " (inspired idiot), and that the belief in men and
cattle being bewitched is almost universal. The
fanatic " Chlisti," a sect whose members fast and
scourge themselves into a state of mania, is widespread,
_but these superstitious opinions are solely confined to
the rural population.

GRANDFATHER'S RIDDLE —Grandpa : Your twen-
tieth birthday, is it. Ethel? Why, bless me that's
exactly the same number as Tye had.—Ethel: Oh.
grandpa I why, you're eighty! Grandpa: Alt, yes;
yet you have had many birthdays. There is a riddle
for ye! [N.B.-1s it necessary to give the answer?
The old gentleman was born on the 29bh of February,
eighty years ago.—Punny Polk&

- --
EXCITING SCRNR AT A Fin,—At an early hour on
Sunday morning a scene of a very painful nature was
witnessed at a fire which was discovered burning at a
home situated et No. 193, Lever-street, London. Several
of The inmates were seen at the windows pleadinglor
help, their retreat by the staircase being cut off by the
fire. The front room on the second floor was occupied
by Mr. and Mrs. Hodges and family. Three of the
children were saved by being thrown into the arms of
the lookers-on. Fortunately, Mr. and Mrs. Hod
although they jumped out of the window, escaped
comparatively unhurt. The heat was so intense that
the crowd was driven back from the house on fire,
when a man was seen at the bed-room window. Before
assistance could reach him he leaped into the street,
and was so seriously injured that he had to be removed
to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. A young man, named
Robson, aged seventeen years, also jumped out of the
first floor window, and was removed to the hospital.
While the firemen were still playing upon the build.
lug, it was rumoured that an infant was missing. .Not.
withstanding the suffocating smoke and intense heat,
Mr. T. Hoteon, a member of the brigade, stationed at
Olerkenwell, ascended the fire escape and effected an
entrance into the second floor, where he found the
missing infant carefully wrapped up in a blanket on
the bed. It was removed to St. Bartholomew's Hos.
pital, where it was attended by the house-surgeon.
STORM WARNING.—The following cable message has
been received at the London office of the New York
Herald from the Herald Weather Bureau, New
York :—" A depression mill probably pass North
British and Norwegian coasts, attended with rains and
strong winds, between the 2nd and 4th. A disturb,.
ance, attended by south-east veering north-west gales
and rain, will probably arrive on the British and
Norwegian coasts, and possibly affecting French coasts,
between sth and 7th. The Atlantic will be stormy
north of 40th parallel."

A GIGANTIC PIGEON ROOST.—The celebrated pigeon
roost in Scott couuttph,.einrdo.o,sita
onfowm.ilasuonits hos;
seventy-five years, been for
rhey fly away in the morning to their feeding groande„
many of them going to such a distance that they do
not return until midnight. The limber on thousands
of acres covered by this roost is broken down badly,
large limbs being snapped off like reeds by the watt.
mutated weight of the birds. Thousands are killed
nightly, but the slaughter seems to make no dintinuticsa
in the vast flocks that congregate there.
THE STORMS IN THE ATLANTIC. Like ahem
Atlantic steamers, the Guion steamship Wyoming
experienced terrible weather on her last voyage out.
The account of the hurricane given by the officers of
the vessel is that the ship started in fair weather,
which continued until February 1. During the after-
noon of that day a stiff breeze began to blow, and as
night set in it freshened to a storm. Suddenly the
ocean was beaten into a white froth by the fury of the
winds, and all hands were summoned on deck. Before
the order could be obeyed a huge mass of water de'
[mended on the Wyoming, sweeping her decks cons-
pletely, When the sailors came rushing up from
below they found their eight comrades who formed
the watch lying around on the deck bleeding and
insensible. George Butler, one of the Bailors had
both his legs broken and another, James Ricliardp,
suffered from a broken leg and dislocated thigh.
Richard's ear was torn from his head by Rowe nu.
known means. All the other men sustaine,i slight
bruises. During the night the steamer was tossed
about like a cork at the mercy oi the waves. The
engines seemed almost powerless, so great was the,
pressure of sea and wind, and it was not until morns
lug that the vessel could be folly controlled,

&WON IN THE THANES IN THE OLDEN
"J. S. R.," writing to Land and Waier, says
Turning over a file of old newspaper the other day,
belonging to the year 1813, I came upon the maim.
panying curious statement, which I thought might be
interesting to you, and which I have accordingly made
a verbatim copy of, and now beg to transmit to you:—
Excerpt from the Statesman, London daily newspaper,
under date Saturday, November 13, 1813; " The in.
habitants of Newgate.street, London, and its vicinity,
having been lately much distressed by want of water,
a person was employed to open the pipe, when to his
great surprise he discovered that a salmon, two feet
deven;inehea. in length and 9f Proportionate citonnl.
ference, was fotmd therein, and which, being perfeldy
fresh, the operator believes would have been alivc, but
for a blow which he accidentally gave it in or...,aing
the pipe. It is evident it must have been ry eon.
siderably increased in size during its co.nfineme,r, as
there is n 9 possible ingress to the pipe but through a
valve at London Bridge of seven inches in diameter,
which has a bar across the centre. An
offered a man a guinea for the fish, as a ouriesilw,
which he refused, observing that it had cost the mu-
pany upwards of fity, from the numerous obstractiona
it had ocoasiouediu Its progress,"