The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-05-15 00:00:00

AN ANTIQUARIAN DISCOVERY IN
JUTLAND.

The Copenhagen Correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette
tl,
writes : .
probably
of unique discovery has Randers, in Ju and
of a grave,
been made miandteercelsotsineg and
e town to the
dating probably from the sixth or seventh
century, containing the remains of a woman who had
been buried in ha richest attire, it being still pos-
sible tei trace the dress, which had been interwoven
with gold thread. Across the chest were laid two
bands with a kind of gold lace, on the top of which
again were laid some ornaments composed of
coloured glass beads some having an outer shell
of gold leaf, and several cut like diamonds'
as well as a small perforated 'silver coin. To
the left of the body was found a knife, a
pair of scissors, a small whetstone (for needles), and
a small glass cup, which was broken in pieces. In
the tomb was also found the remains of a wooden pail
with iron band, which had contained the food sup-
posed necessary to support the deceased on her journey
to Hades. This discovery affords another proof •of
the exceptionally high position occupied bythe women
in Scandinavia during heathen times, in comparison
with nearly all other healthen countries. The body had
evidently originally been enclosed in a coffin of
rough oaken planks. Great interest is taken in the
scientific examination ofh the silver coin, by which the
actual period may be at least approximately ascer-
tained.

Coldoweather, with sharp night frosts, has prevailed
In the United States recently, and the report of the
growing winter wheat crop in several States are rather
gloomy.

•
The Census to be 4aken at New York this year is
expected to show an increase of between 260,000 and 275,000"
Inhabitants since tho, last census, in 1875. Thirty-five years
ago the population of New York numbered 371,223, while in
1876 the returns showed 1,041,886 residents. The rise in the
value of property is of course correspondingly large, and one
plot of ground known in 1832 as the "five n3lle farm," and
beclinathed by its owner to his son. with tik —neat not
te sell it has rUen in value Irina 45;000 ' ' '• •

CHEAP POSTAGE-AND ITS
ADVANTAGES.

In a leader oil the recent appointment of Mr. Fawcett to
the office of Postmaster-General, The Times remarks :

A burden is laid upon every member of the new
Ministry to justify the expectations formed of them,
and the Postmaster-General is no exception to this
rule. Mr. Fawcett has been called to the work of a
department, and the nation relies, with a confidence
'sot likely to be misplaced, upon the spirit in which he
will administer it. We may be certain that the new
official will enter upon his work with a large liberality
of aims and with much executive vigour. The Post
Office plays a part in our social life of daily grow-
ing importance. Some of us are apt to groan over
the amount of correspondence with which we are
inundated, but the complaint has no great depth
of sincerity in itself and betrays little consi-
deration for the comforts of the mass of the
people. If we get a multiplicity of circulars, or even
a profusion of notes signifying nothing, we can easily
moderate the strain of the infliction. We can put the
circulars into a waste-paper basket, and allow a large
proportion of the letters that signify nothing to answer
themselves. The tax upon or comfort is slight,
and it is amply compensated for by the benefits
realized by the many. The post that brings us
circulars is the cheap carrier of a cheap litera-
ture into the remotest, corners of the kingdom. It
connects the colonies with us.by the most intimate
ties; and the union of the civilized Powers in the
way of inter-communication of printed matter promises
to be a most efficient instrument in breaking down the
divisions that impede the free commerce of nations.
Every one must be conscious of the extent to which
the ties of family and friendship have been preserved
from rupture and destruction through the operation of
cheap postage. Fashion may run to excess in the
shape of Christmas cards, but if so the excess will in
due time be corrected, and we may at least recognize
the truth that, in spite of a tendency to convention-
ality and exaggeration; social and friendly relations
are now maintained that would formerly have easily
fallen into oblivion, with a corresponding gain to our
powers of kindly sympathy.
Mr. Fawcett succeeds to a great work at the Post
Office, and he will be pressed to develop it still
further. Already we hear of an agitation for cheaper
rates of postage, whether domestic or colonial, for
cheaper telegrams, for the institution of a parcel pot
on a more extensive scale than now prevails, and for
the multiplication of Post Office savings-banks and
greater cheapness and simplicity in the transmission
of money orders. It is evident that there is here
large scope for work, and we may fairly rejoice that
Mr. Fawcett is called to undertake it We may
probably p,ssume that he will insist on the
.general
principle that the work of the Post Office must be self-
supporting. While the service should be performed as
cheaply as possible, and it should not be an aim of the
Government to obtain a surplus revenue from it, yet it
should not be done at legs than its real cost upon- some
vague allegation of indirect benefits to be obtained
thereby. It is not intended that each village office
should pay its way, but that the general service of
each branch of Post Office work should be carried on
without loss. The net revenue of the department in
the last year was in round numbers two millions and
a half, which apparently shows room for a reduction
of charges; but no allowance seems to have been made
in this calculation for interest on the capital sunk in
the service.