The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-08-14 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

A Detroit author advertises of his forthcoming book
that " It is highly recommended by all his relatives."

- - -
M, Vick, one of the survivors of Napoleon's Grande
Arm6e, has just died at the Invalides, aged 90.
A monument has been erected at Woerth, in Alsace,
in honour of the French soldiers who fell in the battles near
there five years ago.
It is rumoured that several officers under orders for
India have received a private intimation that their service
may be required in Burman. _ _

- -
A highwayman in lowa cut off the finger of a tra-
veller to obtain a very valuable ring that was on the finger.
Having been present last Friday at a review of
80,0u0 soldiers at Krasnaje-Selo, the Duke of Edinburgh left
St. Petersburg on the following morning to hunt in Finland.
-

Continuous rain has fallen in various parts of France,
especially in the Basin of the Rhone. It was feared at one
time that Lyons would be inundated, but the waters fell on
Sunday morning and the danger was considered to be at an
end.

—From a return to the House of Commons just issued
It appears that in the last ten years as many as 44,025 sheep
were killed by dogs in Ireland. The largest number was
last year, when 7,442 were killed. In 3,235 cases the owners
of the dogs were'idiscovered and made amenable. The re-
turn extends to 13 pages, and embraces a period from 1865
to 1874.
A running club has been established in Paris. The
members are young men of good family, and run under the
names of well-known horses, such as Boiard, Camballo, etc.
Regular races are organised at intervals, and the club
possesses a journal of its own, Le Starter.
Three children, who were prostrated by a stroke of
lightning in Georgia, that had first struck a tree, all had
perfect photographs of the tree imprinted on their persons.
Last year 120 appeals were presented to the Chancery
Appeal Court, in which judgment was affirmed in 55, and 10
were pending at the end of the year. To the judge there
were 111, and in 44 judgments was affirmed. At the end of
the year 15 were pending.
"Plus Solis plus Vita 3 " writing to The Times, on
Tuesday, says ' Observations of the sun to-day and yes-
terday showed the disc entirely free from spots (as was the
case during the very fine fortnight of June), an occurrence
always unusua L
The efforts of the divers employed on behalf of the
underwriters of the Schiller, lost off Scilly, have been re-
warded by the discovery of £20,(00 in gold. 32he unfortu-
nate ship is known to have hall £60,000 on board, so that
there is still £40,000 to be recovered. The. divers work
under great difficulties, for as the iron frame of the ship has
collapsed, large portions of the wreck have to be lifted, and
the men have to do their work with large masses of iron sus-
pended above them.

It is said that India contains twice as many empty
beer bottles as would suffice to build the Pyramids twice
over; and some people add that, were our rule there ter-
minated to-morrow, in a few years those bottles would be its
only memorial and monument, but not its bier.

Quite recently, at Pompeii, has been discovered a
small woollen factory near the house where was found a short
time since the renowned fresco of Orpheus. In this factory
are still seen pieces of woollen cloth, quite carbonised, and
many instruments for carding and weaving similar to those
used in some small factories of this kind at the present day.

At Pompeii they recently found a curious record. It
was scratched on the stucco of a kitchen wall, and has been
thus translated :—" Lighted the fire, cooked his meals, and
swept his house for him 28,000 times to this day, and he
refuses to take me to the circus." Beneath this, in a different
hand, is written: "Women are never satisfied."

A competition has been opened at the Ministry of
Finance for a new design for a postage-stamp in France.
The words "Poste" and "ItCpublique Franctise " must ap-
pe sr, and the figures represented must not have any political
character. _

It is stated at Berlin that in 1876 there to be siege
manceuvres on a large scale in Prussia. The fortress to be
besieged will be one of those destined for dismantlement,
probably Coblentz, the works of which will be destroyed by
cannon shot.

The Rev. Samuel I. I. Schereschewsky, mis,sionary
to China, has arrived at San Francisco from Peking. He
has been translating the Bible into Chinese, under the
auspices of the American Bible Society.

Prof. W. Stanley Jevons, in a treatise on scientific
method, asserts that 'if the whole population of the world,
say one hundred thousand millions of persons, were to deal
cards day and night, for a hundred millions of years, they
would not have exhausted one hundred thousandth part of
the possible deals of a pack of cards.'

Cremation is making rapid progress in Italy.
Chevalier Albert Keller, who recently died at Milan, is to be
solemnly cremated. The municipality of Milan will be pre-
sent at the ceremony, together with Mr. Palasciano, Professor
Coletti, Senor Dryardin, of Genoa, and Senor Musato, o
Venice.

According to the Memorial Diplomatique the Khedive
had intended visiting Europe this year after the opening of
the new tribunals; but the Nile having neon much earlier
than usual, and being likely to reach an unusual height, he
has abandoned the idea, and will superintend the embank-
ment works which have already once saved the country from
inundation.

At a meeting held at the Hop and Malt Exchange
of various brickrnakers supplying the London market, it was
computed that there were lost to the building trade, through
the late floodings of the fields and in diminished moulding,
about one-eighth of the season's make, or over one hundred
millions of bricks, and a rise in price was consequently
threatened.—Bailder.

Mr. Disraeli at one time maintained that the most
exquisite of dinners in Paris was ever spoiled, owing to the
French being ignorant of the institution of warm plates, and
the evil would be corrected by the reciprocity treaty, which
woulel enable Parisian householders to employ English
porcelain, that manufactured in France being unable to stand
fire. The Prime Minister will be happy to learn that several
restaurants now advertise hot plates for their cu3tomers ;
but the ware is French, and the hot plate is served Just the
same with cold as with hot food. —Court Journai.