The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-03-12 00:00:00

CUTTINGS FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.

In Chicago husbands are said to be so fearful of
curtain lectures that they add to their announcement of
future movements the letters." W.P.," which means "wife
permitting."
At a meeting in Hoboken the following toast was
given :—" The ladies: the only endurable aristocracy, who
rule without laws, judge without a jury, decide without
appeal, and are never in the wrong."
Somebody has written a book on " The Art of
making People Happy without Money." We are in excel-
lent condition to be experimented upon, says the editor of a
down-east paper.
A New Yorker told a Michigan lumberman that
working in a saw-mill was a trade and not a profession.
He'll now have to go through all the trouble of getting
acquainted with people over again, as even his best friends
can't be expected to recognise him in the form of a one•eyed
man with a broken nose, front teeth gone, and an ear
ehewed up.
Nothing made a man more than to come down to
breakfast and have his wife tell him he has been talking in
his sleep, and refuse to give away what he said. Not that
his conscience troubles him; oh, no. He is only after
pychological facts.

Under the head of "Conscience Money," the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer acknowledges, in The Times; the
receipt of £5O in notes sent anonymously, of a from
"A. J. W.," and of the s'econd half of a £5-note from
"A. Z.," for income-tax.

COUNT MOLTKE ON CANDAHAR.

Writing from Berlin on the 6th, the Correspondent of the
Daily Telegraph says :

"Yesterday evening I enjoyed the privilege of being
admitted into the presence of the greatest military
genius Of the age, and of having a conversation with
Count Moltke, in which he throughout showed a con-
summate courtesy of manner, anti modesty of so rare
a kind that I myself should have felt tempted to con-
sider more or less aasumed had I not more than once
before had an opportunity of observing the Field Mar-
shal's demeanour in company. I tried to elicit a
direct answer as to the military value of Candahar to
the rulers of India' but Count Moltke refrained
from giving it, declaring that it would be
arrogant on his part were ha to express a judgment on
a question he had not studied and never had had time
thoroughly to study, and to answer which an accurate
acquaintance with Afghanistan, presence on the spot
during the late war, and especially a complete know-
ledge of the military and other resources of the Go-
vernment of India would be requisite. He contended
that the question was a military far more than a
political one. He could quite undeNtand the severe
censure passed by the Conservative prty on the in-
tended abandonment of Caqahar, because it behoved
the Opposition strongly to criticise an act of the
party in power which It considered imprudent from
views of general policy ; but he could not any more
express a personal opinion on the political bearing
of the intended measure than on its strategical
character. Perceiving the utter impossibility of get-
ting more out of the great strategist, and not being
willing to forfeit the favour which was manifested to
me, by the promise of being introduced to a member
of the general staff supposed to be particularly versed
in Central Asiatic affairs, I refrained from pushing
my curiosity any further in this respect, and limited
myself to pointing out that Afghanistan might per-
haps soon have a Russian ruler were England to relax
its hold on the country. This gave Count Moltke an
opportunity of showing an estimate of the efficacy of
English energy, highly gratifying to my feeling; for
he replied, 'lf England cannot hold Afghanigtan,
Russia would surely not be able to do so either.' With
thanks for the courteous reception, I took leave of the
Grosse Schweiger,' or the Great Silent One, as he is
often called here."