The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-06-25 00:00:00

alistzliancaus
HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

A BLANK DAY.—Old Gent (greeting friend). "
Jorkins ! 'Been fishing? What did you catch ?
Jorkins (gloomily). "Ha'-past six train home !"
Punch.

DISCOVERIES OF GOLD IN HUNGARY.— The Pcsti Naplo
reports that a series of surveys and investigations,
carried on by by professional experts, have revealed
the presence of gold in considerable quantities in the
alluvial deposits around Paks. The similar deposits
in the neighbourhood of Duna-Komlod, a couple of
miles distant from Pak, are said to yield the precious
metal in still larger proportion. The Mining Com-
mission of Hungary have reported that in both places
gold is to be found in quantities well repaying the
labour of searching for it. Pala is a small town on
the Danube, about 70 English miles below Pesth.
STORM WARNIN G.—The following cable message
was received at the London office of the New York
Htrald from the herald weather bureau, New York :
—" Disturbance is crossing nJrth of latitude forty,
likely to develop dangerous energy, and arrive on the
British and Norwegian coasts, possibly affecting
North France, between the 20th and 22nd; rain;
south, veering west gales or strong winds; possibly
lightning.
LOCUSTS AT SMYRNA.—The following is an extract
from a letter received from Smyrna :—" This week we
have been visited by millions of locusts; the sun was
darkened for two hours by Ahem.; in the sky they
looked like a snowstorm, and on Thursday I was
struck by them on all sides and nearly blinded on my
way home at midday. In the works they are six
inches deep. The house is in. a fearfuL state, as they
come down the chimney covered with soot and jump
on everything."

_
A NEW CUIRASS.—Some very interesting experi-
ments have been lately carried out in Leipsic with a
cuirass made of a newly invented preparation af steel.
The metal of the cuirass is only 1A millimetre thick,
or about 3-50ths of an inch, and is lined inside with a
thin layer of wool. The cuirass itself is fourteen
inAes wide and ten inches "high (being intended to
protect only the heart and lungs), and weighs 24 lb.
Eleven rounds were fired at it, at a distance ot 175
yards' from a Martini breech-loading rifle; and of
eight bullets which struck the cuirass two only pierced
the metal, while even these were completely flattened
and remained in the woollen lining; so that a man
wearing the cuirass would have been uninjured.
A STREET STREWN WITH SERPENTS.—During a
parade of Barnum's menagerie and circus in Salem,
Mass., a week or two ago, the six horses drawing the
big glass cage that held forty serpents of various sizes
became unmanageable and run away. The cage was
smashed and the streets strewn with a medley of
anacondas, boa-constrictors, and other reptiles. There
was, an American paper says, "a general stampede of
the immense throng of spectators, even the unterritied
small boy seeking refuge up lamp-posts and trees."
The keepers succeeded, however, in recapturing the
scaly monsters without injury or loss.
THE SEVERN TUNNEL.—The stream of water that
burst into the heading on the Gloucester side and
flooded the works of the Severn Tunnel has been
stopped. It was traced to the bed of a huge salmon
pond in the middle of the Severn. This pool, which
was many acres in extent, has been drained iii some
parts and where the
.water percolated through the
bed bags of clay have been used and any further influx
has been stopped. "Nearly all the water has been
pumped out of the heading, and the consequences of
the mishap will be recovered in a few weeks, and the
works on both sides of the Severn will once more be hi
fair progress.

EARLY HONOURS !—The Bishop of Winchester's
Diocesan Prize for knowledge of Scripture has been
awarded to a girl under 11 years old in the Princess
Mary Village Homes.
A CHILD BIRD CHARMER.—An interesting account
of the power of fascinating birds possessed by a little
girl of five years old, living near Harrisburg, Ohio, is
given by the Amer can Sunday Press. This remark-
able gift was discovered about a year ago, when no
sooner did the child appear on the doorstep than a
bevy of birds hovered over her, and the moment she
spoke to them they alighted on her head, shoulders,
and hands, and twittered with delight. On taking
them in her hands and caressing them, the birds, in-
stead of trying to get away from their pretty captor,
geemed pleased to remain with her, and when let loose
would fly a short distance and very quickly come back
again. On one occasion the child took several of her
pets into the house and showed them to her mother,
who, thinking that they might be hurt, put them out
of doors again, but no sooner was thc door opened than
in flew the birds, again settled upon the child's head,
and warbled with joy. Throughout the winter the
birds c-,nti.:aed every morning to fly in through the
window and keep their little friend company for
hours, and only took their departure at sundown.
THE Lours XIX. or THE FUTURE. France,
Republican or Royalist, has taken some interest in
the first communion of the Duke of Orleans, eldest
sm of the Count of Paris—now a boy of twelve.
Legitimists hope more from the young prince than
Orleanists ; and for this reason : Every one knows
that on the death of the Comte de Chambord the
Count of Paris would be head of the House of France ;
but the latter has, it is said, bound himself by an un-
lucky promise never to ascend the throne save under
the name of "Louis Philippe II." Now ultra-con-
scientious Legitimists—and Legitimism is nothing if
not conscientious—have scruples as to recognizing a
Louis Philippe 11., though they could have no objec-
tion to a Loui, XIX. It is therefore hoped that when
Heaven shall take Henry V. to itself, the Count of
Paris may be induced to abdicate, and all hearts being
free to rally round Louis Philippe Robert, Duke of
Orleans, the Louis XIX. of the future.—St. James's
Gaiette.
A SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION.—Professor Langley, of
the Alleghany Observatory, whose fame for his dis-
coveries in solar physics is well known, is about start-
ing on a scientific expedition of popular interest. His
main object is to determine by actual experiment the
amount of heat given by the sun to the earth. A
liberal citizen of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, who wishes
his name not to be made public, has defrayed the large
cost of the requisite apparatus for Professor Langley's
Expedition; also the amount of incidental expenses
attending the Expedition.

AFRICAN EXPLORATION.—The Academy says that in
a recent letter from Banza Montiko, near the Yellala
Falls of the Congo, Mr. Richards of the Livingstone
(Congo) Inland Mission, mentions that he had visited
two towns a short distance off, where no European
has hitherto been ; he also learned that there were
two others farther on, and he therefore thinks there
must be a larger population in the district than was
supposed. One of the towns visited, Mr. Richards
describes as the "nicest African town" in the Congo
region ; it has a broad road, and the huts on each side
are ranged almost in line, though detached from each
other. A nearly straight row of trees is planted on
each side of the road, and another line crossing it
i
forms an archway. The people appeared more n-
telligent than their neighours, but were very shy for
some time.

NCINCQNFORMIST LIIIERALITY.—The Citizen says
At a meeting of the leaders of the Congregational
body, held in London at the Charing-cross Hotel, Mr.
S. Morley, presiding, it was resolved to cele-
brate the jubilee of the Congregational Union by the
creation of a fund with which to pay off the debts on
the Congregational chapels, and to improve the
incomes of the ministers. Upon a proposal that the
fund shpuld be £5,000, Mr. R. S. Hudson, a well-known
member of the body, exclaimed, "That's all nonsense.
I intend to give £20,000 myself." He afterwards put
his name down for that amount. Mr. S. Morley fol-
lowed with a gift of £5,000, and in thirty minutes
50,01:10 was subscribed.

WEARING HATS AT TABLE.—A correspondent of
Notes and Queries writes that, according to Sir Walter
Scott, the right or privilege Of wearing hats at table,
&c., is, or was, claimed not by the Lord Advocate
alone, but by the whole Scottish bar. In his notes to
" Itedgauntlet " (note • "The Cramp Speech ") he
wrote :—" Till of late years every advocate who en-
tered at the Scottish bar made a Latin address to the
Court, faculty, and audience in set terms, and said a
few words upon a text of the civil law, to show his
Latinity and jurisprudence. He also wore his hat for
a minute, in order to vindicate his right of being
covered before the Court, which is said to have origi-
nated from the celebrated lawyer Sir Thomas Hope
having two sons en the bench, while he himself re-
mained at the bar. Of late this ceremony has been
diTensed with as occupying the time of the Court un-
necessarily. The entrant lawyer merely takes the
oaths to Government, and swears to maintain the
rules and privileges of his order."

"THE WRONG SMITH."—A soldier once received
twenty lashes well laid on. The culprit, instead of
bellowing when the corporal applied the lash, laughed
immoderately, which made the angry officer lay on
with harder force. On giving him the twentieth
blow, the enraged officer could stand it no longer.
" Well, here," said the offended corporal, "I've done
my duty, and lean lick ye no more, but I'd just like
to know what it is that's so funny ? " " Funny ! "
roared the other, "why, it's excellent. You've got
the wrong Smith. I ain't the man that was to be
whipped. It's the one in the other company. Now
you'll have to do it all over again."

ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF WATEREOO.
Last Saturday being the anniversary of this battle,
which was fought on June 18, 1815, the usual custom
of decorating the colours of regiments with laurel was
observed. The subaltern accompanying the detach-
ment of Grenadier Guards, which mounted the
"Queen's Guard" in the ;morning, carried the laurels
to St. James's Palace, where a selection of music was
played by the band of the regiment.
A VEGETABLE PLAGUE IN AUSTRALIA —A fresh
vegetable plague is threatening to overrun Australia
—the lantana, a shrub resembling a gigantic raspberry
bush, and which was imported from France as a
garden flower. The seeds are eagerly sought by birds,
which scatter them broadcast, and in the neighbour-
hood of Sydney the shrub is flourishing so rankly that
agriculturists dread a similar over-growth to that in
New Caledonia, where in some parts the lantana has
covered valleys and mountain slopes with a luxuriant
growth of almost impenetrable scrub, rendering a
large extent of country utterly valueless until the
plant has been rooted up and burnt.

BRITISH BLAST FURNACES.—From an official return
it appears that there are now 556 blast furnaces at
work in Great Britain out of 967 erected, the number
in operation being 27 fewer than at the end of March.
Scotland has the largest number at work in propor-
tion to its total of any district, 120 being in blast; and
South Staffordshire the fewest, 42 being in operation
out of 144. Cleveland and Durham districts has 119
in operatioa ; Cumberland and Furness, 54; and
South Wales, 65. Preparations are being made for
reducing the production of the Cleveland and Durham
district to the extent of close upon 1,000 tons per
week,

THE WEATHER IN FRANCE.—The Paris Correspond-
ent of the Daily Telegraph writes :—ln France, while
the unfortunate Parisians who are obliged to remain in
the capital are lamenting their fate under a sun that
sends the quicksilver into the upper regions of the
thermometer, it is refreshing to hear that somewhere
at least French soil is covered with snow. The in-
habitants of the village of Caza,ux-Larbrcust, in the
Pyrenees, where this phenomenon has taken place,
are, however, far from taking a favourable view of the
case, as a heavy snowstorm has completely destroyed
their crops. This disaster is so great that the atten-
tion of the Government has been called to the distress
of the unlucky mountaineers.
EGGS-ACTLY So.—" Have you any fresh eggs ? '
"Yes, rumn, plenty; them with the hen on 'em !
"With the hen sn them ?" "Yes, mum' we always
puts a hen on our fresh eggs to distinguish of 'em. Beg
pardon, mum, don't think you understand. Hen the
letter, not 'en the bird. Hen for noo-laid mum.
Take a dozen, mum? Thank you ! "—Fun.
A NOVEL STREET LAMP.—A lamp, lighted with a
mixture of naphtha and petroleum, is being tried in
:New York. The flame is about fifteen-candle power,
with a steady, soft, white light, and the cost is one-
third that of the ordinary gas burner. During the
day the lamp is turned low, not turned out, and at
night it is turned up by men on horseback with mar-
vellous rapidity. The horse is keiA at a brisk gallop
between the lamp-posts, which are 85 feet apart, and
on approaching the post he stops sharply of his own
accord. A waggon driven from lamp to lamp supplies
the tank, the fluid being pumped up from it into the
reservoir.

FRUIT PROSPECTS.—rt is difficult just yet fairly to
compute these (says Land and Water). Of blossom
generally there was a great abundance, and on the
whole we are inclined to think there will be a tolerable
good crop of apples, currants, gooseberries, and straw-
berries. Of stone fruits we think the crop will be
moderate, as apricots, cherries, peaches, nectarines
and plums suffered much from the frosts on May 10
and 11. These frosts proved much more destructive
than was at first generally supposed ; and, in addition,
prejudicially affected the vegetable garden, as they cut
up all the potatoes, French beans,. etc., in many parts
of the country, and damaged the young growth of ash,
larch, and the choicer coniferous trees in plantations
and pleasure-grounds. The pear-tree bloom was most
profuse, but the fruit set indefinitely in many locali-
ties, while fruit supposed to have set are dropping
from the trees. A fall of rain would do a great deal of
good to the fruit trees, and cleanse them free of the
blight that has infested them. We will hope for the
best, and believe the fruit season will on the whole, be
favourable.
INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY IN VIRGINIA.—The New
York Correspondent of the Standard says :—The
prosperity of Virginia is -a notable sign of the times.
Owing to the demand for labour for the construction
of railways in the south, it is difficult to obtain hands
sufficient for agricultural purposes. The local mining
industries are very active. Arrangements have been
made for building a china manufactory at Richmond,
and several hundred skilled operatives are to be
brought from Bohemia. Kaolin feldspar, and flint,
suitable for the manufacture of fine china, are found in
inexhaustible quantities near Richmond.
THE LABOUR MARKET.—Latest reports from the
• various labour districts show that trade is dull in some
of the great staple industries. The iron trade is very
depressed, and the prices are lower than they have
been for years. In several of the coal districts, owing
to the low price of cud and the slackness of trade,
owners have given notice of a reduction of wages. The
cotton trade is fairly active. At all the ship-yards
business is very brisk, the workmen and labourers
being fully employed at good wages. The building
trade, both in London and the country, is busy. The
hosiery, lace, and woollen industries are better, and
employment more general. The leather trade in all
its branches, is fairly active, and the meat and pro-
vision trades are doing a good business. Workmen
and labourers from all parts ef the country are
emigrating in large numbers. At all the emigration
offices reports are being received from the colonies
that the demand for mechanics and labourers of all
kinds still exceeds the supply. The working women's
emigration movement is being supported by a large
number of influential ladies and gentlemen, and ar-
rangements are being made to take out working
women from all parts of London. In Bristol, trades
and manufactures are in a more healthy condition,
and the export trade is more active. Most branches
of trade in Leeds are fully-eniployed. In the woollen
anti felt mills all hands are well employed, and in the
wholesale clothing business orders are so plentiful that
at many firms overtime is worked. Leather dressers
and curriers are very busy, and at some places long
hours are being worked. The same remarks apply to
the cherni,ed trades and also to painters, grainers,
Paperhangers and decorators, who cannot execute
orders fast enough. Riveters and finishers in the boot
and shoe branches are pretty well off for work, as are
likewise upholsterers and cabinetmakers. Masons,
carpenters, bricklayers, and joiners are generally sla:2 ie.
TUE FORTH BRIDGE.—We are informed that the
Forth-bridge Railway scheme, which provides for a
bridge over the Firth of Forth, together with ap-
proaches on each side, is likely to be proceeded with
(says The Times). In the original Bill there were
certain guarantees given by the great railway cem-
panies but after the catastrophe with the Tay
Bridge, there appeared to be considerable hesitation
as to the future steps to be taken in relation to the
Forth-bridge, and a Bill was introduced into Parlia-
ment for the abandonment of the scheme. We now
learn that it has been arranged by the various cum-
panies concerned—namely, the North British, •?.1 id-
land, North-Eastern, and Great Northern, to modify
the arrangements embodied in the former Bill, so that
the Forth-bridge Company may be able to complete
the undertaking, and it is expected that impreve-
ments will be made in the route to the Noreh in
addition to those which will be secured by the con-
struction of the bridge itself. The Bill lodged for the
abandonment of the undertaking will be withdrawn
in the course of a few days.
MENTAL DEPRESSION.—Mr. Payne,..the.City Coroner
of London, has held an inquiry at St. Bartliolornel,v's
Hospital as to the death of Mr. Thomas Watuin, *aged
60. He was a meinber of the Royal College of Sur-
geons,• England, and a Licentiate of the Society of
Apothecaries, and for some time past had been
librarien to the Obstetrical Society. At times he had
fits of depression. On Sunday, the sth inst. the land-
lady of the house heard groans. Her husband freed
Open the door of the deceased's room and found him
on the bed in an unconscious state. A letter in his
handwriting addressed to the hon, sec. of the Obste-
trical Society, was read. It ran as follows :—" I
write this to apprise you that when you receive it I
shall be departed this life, in order that necessary
arrangements may be made at the library. Long
unable to properly perform the duties of my office,
through the paralyzing influence of mental depression,
I have come to the conviction that it is useless any
longer to endeavour to do so." Mr. Hickman,
surgeon, deposed to attending the deceased on the sth
inst. He was unconscious and under the influence of
narcotic posion. An emetic was administered, and at
night the deceased recovered his senses. It was
found that deceased had made up and taken a dose of
100 grains of chloral and two grains of acetate of
morphia—an ordinary full dose would be 30 grains
of chloral and half a grain of morphia. The deceased
remained tender the witness's came until he got over
the effects of poisoning. Mr. I.4aKing„ house physi-
cian' said the deceased was admitted to the hosprtalon
the 10th inst. and died on the 12th. The immediate
cause of death was phthisis, accelerated by taking
poison. A verdict of' Suicide while of unsound mind"
was returned.