The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-02-22 00:00:00

glisullaneotts

dOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL

MYSTERIOUS CRIME. —The canton of Claret,
in the Henna, has recently been thrown in corn.
motion by a, mysterious crime committed in the hams
let of Gourdon. One of the cottages there had been
occupied by a man namtd Cabasies, a small farmer, vritk
his wife and adatuhter named Clementine. Discord ha 4
long prevailed in the family in consequence of the ime
proper rela,ions that oubsisted between the father aro;
one of him nieces—a fact which was notorious to al;
the neighbourhopd. On Saturday last, the daughter,
Reed 16, at about eight in the morning., getting cur.
prised at not seeing her mother, went into her bed.
room, and there found the place all in disorder, whihs;
I across the bed was extended the dead body of the
I woman. The cries of the girl brought in the neigh.
hours, and a further examination showed that the
I.murderer must have penetrated into the room by
window looking on the garden. ('abases himself wee
at he time out shooting. Robbery appeal, ed to have
been the motive of the crime, as a co...inferable sum of
, money bad oiraprareo. A judicia investigation was
immediately instituted, and warrants of arrest were
at once issued against Cohan..., and his niece, who
were soon afterwards apprehended and cdnducted to
the prison of Montpellier. They both deby knowing
anything about the mime.

ANTI. TEldra RANCE MOVAMENT. —The Lunhai
Expelitioe. —Punch.

iVOMAN'S WORK ! —The United States' Censuit
of 1870 shows what American wornmi can do. Besides
women eneployeil in ordinary egricOcural lahorr, the
Census records 45 female stoek berdere, six female an.
prentices to barbers, 24 wi men deetisbi, twa female
hoetiers two female professional huntms and trappers,
five she lawyers, 525 she-physici one an 1 surgeons, a
fern ale clergy men, two women scavengers, seven
female sext ns, ten female " canalmen," 196 women
dray men, one female pilot, six female guano labourer%
four she gas et. ikers, 3i women gunemit he, seven female
gunpowder rasters, and 16 fetriaie ship-riggers.
Some MisrALE. —The Brighton aquarium
announcer, among its myriads of other attractions, an
Axalot from bletico. We thought thie had come
from a more northern part of the New Continent. and
tha,, by way of return, we were goin4 to l'ay a loe.—
Punch.

AN UNLUCKY PAKTORAL VlhlT.-A "Minister
Visit," that is, in everyday language, a morning call
by a clergyman upon one of his congregation, is oh-
vicusly a ceremonious, or, to say the least, a peacefdl
°cession. A Scotch minister, however, tells a tale in
Dissentera' naper which points to other possibilities.
A lady residing in the place had been greatly annoyed
by "run-away rings." She therefore determined one
very (lyric evening to watch for the mischievous young
monkeys who played these pranks upon her, and had
just atationed hersel inside the door. way when the
bell rung out son a-011,41y. The lady instantly opened
the door, caught the dinnieutive offendar by the collar,
and boxed his ears right and left most soundly. At
every whack he prot ste-d "Madam, why, madam !
" madam me, you y sung moral !" she exclaimed,
and another blow made his rare hum fearful), lie
begged, implcred, "Don't beg for mercy, you graceleis
young ecanip !" was the only reply, accompanied lep
another thundering thump on the aloe of the heal.
Becoming at last exhanated by this exercise., ehe
,bagged the little man into the hall that she might
recognise the offender by the gaslight and "tell his
mother " ad, the said, when whom should aloe diacover
in the pereon of her victim but her own miniater, who
had eAteci to pay lux • friendly visit on his being ap-
pointed to the kirk.

NnWePAFER STATISTIce.— From the Net.
paper Press Directory for 1873 we extract the foil, wing
on the present position of the Newspaper Press. There
are now published in the United Kingdom 1,536 news-
papers. distributed as follows : England : London,
2e5 ; Provinces, 889--total 1,174. Wales, 59 ; Scots
land, 144 ; Ireland, 140 ; Isles. 19. Of these there are
papsrs, England, 86; Wales, 2 ; Scotland, 12;
Ireland. 24 ; Isles, 2 On reference to the edition
of this Directory for 1863 we find the following inter-
esting f 4-ts—viz.. that in that year thsre were published
iu the Unised Kingdom, 1,206 journals. Of these
72 were issued daily- viz.. England, 46; Wales, 1;
Scotland, 9; Ireland, 14 ; Lies, 2; bat in 1873 there
are now established and circulated 1,536 papers, of
which no fewer than 126 are issued daily; showing
that the Press of this country has very greatly ex-
tended during the last ten years, and especially so in
daily Tapers, the daily issues standing 126 against 72
in 1863. The magazines now in course of publication,
including the gusrterly reviews, number 630, of which
253 ate of a decidedly religious characler, representing
the Church of England, Weeleyans, Methodists, Bap-
tists, Independents, IL usan Catholics, and other
Christian communities.

REFLECTED IFiFohlf ATION.— OLIO day last week
The Times publi,hed a long and elaborate article,
luminous as Venus herself, upon the transits of that
planet. In a French paper the same space would be
devoted to a nauseating love story. It may be rims.
tionable, however, whether the love story is not better
suited to some pecple. Having mastered the article,
Mr. Punch handed it to a Indy friend who improves
and invigorates her mind by the pertval of about live
novels every week. He requested her to read the
three columns. This she did with excessive rapidity,
and on being asked to state what she thought about it,
she naettly replied that it was not interesting. Par-
ticulars being demanded, she affirmed that Mr. Lowe
was going out to see the transit of Venus, in 1t74 ;
that Venus is worth 101. in the pound; that she is an
Inferior Conjunction ; that she, will look like a small
ball in a large wine glass, and have a ring as big as the
world; that she is inhabited by "eagle-eyed claws ;"
that the is the size of a abiding seen eight miles if by
a man with thick hair on his head at the end c,f
enurch ; and that gold medals are tit only for puffing
shopkeepers. Finally, she said it was all "an Astro.
nominal mare's nest," adding, 84 her own unaided dis-
covery, that men were always fussing andffingin
away money on stuff and nonsense. Pooch.
A Now MODE OF PODONING.—A girl about
18 years of age, the daughter of honest parents in
Perugia, has committed suicide through having been
crossedin a love affair by her parents. The hot-headed
girl told them 41.1 they would not consent to hermarriage
with the young man of her affection, she did not know
what to do with her unhappy life, and that she must
die. She was talking thus in the coolest manner pos-
sible whilst drinking a cup of coffee, in which she had
previously boiled the heads of a quantity f lucifers,
and in two hours after she was a corpse, to the despair
of her parents, who, out of love-for her, had tried to
prevent a marriage which they knew could not turn out
for the happiness of their child.

WHAT A SATIRE !—ln a leader on the abdica•
tion of the King of Spain, The Times remarks :

-
The friends of Spain may see in the history of the last week
much to encourage th,m, and those whp were disposed at
first to condemn King Amadeus' Abdication as • faint-
hearted surrender of great opportunities may modify their
lodgment by the light of what has since happened. The
King has gone, and there has been no trace of daorder which
&server to be remembered. It thus appears that his pre-
sea ie was not the “serttal condition if order and peace It
was supposed to be. He had no such function to fill ail that
of " raviour of society." He leaves Madrid and retires to
Lishin, where, with a just feeling of his position, he has de-
clined to receive the Ministers who hastened to wait on him.
What eaatire it cilia upon the pains poor Prim took toiled a
Prince to accept the Crown, with no other result than to
terminate at the Fame time his own life ant the Republican
interregnum which had survived long enough to suggest the
lesson that no change was wanted ! What a satire on the
vanity of a people, and on the wisdom of • ruler who strove
to gratify it, that for the purpose of obtaining a pledge that
one puppet should not be put up instead of another, thou-
sands of lives should have been wasted, millions of treasure
squandered, and an Empire overthrown!

THE OLDEST INHABITANT !—A very old in-
habitant of France perished last autumn at Chantilly.
Thin was an exceedingly ancient carp, a perfect patri-
arch among fishes, his age being no less than 375
years. He was a young fish in the reign of Francis
1.,. and having been, we may presume, one of these
privileged fiehes that pass their lives in marble basins,
Ms expressive eyes must have witnessed not a few
changes in the costumes and manners of successive
human contemporaries. His last owner purchased
him in 1871 for 1,900 f. Be met his fate from the
jaws of an enormous pike, which attacked him, with
what intent it is difficult to understand, seeing that
the carp WAR over three feet in length and about two
and a half feet round the thickest part of his body.
Wives WANTED !—ThCre is a certain district
in Guzerat which appears to be the paradise of women.
According to the Bast Goftar, a native paper, the
young men amongst the Lavia Koonbies are literally
pining for want of wives. "At present," it observes,
'it is a very difficult matter to get a bride even for a
large suin of money. The scarcity in so great, that
though the Koonbies are permitted widow marriages,
widows, ton, are scarce, an that the poor fel owe spend
their lives in celibacy." Everything marriageable
within their reach has been appropriated, and still
the cry is, "Give us wives, whether widows or maidens
we care not, only give us wit,. 5." What is to be done
in this painful emergency? Tart Bombay Gazette sar-
castically requests the Bombay Association to take up
the matter. "The association," it remarks, "was
established for the purpose of contributing to the wel-
fare of the people of India," and it is obvious that a
province starvim; for water is not to be compared with
a province starving for wives. In Bombay itsrlf the
flindoos "kirk up a dreadful caste row when one of
their sect, bolder than his fellows, seleuts a widow to
be his bride." Then why .not send these widows where
the men are lest f anti iioue, and where they are certain
to receive better treatment?

THE SATISFAUTORY SETILLMENT.— BO the
real loises sustained by American Cit.zens from the
Confederate cruise's amount to little more than two
millions, whereas the damages we have to pay for
them were assessed at three millions and a quarter.
%Will will have been cheated, the private Amerion
claimants, or ourselves? This question is more in-
teresting than material. By those who are capable of
cheating their own people how much faith is likely to
be kept with any other? In case Alabama., ever leave
American ports to prey on British shipping, what
compensation will the BriHshers obtain? If ever we
go to war, we shall see.—Pune/i.

COLD WATER AND FROSTED PLANTE. —A cor-
respondent of the Gardener's Magazine writes :

The value of cold water on ten, er plants that have been
nipped with frdst is not so well known as it ought to be,
eanecially among our amateur friends. A few days since I
load some nice plants of Chinese primulas standing on a shelf
el, se to the glass in a col houae. One night the frost got in,
and the next morning the leave. were stiff and looked quite
black. lat once removed them from the shelf, set them on
the Blot, commenced to sprinkle them with cold water, and
continued th, operation every few minutes for nearly half
an hour, until the frost was entirely removed. Now they are
looking as fresh and healthy as thlse that were not touched
with frost."

AN Ossoators Willsnat. The cause of
" Douglaq v. Shearburn"hoe been tried in the Court of
Queen's Bench, and was a suit by Misr Lucy Douglas,
a lady residing ts% Dorking, to restrain the defendant,
a builder and contractor, whose workshops were shout
100 yards from her house, front creatirg a nuisance by
the erection of a steam-whistle which the defendant
bad put up in his premises for the purpose of summon-
ing his workmen. The whistle was regularly sounded
fIX times a day, commencing at hall-past five in
summer and six in winter, and the plaintiff complained
that the noise was distinctly heard throughout her
house, even when the windows and shutters were closed,
as effectually to drown all conversation; that it de-
stroyed her health and comfort, and was altogether a
serious nuisance to her. In reply to the complaints of
the plaictiff, the defendant stated that many of his
neighbours weie "very pleased with the whistle," as it
woke their iprvants in the morning, but he offered to
substitute a bell at the plaintiff's expense, which offer
she declined.—The Vice-Chancellor ordered the cause
to stand over till Tuesday, the 22nd of April, to are
whether the defendant could not get Lis workmen to.
gether without the whistle, he undertaking in the
meantime to discontinue its use, without prejudice to
any question.
THE EMPEROR NA_POLEON'S WlLL.—Under
the heading of "The Truth Respecting the Emperor's
Will," the Juarnal d'Angers states that "at the end of
SW the Emperor, finding himself seriously ill, was
.erreirnus formally to declare his last wishes, and pre-
pare his will, which be intrusted to M. Ronher, at
that time President of the Senate. M. Rouber took
charge of the important document and placed it in a
Secret depository, whieh he either had made or which
existed already in the raise,' of the Loxembourg. The
4th of September came, and M. de I'elletan obtained
a knowledge of the existence of thp secret depository
and its contents, probably through one of the work-
men who had been employed. Leash gto others the
task of ranmcking the papers at the Tuileries, M. Pel-
letan himself undertook the search for the chest which
contained the Emperor's will. and as Ins bed very goo,l
information he hail little ditlicul,y in liscoveriug it.
In this way it was that the will of Napoleon 111. fel
into the ha ids of the men of S-ptetto-er 4, As The
Tinier' corresp,n-leat has stated, the Emperor ap
pointed the Empress an Regent, to 1,, assisted by
Prince Napoleon; art also appointed some by 0.113,,
and other by their office, the members of the Council
of Regeocy. The names published are correct, but
incomplete, inasmuch as they do not include that of
the Due de Persigny. With respect ti M. Armand
Laity, who was to have been a member of the Courcil,
and whom The Times has stated to be dead, that is a
mistake, as M. batty ia alive and well, as we know
From a visit lie paid us to day."

SUPPLE/MITI/10 SAVINGS.— Sir Joseph Whit-
worth has addressed a letter to the Rev. Daniel Vase-
dray, Rector of Darley, in which he offers to contribute
for the next five yeare ouch a rum yearly as will give
to the inhabitants id North Darley 3 per cent. more
meereet in their deposits in the savings-bank, thus
making the total interest 6 per cent, on their savings.
Such inhal itanti" must he the working classes, receir-
ing wages, includi, g domestic servants and children
at school. Sir Joseph believes there wdl be no diffi-
culty in obtaining a list of the depositors and the
amount of interest they receive, and mays that amount
sill be his subscription. He actie that if the L cal
Board, of which Mr. Vawdrey is the chairman, will
us dertake to ascertain the amount and distribute it, he
will remit to him his subscription. lie does this to
give encouragement t the industrious, gond workmen.
in the curve of a long experience he has found howito
cult it is to give to the industrious, good, and pro lot
workman that encourager' et he deserves. It camp t
he done by giving increase I weges, at least to a v -11
small extent, because the less industrious awl inferior
workmen combine and elsim the saute, and to prevent
the good workman getting his full value. If this pr i-
posal is found tow irk wail in North Dorley, hei,.aies
t see it extended to the itakewell Union and if btic.
ee.sifill there, it might extend to the whole county.
Hs thinks tht- owners of rowdy and the great ein-
-I,l,iyere of tvlvvir might thus greatly promote the 3,
'Purity of their own posierraiooe while they would sti-
mulate the frugality of the working classes to the great
benefit of their morals, health, and happine-s.
Vawdrey his wrltten in reply to Sir Joseph that the
Local Hwtrd of North Parley will gladly tma.i,le
what hie &aim