The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-04-23 00:00:00

aUctUantau jititllijuxct.

HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

AVERAGE PRICES OF BRITISII.CORN.—The following
are the average prices of British corn for the week
ending April 16, as received from the inspectors and
officers of Excise :—Wheat, 445. 9d. ; barley, 325. id. ;
oats, 225. 2d. per imperial qr. Corresponding week
last year :—Wheat, 475. lid.; barley, 3.35. Bd. ; oats,
245. 6d.
A NEW DISEASE. —Your= Lady.—" I didn't see
your sister at church on Easter Sunday."—Boy.--
"No, she ain't well."—Young Lady.—" Oh, dear!
What's the matter with her ?"—Boy.—" I dunno.
Mother says she thinks she 's got an Ulster in her
throat."—Fun.
THE CZAR'S WILL.—The Gobs reports that the late
Czar, Alexander 11, has appointed as executors of his
will the Grand Dukes Michael and Alexis and Prince
Suwarrow. Forty-eight millions of roubles deposited
with London bankers are distributed as follows :
Thirty millions to his successor, the present Czar, and
the remainder to the Princess Dolgorouky.

IRON AND STEEL PRODUCTION IN AMERICA.—The
United states Census Office reports that the number
of iron and steel producing establishments existing
last year in the United States was 1,005, against 808
in 1870. The daily capacity of the blast furnaces was
19,248 tons, of the rolling mills 16,430, of the Bessemer
steel converters 4,467, of the open hearth steel fur-
naces 827, of the crucible steel works 445, and of the
forges and blomaries 520 tons. The total capital
invested in the production of iron and steel amounted
to 231,000,000 dols., against 122,000,000 dols. in 1870.
FROM THE ClTY.—When one has a little money to
invest, why is it always better to invest it in land
than in other securities ?—Well, because, you know,
land must be jir»ta.—Judy.
THE BRITISH SOLDIER AT A DISADVANTAGE.—After
all the rifle matches, "Wimbledon competitions, prizes,
and ranges lctig and short, there cemes out the terrible
fact that a British regiment may be almost helpless
once within gunshot of Boers, or other people accus-
tomed to handle the rifle and knock over any kind of
game from their very childhood (remarks The Times,
in a leader). The British soldier has always been at a
disadvantage in this respect, and has suffered for it
when he came to encounter good marksmen. In the
War of Independence, the Americans picked out our
officers, besides reaping the full advantage of their
superiority in the destruction of our rank and file.
Yet so little did we profit by the warning that at the
beginning of this century, when we were really
expecting war in our own fields and villages, it was
thought a great thing if a competitor from the London
Volunteers struck a target half a yard wide in
Ranelagh-gardens at a distance of 96 yards. Various
new territorial.regiments, with the affiliated militia,
are to become rifle regiments' but what amount of
rifle practice will enable them to compete for dear life
with opponents as familiar with the rifle as with any
implement of husbandry or craft?
" SPOONS ! "—The not very numerous, and Whet.,
useless class, who are born with silver spoons in their
mouths, are not the most enthusiastic admirers of
Mr. Gladstone's Budget. They object to suck away
threepence an ounce every year for six years, until at
last their spoons have lost nearly ten per cent. in
value. Possessors of the family tea-pot are also
dissatisfied, and Maiden Aunts are unable to see why
their little property in plate should be slowly and
surly depreciatel.—Punch.
THE NEW LIQUOR LAW IN KANSAS. The New
York Independent says :—The Rev. D. C. Milner, of
Ottawa, Kansas, writes us that there is no truth in
the statement that it has been found that the new
Kansas liquor law interferes with the use of wine for
communion purposes. He adds: "The law does not
go into force until the Ist of May; but in a large
number of the towns of the State the saloons have
already closed. In a number of the larger places the
wholesale dealers are preparing to move out of the
State, and some breweries are already leased for a
term of years for other manufacturing purposes. It
is believed that in all the State, except two or ififee
cities on the border of 'Missouri, the law will be en-
forced at once, and will be the beginning of a more
glorious era for Kansas."

THE DUTCHMAN'S LOGIC.—In the Legislature of
Ohio, some years ago, there was a warm dispute
whether a certain proposed railroad should commence
at a given point down or at a certain other up the
river. "Who ever heard," said a dowa-the-river ad-
vocate, "of beginning anything at the top? Who ever
hard of building a chimney horn the top downward?
Who ever saw a house began at the top?" , Up
jumped a Dutch member from an up-t Le-river
county. • Neester Brezident, de jentlemans say dat
dees beeznes ees all YJII hoomboog, pecans() vee vents
to pegeen our railroat mit de top ov de Shtate, und he
make some seely conibarisons apout de houze und de
schimney. I veel also ask de jentlemans von ques-
tions. Een heei bart ov de Shtate, ven dey pegins to
built von yell, do dey pegins mit de bottom ov de yell,
or do dey pegings mit de top ov de veil? Veel de
jentlemans Neese answer me dat leetle von question?"
The laughter which explosively followed this Teutonic
retort showed who, in the opinion of the legislators,
had the better of the argument.—" Editor's Drawer,
in Harper's New Monthly Magazine.

How THE TEETOTALLERS NET THE BRITISH WORK.
MEN.—With a temperance music haul.—Judy.
SUDDEN DEATH OF MR. SERJEANT HERON, Q.C.—
intelligence has been received from Galway of the
sudden death of Mr. Serjeant Heron, Q.C., one of the
leading counsel for the Crown in the recent State
trials. He was in excellent health and dined on
Thursday last at the County Club with the Recorder
of Galway and several other gentlemen. He was out
early on Friday morning to pursue his favourite
pastime of salmon fishing, in the enjoyment of which
he spends some weeks every year, generally in the
West of Ireland, and had been very successful, haying
landed two salmon. He was playing a third when he
suddenly fell back, and would have fallen into the
river, which is very rapid at the place, had not an
attendant named Lydon caught him. Brown, another
attendant, took Serjeant Heron's rod and killed the
salmon. Mr. John Pollok, High Sheriff of Galway,
and Major Trench, who were fishing on the bank at
the same time, had Mr. Heron immediately conveyed
to the Weir-house, and Doctors Browpe and Colohan
having been sent for, all that medical skill could do
was tiied for his recovery, but in vain. He never
rallied. The Rev. Mr. Grennan, P.P., administered
the last rites of his Church to him. Mr. Heron was
of a genial, kindly disposition, and had a large circle
of private friends.
TELEGRAPHS or THE WORLD.—It appears that at
the close of the year 1880 there were in the United
States 170,103 miles of line, and during that year
33,155,991 messages were sent. The miles of wire were
about 300,000. This does not include the lines used
exclusively for railroad business. The other countries
having the greatest length of lines are as follows :
Russia, 56,170 miles; Germany, 41,431; France,
36,970; Austria-Hungary, 30,403; Australia, 26,842;
Great Britain, 23,156; British India, 18,209; Turkey,
17,085; and Italy, 15,864.
A SINGULAR SURPRISE.—In 1833, Sing Louis
Philippe presented Rossini with a valuable repeater,
set with brilliants and exceedingly handsome. Rossini
wore it six years in his waistcoat pocket. As he was
one day showing and describing it to some artists in
a cafe, an individual, advancing to where the com-
poser sat, told he did not know his own watch, though
he had worn it so long. So speaking, the stranger
pressed a secret spring—and Rossini's portrait, sur-
rounded by some Arabic characters, was exposed
to view. It was, indeed, the first time Rossini had
seen this part of his watch and he was not a little sur-
prised. The stranger was the person who had made
the watch. Strange to say, he could not te induced
by offers or entreaties to explain the me:ming of the
mysterious Ai abic characters. This reticence made
Rossini, who was very superstitious, regard the watch
with dread, as something "uncanny," and he never
wore it again.
THE RAIN TREE.—Some travellers in South A ne-
rice, in traversing an arid and desolate tract of coun-
try, were struck with a strange contrast (says Land
and Water). On one side there was a barren desert,
on the other a rich and luxuriant vegetation. The
French Consul at Loreto, Mexico, says that this re-
markable contrast is due to. the presence of the
" Tamai caspi," or the rain tree. This tree grows to
the height of sixty feet, with a diameter of three feet
at its base and possesses the power of strongly at-
tracting, absorbing, and condensing the humidity of
the atmosphere. Water is always to be seen dripping
from its trunk in such quantity as to cc nvert the sur-
rounding foi.l into a veritable marsh. it is in summer
especially, when the rivers are nearly lried up, that
the tree is most active. If this admirable quality of
the rain tree was utilized in the arid regions near the
equator, the people there, living in misery on account
the unproductive soil, would derive great advantages
froin•its introduction, as well as the people of more
favoured countries where the climate is dry and
droughts frequent.
NEW BABIES AT THE Zoo.—During a recent Visit to
the Zoological Gardens one of the keepers kindly in-
formed me af an interesting new arrival (says a corre-
spondent of Land and Water). About three months
ago a fine female Bactian camel from Afghanistan was
deposited there, which about a fortnight ago gave
birth to a young one, also a female, and the first, I
understand, ever born in the gardens. They are to be
seen in the llama house, and well worthy of a visit.
In the fish house is exhibited a rare kind of penguin
—the crested penguin or rock hopper. The scientific
name for the bird had not been yet appended, but I
was told it was the first that had eve; been deposited
in the gardens.
THE THREE MOST INQUISITIVE ENGLISH RIVERS.—
The Wye, the Wen, and the Ware.—Funny Folks.
A ROYAL WEDDING GlFT.—Among the gifts re-
ceived by the Princess William of Prussia on the
occasion of her recent marriage was a small volume,
entitled "On the turning of the year. A friend and
companion in word, verse, thought and prayer at the
parting hour of the year." On the title page, it bore
the motto, "Our life is but a transitory station on the
road to the heavenly home." The book was dedicated
to the Empress Augusta of Germany in the following
words :—" Thoughtfully to part with the closing
year—thoughtfully to enter on the one just open-
ing such were always your sentiments and
example. Therefore, these leaves belong to you.
Remembrance joined them to gratitude, in prayerful
heart preserving the reminiscences of the past." The
contents are divided into six carts: I. Family Devo-
tion; 11. On Family Devotion ; 111. Poems; IV.
Tales, Similes, Legends and Essays V. Biblical
Words and Verses; VI. Appendix. In the fourth
part is contained, among others, "The Child's Dream,"
after the English of Dickens--said to have been trans-
lated by the authoress of this anthology herself, who is
no other than Her Royal Highness the Grand-Duchess
of Baden.

THE OVERFLOW OF THE MISSOURI.—The Phila-
delphia Public Ledger of the 2nd instant says :—" The
gorges and floods in the Upper Missouri river
continue and cause great destruction. The village of
Green Island, Nebraska, opposite Yankton, has been
swept away ;„,the inhabitants were seen from Yankton Ato
clinging to their houses as they floated off. Three '
steamers have been destroyed at Yankton. Advices front
Bismarck, Dakota, report that the unfortunate people
of Mandan remained in thq village, having only a few
boats. A steamer tried to reach them yesterdaf but
was prevented by the ice. Fivemen were rescued in
the woods along the river, near Bismarck, b 7 Mayor
Peoples and another man, one of the saved being taken
from a floating cake of ice. The losses of cattle in
Dakota are reported to be enormous.
AMERICAN WHEAT PROSPEOTS.—The reports of April
1, received at the Department of Agriculture, Washing-
ton, show an increase of nearly 4 per cent, of the area
sown in winter wheat. Owing to the prevalence of
snow at the date of the returns, the condition of qv
crops is not given in large portions of the i
principal
wheat-growing States, but, wherever mentioned, it s
stated as below last year's average. The alternate
freezing and thawing during the month of March
was the most detrimental of any weather experienced
during the winter.
THE OLDEST TREE IN THE WORLD.—The American
.Register, an undeniable authority, relates that in the
vicinity of San Francisco a tree, which may justly lay
claim to being the oldest tree in the world, was recentry
cut down on account of its debility, the rings on
which denoted a period of vitality of no less than
4,840 years. Three hundred persons could freely move
about in the hollow of the trunk just above the
ground.

TROUBLES NEVER COME ALONE.—One day when
Mr. Harness was staying at a famous country-house
he found a gentleman pacing up and down the parlour
in the mostedistressing agitation of mind. "is there
anything the matter ? " inquired Mr. Harness,
anxiously. "The matter !" he replied; "I should
think there was! Three of the worst things that
can possibly happen to a man; I'm in love, I'm in
debt, and I've doubts about the doctrine of the
Trinity ! "—" Editor's Drawer," in Harper's New
Monthly Magazine.
MOUNTAIN LIFTS.—An ingenious system of lifts
for mountain ascent is about to be put in operation
near the town of Carterets, in the Pyrenees. A large
number of tourists, and especially bathers, frequent
this place in summer, the latter on account of the
sulphurous thermal waters, thought highly curatiVe.
Some of the springs—e.g., those of La Raillere—are
nearly a kilometre from the town, and 123 metres
uphill. The water has a temperature of 39deg. C., and
could not be brought directly to the town without cooling
and chemical change, so that bathers have had to go to
the place in conveyances. The mode of transport now
adopted by the town is the invention of M. Edoux (whose
lift was one of the curiosities in the Paris Exhibition
of 1878). A series of five towers, for lifts, are
to be raised on the mountain-side, and the top of each
of the lower ones will be connected with the bottom
of the next higher by means of a piece of slightly in-
clined railway. The carriage conveying the pas-
sengers is raised in each tower by hydraulic power
derived from the abundant falls of water at hand,
and it passes from tower to tower by the force of
gravity (controlled, of course, by loiakes). The return
of the carriage is effected by letthig it, on a speelil
truck, run down a winding line of rail on the moun-
tain-side to the second tower, which, with the fiist.
has a double arrangement; and it then descends
through those two towers to the starting point. 'The
system is described in a reCent number of La Nature.

THE LATEST AMERICA s 1 INNOVATIONs.—To the
kindly German custom of celebrating certain periods
of married life, which has of late years found many
admirers and imitators in this country (says the Daily
Telegraph), we owe some familiarity with silvern,
golden, and even diarnantine weddings, commemora-
tive respectively of the twenty-fifth, fiftieth, and
sixtieth anniversaries of the marriage day. But we
now learn for the first time that the Americans, with
characteristic thoroughness, have added a numberof new
developments to this class of family rite. They have be-
stowed the tempting title of "Sugar Wedding "upon
the first marriage anniversary ; the second they style
the "Paper Wedding ;" while the fifth, tenth, fifteenth,
and twentieth are feted by them under the respec-
tive designations of the "Wooden," "Iron," A Till"
and " Electro-Plate" Weddings. The guests bidMt
to a "Wooden Wedding" are expected to bring witli
thud congratulatory offerings in the material
from which that ceremony derives its predicate, such
as tables, chairs, salad-spoons, butterstamps, bootjacks,
and so forth. If only regarded as a plausible pretext
for an additional number of cheerful family gatherings,
these latest American innovatiwts upon an ancient
Teutonic practice may sooner or later find adoption
by &green on th:s side of the Atlantic.

I

tin, MAWS PEOPLI 81777E5, With a dull heavy p9in in
ta latAd; with tired and ifiY grad tt!trlga that ale,-;. dr'es
tr't releove; with a it'nesi aont th,
oU•ri atteadod with palpitation. A ry:in I tie side and
baek, ,aith freqaest sielcheadache; with haus ,a aftlr eat-
ing. att.eiat w‘th itithienee and a disagresi.ble tAste
zahraiho;cf aprbtit,e, with rer.l.4o,•rdizs•noss.
How hator; pw4211 taffr with ‘ll thee wtiag,ees'le
51f4 Arti blue 1ear..71.h., the real eati.,e otthetr m:14.4y, or
p-er mi.e f obtaining Wiwi. Th,se aoror
Sympoki.,, of in,lirittoe an; Aver aornplaiat. but tool,
will -,nee by :Iva Ilse of •-.3e'.g..;'4
!imp' it taken Inland), after twins Th4t B.7.rtip tr4.:l
e44-.e th,3 f..revl to dips% and giv• ern:lrishmen'
assr.,m, and manse the bow, ".,o mate -• :7
Of aii '2,nemista. .

Lrvis- R Agb TSMACS PILL', P. Kixo'i .D..1.F1)%1.1651
AND Qr.lltDE levee famous PiPs do
Sot coutiir. e'en a rtteo Mor Dry, qv an,- col te &Joel'
dangerfea regretieilla frequently found in aciv4risod
p;rt, Th;e fac4etin,r,f, Ztf eql Dr. King's reni4wrieci
(thenverlse froat -1 all xha svever. ea the safest,
dsi,een,tt, AD/ ffcul reined. for
Filt,ree-is of the Liver ad Scoach wne:her in form
of C,ristipatton, Inuigeetion,
Pa, Feverish Iteeeie,
• f hewhole eyetern, bilinciittation f:Jr Food, ci(
ey4n-p:oes geta-sly.
'•i4rAts4 kves.--Fie..74 cerefal:y fr .ra tot
7p rriglrote.th, tr.hip.,.5.1 free ir”ra
raeket ) e ma,Antla an c•lar,n.,
Ikud and ahread,
en•
a:ity at the as es fixed pt-ize. 01. re,
thronghout the kinrn by pa -.1•0.•1 ki rn.2e,
Aleuts ; List of Agent
Ctremiit 151, High h. 4.
Tiiz reert ; ; Morrie,
itrat.—Brieri,l EILL ILW:rge, •44P.als'
mirceter, flwlt, BMII s.lc ; • •7•
Lye, den.i.s chemist ; Woreisfey. ,--
witfard, Pearson. 8:et:ell I.4"M'r..
13ircuttighem Beak', bail Ring, (2:.,:," '
chemist.
Cagan In A Firm 47.ocee, rear 4,,A. AND E,-
LAR4S) Tea Jolsn-
PLAATINII are the enty fr.r :corn soi
?inters. Shiell.•, or i:!....?ap0.-.ainoe
.11'14147 nofteDing the. eceoe; aurra3r.•ia.,4 P^in g"a
At eats, the Core s-e. B.;nions, slut •
faree4 Tee delete reieire tatNre time for p-rfeel. era,.
bit die Mittel% Is astute end relief :r:•tat.ile,..;:on4, A7L:y
hoe" May be worn with eolotort tkr,ohr.n,e.ir.r arr-ly•
tog Delas's Miter.; oa no serow-.: o perfrairii
buy Lay ether. hoses. le. lid. e.eh. are rrao:4=
chigadeta. Piet free, lt Insteps. Bsit),td Ti
Pay.ley Street. Londe*. W.C.
THU Nail!. —1? or 40 years Mrs. ft. al. A ~1..V.14
titmio,,b's RAIZ 1114111TOSSII has received
tow bb. pebble. It has serielrei ;4« 1241,4,5
116bi.1
hi obtained for sap 04Iffi
teratribated be the *Cerement of teas of tt.eusap4
el persona, who have lb o proof of Ste serviseal-A. starer
tor.ll WILI petiteeslyraa.a ai,„l rtifor,
*elf safari/ **boar of grow. ;Atilt, dead ii.dte' 1:evo,
It wiE etreastieen en/ inviaortv fe'l.
aaA, ladess $ heoltby I:l3.4citot g 7,0,111,. NCJ
*Jibe: preps:air/a ale produ.te 0.4 'mine bEuelidat
4.411 t. kCo•,,A by all Citbralisi,ll and 'erg,
4e4Alv.:, Drspit 11.; 1.6 116. &Olt:as:lap:on how
leutteliega

A. FORTUNE.

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