The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-09-12 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

A great fire has occurred at Amsterdam, a sugar
refinery, which was insured for a million and a half of
florins, having been entirely destroyed.

-- • -
At one o'clock on Tuesday morning the laying of
the fifth Anglo-American cable was completed, and it is
announced that the tests were perfect.

On the let inst. an Act passed in the recent Session
to amend the law respecting the proving and sale of chain
cables and anchors came into force. No chain cable or
anchor exceeding 1681 b. weight is now to be sold without
being tested.
Everything is new in Germany. It may be called
'New Germany." Accordingly there is to be no more thaler
reckoning in 1875. No bills will be taken by the Bank of
Prussia unless the amount is expressed in marks and pfennigs
(new coinage). All business at the bank and its branches
will be transacted wider the new monetary system from
January 1.

The competition which is to take place among the
German musical composers for the best Betting of a new
national hymn to Prince Bismarck will be conducted by a
jury which includes Herren Joachim, Franz Abt, Ferdinand
Hiller, Carl Reinecke, Joachim Ralf, and Franz Lachner.

The Right Hon. Benjamin Disraeli on Tuesday left
Birnam for Balmoral, where he arrived late in the evening,
and will be the Minister in attendance on her Majesty. The
Premier's route was vi l Blairghowrie and Glenshee.

The German and Austrian envoys have met with a
cordial reception from the inhabitants of the towns they
passed through on their way to Madrid. It seems that on
Sunday the Carlists Seed upon a train in which they sup-
posed the envoys were travelling to the capital, and killed
the driver and stoker. The representatives of Germany and
Austria were n..t in the train.

Three thousand persons bare been rendered home.
less by a fire which has destroyed one half of the town of
Meiningen, and the destruction of the buildings alone
involves a loss of three million thalers.

The New York Eco if Italia tells that there is a
musical prodigy about to leave Honolulu for Milan to com-
plete her education, who is a native of the Sandwich Islands,
and was in her childhood a cannibal. She is said to possess
a marvellous soprano voice, and rejoices in an unpronounce-
able name.

According to the San Francigco papers California
will soon become a competitor of Spain and Italy in the
American raisin market. White Muscat grapes are grown
for the purpose, and this year the quantity converted into
raisins will be large.
. .

"The general character of fashion according to the
most elegant taste in Paris, at any rate for the present, le to
simplify the form, to diminish trimmings, to mingle colours
in a luirmonious manner, and, in one word, to give a neat
and quiet ensemble to the toilet which shall not astoniah
but charm the beholder—Miff Lure and Dressmaker.

The total receipts into the Exchequer from the let
April to the sth September were £28,603,481 as compared
with £20.798,024 during the corresponding period of 1873.
The payments during the same period were £32,169,624, as
compared with £34,458,991 last year. The balance on the
sth September in the Bank of England was £2,400,403, and in
the Bank of Ireland, 858,670.

At a conference of Liverpool shipowners on Tuesday,
to discuss the supply of sailors to the mercantile marine,
training ships were unanimously approved of, and a tax on
shipping was recommended in aid of the funds of such ships,
" Salmon-fiehere who desire something like sport
should try the Caspapedia River, Canada. An Albany editor
has, according to his own account least rate, had sonic rare
• takes' there lately. Indeed, salmon me so plentiful in that
river that our Journalistic Piscator quite looks down on
trout. Of them, for example, he writes The trout here
are very large and very abundant, but we won't bother with
them. I gave an hour to it on Saturday, and caught forty--
one of four pounds, and four that weighed twelve pounds—
inside of twenty minutes We lase our patience when a trout
strikes.' Lucky editor ! "—Pictorial World

It is announced that Russia intends to submit the
question of the neutralisation of telegraphs during war to
the International Telegraphic Conference to be held next
year at St. Petersburg.

The report that the Carlists had fired upon the
German gunboat Albatross is confirmed by an official com-
munication from the captain of the vessel to the Prefect of
Santander. It appears, too, that some damage was done to
the ship. The Albatross fired twelve cannon shuts in reply,
and the Carlists then took to Hight.

-
At the meeting of the Liverpool licensing magistrates
on Monday, a deputation of ladies from the Women's Tern-
peranCe League presented a memorial praying that no new
licences should be granted, and that renewals should be re-
fused in cases where the law had been violated. The
memorial was received, and the magistrates promised to
consider the matter.

It is said that in New South Wales an old maid in
a much rarer animal than a black swan. It is asserted that
the lair emigrants from England receive offers of marriage
through speaking-trumpets before they land from the ship,
and if one accepts the proposal she signifies it by holding up
the finger on whlch she expect& the wedding-ring to be
placed. . . _

Germany poesesses at present 325 masonic lodges
with altogether about 30,000 members, under eight German
grand lodges of different rites, of which three are at Berlin,
and the others are thole of Saxony, Hamburg (the oldest in
Germany), Frankforton-the-Main, Baireutli, and 'lessen.

- • ,
The difficulty of defining what was meant by s
" populous place "was one of the many stumbling-blocks in
the Licensing Act of this year, which threatened to pre-
cipitate the project into an abyss of nonsense. It seems now
that a "town "gnat contain 1,000 inhabitants, and a "popu-
lous place " means an area of not less than 1,000 inhabitants.
It is evident that "populous places" will become a vexed
question with regard to the new law.
Mr. Gathorne Hardy has appointed two Commis-
sioners to experiment with the Martini Henry rifle, in order
to discover any defects in the weapon, such as excessive
overheating, &e.

"A very remarkable sea-monster has just been
caught in a net at Atlantic City--a monster shaped like a
turtle, black, six feet long, and with white spots on its heat It
weighs nearly seven hundred pounds, and has a strange and
• fishlike smell The good folk of the far-away city in
question never saw such a peculiar thing before--a fact
which some enterprising local Barnum has taken advantage
of, for the monster is now being exhibited at so mm-h per
head Cannot Mr. Frank Buckland tell no what it really ia r
Pictorial WorLd.

The French Minister of Public Instruction has
made a grant of 6,0001 towards the completion of the
memorial to William the Conqueror at Falsiae, his birth-
place. This sum will be devoted to statues of the hmt six
Dukes of Normandy, which will occupy vacant niches of the
pedestal. The Town Council intend to apply to the General
Council of Calvados for a grant, and it is hoped that the
monument will be inaugurated next year.
- - -

An Indian Debating Society has been discussing
"whether love before or after marriage is most riesireble?"
A majority came to the conclusion tint love before mar-
riage was impossible, and even If possible would prove
ruinous to Ilindoo society. Their next question for debate
In "Are not the men of India, as a rule, governed by the
women?"

Perhaps the hest specimen of open wit now in tie.
Culation is that of the London •iabby's retort at the head of
the highland clan Mclntosh. "Do you know who I am"
asked the haughty Highlander of a cabman attempting, as
Mclntosh thought, to overcharge him, "fm the Mclntosh."
'1 don't care," said the cabby, "if you were the umbrella,
I mean to have my fare."—Court Journal.

Hans Christian Andersen, the children's friend, has
been restored to health. In a letter dated July 24 he says :
" I am again, God be praised, almost well and in my old
good spirits. Every day I gain in strength. For eight long
months I was, as you know, very hick, and it was doubtful if
I could live; but now lam qude another man."
An inquest has been held in London on the body of
Mr. Bothwell, aged fort)-two, a horse dealer. James
Donken. a cab proprietor, stated that four weeks ago he saw
a dog rini down Copenhagen-street, followed by a crowd
calling out "Mad dog." The deceased tried to stop it, and
was bitten in the right hand. Dr. Meade stated that he
attended the deceased on Wednesday, the 26th alt Ile was
suffering from spasm and refused liquids. Ile told witness
that he had been bitten by a large black dog. On examin-
ing the hands witness found a scar between the first and
middle finger of the right hand, but there was no icllamns
lion. Ile expired on Friday night. The poxt-mortem exami-
nation showed congestion of the brain, the route of death
being hydrophobia ending in exhaustion. Verdict 114 Cara•

It is said that ex-Itiarshal Bazaine has taken the
apartments formerly occupied by the late Emperor Napoleon
111., in King-street, St. James's —Court Journal.

--- • -
Advioes from India eay that a native officer of the
30th Regiment at Bangalore was murdered by a sew), of the
same corps on the 10th The sepoy, who was cleaning arms
at the barracks, ran a bayonet through him.

The Parisians are improving upon the idea of crema-
mania They are ornamenting their rooms with preparatory
vases for the family, duly labelled.—Cour t Journal.
Ben Mactibui and the Cairngorm range of the
Grampians had light coverings of snow on Saturday.

•
The death rate in London last week from all causes
was is per Luus. The rate was lowest in the west and north
districts and highest in the central district.
The embankment wall of the Houses of Parliament
is to be extended 366 feet to the west of the Victoria Tower.
With this extension there will then remain only one quarter
of a mile of river frontage from Illackfriars to Battersea-
bridge unembanked.
- • —• • • •

The number of travellers by the Righi Railway is,
according to the Swiss Times, still very considerable. One
day lately nearly two thousand persons made the ascent by
rail
- - - - •

They give handsome prizes in America. There is
to be a big pigeon " shoot " at Niagara Falls on the 10th and
11th of this month, whereat the prizes range from £6OO to
£l,OOO each.

1 A Social Science Congress le to take place in Glasgow
from Sept. 30th to Oct. 7th, with Lord Rotwbcrry as president.
Anions the subjects to be dealt with are education, health,
economy, and the suppression of crime, and in connection
_with the meeting a sanitary and educational exhibition will
, be held. —Graphic.
- - - -- •

_
M. Guizot, who will complete Ma nth year on t•hti
4th of octoner, Is in a precarious state, suffering from
drowsiness and want of appetite. Ills son-in-law, M de Witt,
Secretary to the Ministry of the Interior, has been unable to
leave him for some days.
- - • -

The funeral of Mdme. Heine, who ha.s just died, at
the age of eighty-four, took place in Paris on Monday. The
deceased lady was the mother of MM Armand and Michel
Heine, bankers, and the aunt of the poet. All the high
Jewish clergy of Paris were present at the ceremony.
The St. Gothard Railway Company estimates its
tosses by the recent inundations in Teasiu at 500,000 francs,
and the damage is the more considerable as the company is
bound to have the line to the frontier at Chiasso roads fur
opening on the 6th December.
A German barber has recently ceddiratecl his sixtieth
year of service with the razor. During tt time he shaved
200,012 persons, and earned 3,000 thalers. The event is to be
celebrated by a national festival.

The anxiety which had been felt respecting the
winter crope iii India has been removed by plentiful rain in
the districts where it was most needed_ Should the weather
continue favourable, the Government expect to be able to
close the relief operations in fifteen districta by the beginning
of October.
'

Marshal Mac:\!shun (Galignani says) has just sent
as a wedding present to the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh
two handsome vases of Sevres china, manufactured especially
for thiir Royal Highnesses. They are said to be marvels of
ornamentation, Alla are decorated with copies of pictures by
Boucher and Watteau, executed by some of the first artists
in Paris.
- - .

A commiesion has recently been appointed in France
to conduct a series of experiments on a steam organ, called
" The Calliope," for signalling, the sound of which, it is
stated, may be heard front a distance of fifteen leagues in
fine weather, and from a minimum distance of three leagues
In foul weather. The period of the autumnal equinoxial
gales as a crucial test will be chosen for experiment&
A shocking death from hydrophobia was the subject
of investigation bet. re Dr. flirt Davies, the coroner for tile
borough of Birmingham, on Saturday. About four weeks ago
a lad, about fourteen year' of age, named Frederick James,
sou of a lockmaker, was bitten by a cat, which appeared to
be very wild, and after attacking the boy secreted itself in a
hole in the floor of the house. ft W. subsequently dug out
and destroyed. The boy to all appearance recovered, but on
Wednesday hewn seized with alarming symptoms, and died
in great agony in the course of a couple of days.

-
In London, on Sunday morning, at 7.40, upwards
of 800 men, women, and children availed themselves of the
special inducements held out by the London, Chatham, and
Dover Railway Company for the conveyance, at considerably
reduced fares, of hop-pickers, more especially to the western
division of the county of Kent. As the hour approached,
the Viaduct Station, the point of departure, presented a most
animated appearance, and the general appearance and decent
and orderly conduct of the crowd were, in comparison with
former years, most commendable.
- •

" Return or Write, my dearest Child, to your heart
broken parents. All will I,e forgiven.---" Alone—Letters
received with reference to your friends. Treat them the
same as last time. lam taking care of everything, as ar-
ranged lam thinking of you day and night."--- Pilgrim-
age to What—l weary for one word of forgiveness. I see
now how good and noble and true you have been from first
to last, and how wrong and foolish I have been. Never again
will I give you one moment's uneasiness. I will do only what
you wish and what is right. Trust me, then, once more."—
Advertisements in The Times."

“The mania for thinness ' has of late years seized
upon the young l'arisian ladies, and has been carried on to
an extent that has seriously injured their health. They have
declined all solid food, and existed on sweets and pastry.
This phantom fashion, as it has been called, has already
made some martyrs. One of the most brilliant actresses has
lost her good looks through the starving diet to which the
Moloch of fashion condemned her, mid another had a narrow
chance of losing her life. Fortunately, however, the high
rate of mortality among these French votaries of Bunting
has aroused the attention of lookers-on, and a stop will pro-
bably be put to the absurd practice before long. It has been
called the transparency ' fashion, since its object was to
render its followers as much as possible like anatomical
studies.”—Court Journal.