The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-08-14 00:00:00

A Times' telegram sa,vs great satisfaction bas been
expressed throughout the rnited States at Mr. Gladstone's
convalescence.

The principal shipbuilders on the Clyde have just
concluded a number of important contracts with several of
the largest shipowning companies who intend to increase
their fleet of steamers. Twenty thousand tons of new ship-
ping have been secured, and these figures will be increased
hortly.
The London and China Telegraph hears from Chinese
sources that a large town on the North river, about one
hundred miles above Canton, has been inundated during the
late heavy rains, and it said that over four thousand lives
have been lost.
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The French papers state that a youth of Mulhousie
named Maurice Kcechklin, aged sixteen, an inmate of a
school for the deaf and dumb, has just passed successfully his
examination for the degree of Bachelor of Letters at Lydns.
He is stone deaf.

As some boys were bathing in a pool between
Dudley and Netherton on Sunday evening, one of them
named Henry Kendal got beyond his depth. Another boy
named William Marshall went to his ,assistance, and both
were drowned.

Among the minor details of fashion are especially
to be noticed the increasing mode among the upper classes of
wearing anklets, not only for balls, but fetes and garden
parties, B:c., the return to favour of the chatelaine and the
chatelaine bags; most welcome addition to the toilette.—
Court Journal.

The critical position of our troops in Afghanistan
was recognized in many of the London Churches on Sunday
morning, and they were especially mentioned in the
"Prayer for all conditions of men" which follows the
supplication on behalf of "the High Court of Parliament
now sitting."

Hales Place, Canterbury, the residence for many
years of Miss Barbara Hales, a Roman Catholic lady, has
been purchased by the Jesuits for the purposes of a college.
The sum of £24,000 is to be paid for the property, which in-
cludes fifty-seven acres of land. The college is to accommo-
date 150 students.

There is an attempt made to revive the kid mittens
that were worn by our great-grandmothers. Some are made
with bands of lace insertion passing round the arm, but they
are neither becoming or stylish. Still they are picturesque,
and furnish a very appropriate adjunct to a Louis XV
toilette.—Court Journal.

Professor Babo, of Frieburg, has taken out a Ger-
man patent for coating the mouth end of cigars with
collodion (by simply dipping and drying), in order to prevent
the leaf from unrolling or softening with the Moisture of the
mouth. Cigars thus treated are said to smoke more
pleasantly and longer. Cigars with thin covering leaf are
entirely dipped in collodion.

The Colog& Gazette understands that the Servian
army, which in 1879 numbered 140 battalions of infantry, 27
squadrons of cavalry, and 41 batteries of artillery, represent.
ing a force of about 130,000 men on a war footing, hassin ce
last year been very materially improved in training and
organisation.

A conference of miners took place in Manchester
on Tuesday for the purpose of considering the best means
of improving the condition of the mining industry. Accord-
ing to the statements which were made, the position of
miners at the present time is far from satisfactory, the de-
mand for their labour being slack and the wages earned ex-
ceedingly small. Resolutions urging the importance of
improved organization, and suggesting the wisdom of local
unions combining together, were passed.
A Government paper just issued gives a compara-
tive statement of the number of paupers of all classes in
receipt of relief in the metropolis and throughout England
and Wales at certain fixed periods. The number of paupers
in the metropolis at the end of the Midsummer quarter 1878
was 77,616; in 1870 it was 81,204 ; and in 1880 it was 84,126.
In the fourth week of June the number of paupers through-
out England and Wales was 717,755 in 1879, and 716,589 in
1880.

The Albert Victor steamship, belonging to the
South-Eastern Railway Company, and destined for the
Channel service from Folkestone to Boulogne, made her
trial passage on Saturday, performing the distance, in the
face of a head wind and with a fresh sea, in an hour and a
half, the return passage occupying even less time by five
minutes. The Albert Victor, which was built by Messrs.
Samuda Brothers, the engines being supplied by Messrs.
Penn and Sons, is constructed of steel, and. is 250 long by 29
broad.

The operations for the raising of the fallen girders
of the Tay-bridge have, now been completed without acci-
dent. All the girders and pillars have been removed. About
6,000 tons of iron have been recovered and beached at
Broughtyferry and Tayport. The work was intrusted to Mr.
Waddell, contractor, Edinburgh, and was superintended by
Mr. Armit, who has accomplished it in about five months.
The costs will be from L'lo,ooo to £12,0v0, but a considerable
proportion of this expenditure will be met by the sale of the
MOD.
A very curious discovery has lately been made
which will be likely to revolutionize a ve:ry great industry.
The dressing of skins for parchment hr.. oeen the means of
employment for many people, but manufacturers can now
produce a vegetable parchment which has every quality of
the original parchment, is much cheaper, and is, morever,
nonporous. A vast amount of it is already being used in
London, and it is being imported in enormous quantities
from the Continent.

The, other day the salmon fishers at Berried&le,
found in one of the hag nets, among other fish, a fourteen
pound salmon bearing the following marks :—On the flat,
smooth part of the head, behind the eye, and immediately
over the gills, a branded mark comprising the letters 88. YU'
(the last mark appeared like an apostrophe). A line was
drawn round these letters in the form of a square border.
Immediately under this was a mark which rudely resembled
the outline of a salmon's head, filled with dots and
streaks.

'Whilst Mrs. George Perfect, aged 30 years, who
resided at Pleasant-grove, West Ham, Essex, was, on Mon-
day morning, at Stratford Station, in the act of getting out
of the carriage of a train in which, she travelled, before it
stopped, the unfortunate lady's dress caught in the doorway,
and threw her between the platform and the metals. The
wheels of the carriages passed over her body, mutilatingher
in a frightful 'manner. She was extricated as soon as pos-
sible, and medical aid was promptly sent for; but life was
quite extinct.

It is proposed to employ the telephone and what is
known as the musical gas•flame to warn the manager of a
coal-mine as to the state of the atmosphere in the workings.
When a tube is held overxa jet of burning gas a musical
sound is produced, the volume and quality of which is de-
termined by the size and nature of the tube. If such a
tube Were adapted to a safety-lamp, it is thought the varia-
tions in sound due to the quantity of gas present in the air
around the lamp might be reproduced by means of the tele-
phone in the manager's office.
A return has been issued of the number of burials
which have taken place during the year 1879 in the various
cemeteries within ten miles of the metropolis, specifying
the number in consecrated ground and the number in un-
consecrated ground. This shows that 45,916 were interred
in consecrated ground, and 37,908 in unconsecrated ground.
There was a total of £15,533 17s. 9d. paid in fees, of which
£9,358 16s. 7d. was taken by incumbents, and £4,321 Os. 2d.
to officiating clergymen.

An opportune discovery on Saturday night averted
what would otherwise have been a disastrous catastrophe to
two North-Western express trains, bet%veen Beeston and
Tattenhall. A coal merchant, who had a siding near,
noticed that directly opposite to Beeston Castle the heavy
rainfall on the surrounding hills h.g.d caused a miniature
lake to form alongside the low embankment carrying the
rails. The pressure of water eventually became so great that
it swept away about twenty-five feet of the down line and
fifteen feet of the up line, leaving only the steel rails bridg-
ing the chasms, with the sleepers, from under which the
ballast had been washed away. He at once ran down one
line and sent his son down the other, and they succeeded in
stopping the up Dublin and Holyhead and the down London
expresses just as they were within a few yards of the chasm.
Alter some delay it was decided to temporarily bridge the
two rents in the line with sleepers, se as to enable the pas-
sengers from the two trains to be transferred, the London
train returning with the up passengers to Crewe and the
Holyhead to Chester with those from London.

The death of M. Hyacinthe Firrain Didot, head of
the famous French publishing house, is just announced. M.
Didot was born in 1794, and succeeded his father in 1827 as
principal of the printing and publishing establishments and
paper mills of which his family had long been proprietors.
Among his claims to honourable remembrance is that of
having founded in 1834, at Mesnil, the first school for the
training of female compositors.

The Times publishes the following telegram from
Cape Town :—" A crowded and enthusiastic meeting of the
leading citizens was held to-day (Aug. 7), at which a resolu-
tion was unanimously passed, expressing profound regret
at the recall of Sir Bartle Frere, sympathy with his Excel-
lency in the difficulties he has had to deal with in South
Africa, and asserting that before long the people of England,
as well as the colonists, will acknowledge the soundness and
Justice of his policy. Various speakers spoke of Sir Bartle.
Frere's recall as the severest blow South Africa had ever sus-
tained, and the interference with his conduct of affairs as
very certain to involve the Imperial Government in con-
tinued troubles and expense. The hope was indulged in
that the decision of the Government would be reconsidered,
as in Sir George Grey's case, and Sir Bartle Frere be rein-
statod for a few years longer to complete his work:'

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