The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-04-04 00:00:00

THE STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER.

four gallons of flour, and the largest quantity awarded
was in the case of a household consisting of man, wife,
I and seven children, the wife carrying away with her five
and a half gallons. The name of "John Etheridge,"
the blacksmith who proved such a characteristic
witness for the prosecution in the Court of Queen's
Bench, was called out as one of the recipients. The old
man did not personally appear, but a substitute con.
veyed his share to him. Kennett, coachman to the
Dowager Lady Tichborne until her death—a hale old
man of seventy, spare and upright, with grisly locks,
who now live* in a small freehold cottage at Claeriton,
of which he is owner, having retired from work on a
small competency —also came forward and received
three gallons of flour. A scene in which upwards of
200 persons took part would have been incomplete
without a policeman; not that he was present for the
purpose of making arrests, although tales are told that
in bygone days applicants would often come up twice
to be served, and would sometimes in the interim
change their attire in order the more effectually to
maintain the deception. " H.C. 73." was in attendance
in full uniform to receive two gallons of flour, which he
bore away in a calico bag, to the temporary detriment
of the colour of his coat as he slung it over his
shoulder with the air of a man who evidently appre-
ciated bagging flour as keenly as he would exult in
catching a thief, and as a matter of fact he looked as
though he possessed all the necessary qualifications for
the proper discharge of his official functions in what-
ever capacity he might be called upon to exercise them.
So in due course the task of distribution went on, each
recipient, with a curtsey or a pull at the forelock,
being served in alphabetical succession, and the work
extending over a period of about two hours, until nine
sacks, each containing fifty gallons of flour, had been ,
distributed. The total number of recipients was up-
wards of 600, and the entire quantity of flour was
absorbed.

ing be allowed. Happily, after a page of these
regulations, we come to Rule 45, setting forth that
the governor may alter any of the above regulations
at his discretion, which suggests a doubt as to
whether some expense in printing might not have been
saved by laying down one solitary rule to wit: "The
Governor of this prison does as he pleases." In the
case of my friend the forty-four rules seem to be super
fluous, for he reads the papers, smokes like a chimney.
lees what friends he likes, receives his repasts from,
the restaurant, with rolls, fruits, and pies intact, and
has the run of all the passages and courtyards when he
desires exercise. He and his brother second, whom I
had not the pleasure to see, mess together, contrary to
Rule di'; but what further immunities they enjoy it
would not be quite fair to divulge. After smoking
one of his cigars I left the captive M good
spirits, but was not surprised to learn that
in despite of his pleasant berth he pines to be out,
and hopes to obtain his transfer soon on a doctor's cer-
tificate, to a private ruaison de sante. Once there, a
second doctor's certificate recommending the air of
Nice as indispensable to his health will no doubt pro-
cure him a remission of the rest of his sentence; and
let it be hoped that the severity of the punishment he
will have undergone will, after this, act to him as a
caution for the remainder of his days. I suspect
though he might have carried away a more lasting Im-
pression of the inconveniences of duelling if it had
been his lot to be tried and imprisoned in a land of
non-equality—say in England.

on these occasions with a stock in trade of a most easily
portable character were fully repreeented. Oranges,
jolly noses, Barcelona nuts, cigar lights, "black 'uns or
flamers" at two boxes the penny, and destined later
in the day to come down to three, canes adorned with
tassels of the rival blues, rosettes of the same of every
size, shape, and fashion, some with a silver star in
the centre, recalling a foreign eider, and others
with a suspended medal aping a military decoration,
I were to be had in plentiful profusion. Bunches of
light or dark blue artificial flowers of a species quite
beyond botanical identification found a ready sale as
articles of personal adornment amongst both sexes, but
there were also plenty of fresh yellow primroses and
violets dripping with dew or Covent Garden pump
water. There were plenty of glib-tongued knaves hard
at work at the "purse trick," and one or two in sly
corners offering apocryphal odds of three to one on
Cambridge, when it was the cube of the first
figure to zero that you never set eyes on them again,
or that if you did that you would not get your
money from them. The musical element was decidedly
deficient. The niggers had all moved on up to-
wards Barnes, where the strings of carriages
drawn up never fail to yield a plentiful vein of copper,
and vocal melody was represented by a couple of in-
dividuals in Scotch caps, who rehearsed in doleful
strains, not the chances of the coming race, but the
hard fate of the apparently never-to-be-forgotten
('laimant. To a sery mournful tune indeed they ,
maintained that though he was lying under the stigma
of being both "an impostor" and a " lump of fat," the
universal feeling was "that he in the right man
after all," and declared in chorus, "Though m prison
they have cast him, we'll not forget poor linger now."