The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-03-27 00:00:00

Misallanens 'lTtel4turt,
HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN WOMEN. -An English
woman is in the prime of her attractions at the age of
35, while an American woman has usually begun to
fade just ten years earlier. Reason: An English
woman takes air and exercise; American ditto takes
airs and no exercise.

LINES BY LONGFELLOW.—A bazaar has been
held in Boston on behalf of "Our Dumb Animals,"
and Longfellow was asked if he would contribute
towards it. He sent a note expressing good wishes for
the success of the fair, and the following lines :
"A NAMELESS GRAVE.
a "'A soldier of the Union mustered out
Is the inscription on an unknown grave
At Newport News, beside the salt sea wave,
Nameless and dateless; sentinel or scout,
„it Shot down in skirmish, or disastrous rout
,L , Of battle, when the loud artillery drave
4 Its iron wedges through the ranks of brave
And doomed battalions storming the redoubts, a,
Thou unknown hero, sleeping by the sea
• In thy forgotten grave 1 With secret shame
I feel my pulses beat, my forehead burn,
When I remember thou hest given for me
All that thou hadst—thy life, thy very name, '
And I can give thee nothing in return..
COST OF CrviLisATloN.—The Supplementary
Estimates for the current financial year show that the
Government has had to pay £2 2s. for clothes for South
Sea Islanders required as witnesses for the Crown in
proceedings against the master and two seamen of the
Nukulan, charged with kidnapping.

- -
UNDERGRO CND FIR E. —Two valuable dwell-
ing-houses have been rendered uninhabitable by the
action of an underground fire at South Shields, and on
Monday Mr. Hall, borough surveyot, attended befdrei,
the magistrates and applied for an order against the
owners compelling them to pull them down, they being
in a dangerous condition. The owners attended at the
court, and denied their liability on the ground that,
although willed to them, they had no pecuniary in-
terest in them, they being in the hands of mortgagees.
They were individually willing to consent to their re
moval. Tie magistrates made an order against theml
and the houses will therefore, be pulled down by the
corporation.
CITRIOUS SPECIES OP SE A-BIRD. —III his re-
Tort-to the Admiralty, Captain Fairfax, commander
of the ship Volage, which took out the expedition to
'witness the transit of Venus at Kerguelen Island,
sikys :—" There are on the island large numbers of
cats, also goats and rats, evidently mtrciduced by
casual residents; but the only indigenous specie are
sea-birds, including the sphemiscus, called by fisher-
men The Magistrate,' because of its grand appear-
ance. Its wings are really fins,, and in the water it is
very agile, but on land its movements are awkward,
A plateau 600 feet above the sea-level contains hun-
dreds of these birds, their nests forming, as it were, a
number of villages. The male birds go down to the
sea to procure food for themselves and their mates,
climbing the plateau by means of a track they have
cut out on the beach, and making use in the ascent
both of their beaks and their rudimentary *bags. The
naturalists attached to the expedition have studied the
habits of these birds, which showed no fear -of man."
MORE IRISH E VIDENC*. —III a trial counsel
tried in all ways to implicate the gardener in cross-
examination, but he warded off the questions both
skilfully and impudently. At length the presiding
judge said coaxingly, "We don't want to puzzle you ;
give us your own account of your knowledge of the
prisoner plainly and honestly." Upon which Pat gave
the following lucid and satisfactory evidence :—"lt
was last Winsday three weeks as iver was I was a,
diggin' in the garthern when there pops a head frgraz
over the hedge. Pat?' siz he. What ? ' si* .A.re
you there ? ' siz he. 'Where?' siz J. 'Her. t szhe.
What Ist?' siz I. It is,' siz he. Whist,' Eft.
Yea;' i3iZ he. 4n4 that's. all I know about it* ye.?
ASTONISHING A GENERAL The following'
*Went in the life of General Sherman is veuelled,
bur :—" Last winter he was making a call upon a
foreign lady who had learned to say in very good En-,
lish, Vary happy, vary.' General- Sherman " had a
fall just as he ascended the steps of her residence. As
soon as the first greeting was 'over, General Sherman
told how he had hurt himself just outside of her door,
The lady smiled sweetly and graciously said, ' Vary
happy, vary happy.' The bluff soldier stared and
said aloud, D--n it, is the woman a fool, or is she
crazy?' Vary happy, vary happy,' was the still
smiling response to his last
wondered
wThhye
she
had General
abruptly left, and the lady
failed to interest him sufficiently to induce him to pro.
long his call,"