The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-08-10 00:00:00

Mtn fonbon Coutspodont.

e deem it right to state that we de not at all times
alsetny ourselves with our Correvpondent's opinions.]

Good Dr. Dwight, the celebrated American the,
said, " Ile that makes a little child happier for
one half h or is a fellow-worker with God." The re-
mark occurred to me as I read that the Princess of
Waist. had sent a large supply of toys for the little
inmates of the Hospital for Sick Children, in Great
Ormoul-street The toys, it seems, are so plentiful
in quantity and so strong in quality, that the managers
of the wards have been able to give a toy or two to
every child who is not too iil to care for them, and
that these little treasures will ultimately find their
way into many a home where they will serve as a
memorial of the Princess's kiin!ness. The little suf-
ferers, sitting up in boil, and playing with their toys,
must feel half inclined to look ursin the Princess
As some "good Princess" of a fairy tale, but we
who look at matters from a more stern and sober
point of view, cannot but highly estimate this
plain, practical benevolence, and it would be well
if othe,s among the wealthy classes would follow the
example. Our h xspitals are usually very dreary places,
and mink more so than they need be. The sufferer
lying on the bed of pain and anguish has nothing but
bare walls to look upon, unless it be the range of uni-
form beds, each with some patient similarly placed to
himself. But if a few coloured engravings— tkey are not
very costly —were hung upon the walls, what a
relief from monotony would they be !—how many
pleasant thoughts would they give rise to !
What with the regular ecclesiasticallyaeiginating
holidays, the four Bank Holidays, the Saturday half-
holiday, and an occasional outing, it most be acknow-
ledged that we are very differently placed in this
respect to what our grandfathers, or even our fathers
were. When
John ilidu's spouse said to her dear,
Though married we have been
These twice ten tedious years, yet we
No holiday have seen,
th, wife of the famous citizen of London town ut.
teresl a sentiment which could not have been particu-
larly startling to the ears of the "train-bind captain."
Many another couple were probably much in the same
case. There were neither railways nor steam boats,
holidays were very rare, and excursions, as we
understand the term, did not exist. But "we have
changed all that," and holidays are by no means a
rarity. Never was Bank Holiday so generally ob-
served since the passing of Sir John Lubbock's Act
than was last Monday. Banks, commercial establish-
ments, warehouses, factories, and even retail shop,
were very generally closed, and excursionising and holi-
day ineking were the order of the day. But how
much sorry disappointment there was consequent
on the lamentable weather. I need not descant
upon. London streets looked peculiarly dreary.
Rain, rain for hours, leaden skies and muddy
pavements, added to nearly all the shops being closed,
constituted a very dreary spectacle. Happy those
who had made up their minds to spend the day at the
Crystal Palace, the Exhibition, the South Kensington
Museum, or other favoured resort when Jupiter
Pluvius frowns upon the holiday-maker.

- -
Opinions of course differ as to the propriety of open.
lug museums and pi lure galleries on the Sunday, but
I am persuaded that the Government, in declining to
open the Bethnal-green Museum on that day, have
acted in accordance with the overwhelming opinion of
the country. The question so far as it relates to tnis
one museum is of comparatively little moment, but if
this were opened others must be opened, and then
where would the mov,tuent stop! The Government
evidently feel that we have already gone quite far
enough in this direction.

Having read a great deal of correspondence and some
more or less learned disquisitions on the preeent enor-
mous price of coal, the reasons fo: this high price
seem clear enou;b, and there are several of them.
They are the increased general consumption owing to
increased prosperity ; large exports; largely increased
supplies to the iron and raet .1 trades, to railways and
steamboats; much higher wages than before for the
same quantity if coal ; and diminished supply, owing
to the strikes in the colliery districts and to the diminish-
ed hours of labour; and of all the causes of high existing
prices the lett or cause is the most potent A large colliery
proprietor says that his men now work only eight hours
a day instead of twelve, and get the game pay for eight as
for twelve; that plant, machinery, horses, ke., are
as dear or dearer than ever, and that with the same
staff and plant s great deal less coal is produced, so
that the colliery proprietors must raise their prices.
But it is consolatory to reflect that prices are already
giving way a little, and must come down. All over
the kingdom families have in numberless instances laid
in their stocks for the winter, and the demand in this de-
partment will fall off, while we cannot expect ironworks
and manufaetories of almost every description to be
always so active as they now are. One thing at least
may be depended on. If the present diminished pro-
duction lasts muchl,,nger —apit producing, for example,
2,000 tons a week less under the short-time system
than before—mining engineers and colliery proprietors
will be laying their heads together to discover come
better system of procuring coal than we have yet em-
ployed. Meanwhile the British Association fir the
Advancement of Science is devoting attentlon to the
problem of opening up new supplies of coal. A com-
mittee of this learned body has been appointed to as-
certain facts relative to the strata in the Wealds of
Kent and Sussex, where, it is strongly suspected coal
is to be found. In an ably written article in the Daily
News, deal;iv with facts and Probabilities, the
writer says " Happily the chanace ere that 'seal
will be found. The peers! drift of scientific
epinion flaring the last few yeses 'the. been to-
wards the holiei that there ere workable -flees'
under a great part of Kent and Sumer.- If these
eleiseant anticipations ehould be ...alined, it will not be
the first time in our history that extraordinarily high
prices have ultimately led to increased supplies. If
coal should be found in large quantities near London,
what a revolution in the coal trade will be produced !
lam glad to see that there is a good prospect of the
Lord Mayor and his colleagues in the matter being able
to purchase the Alexandra Park and Palace, on the
northern outakirts of the metropolis, for" the purpose of
ensuring their dedication to pure recreation and public
health." There was a likelihood of this place being de-
voted to horse-racing, and surely we have quite enough
of that ; but if the influential gentlemen who have
formed themselves into a committee to purchase this
park of 500 acres, and devote it to the higher and
better purposes indicated, succeed in their efforts, the
public at large will be the gainers.
Canon Gregory has made some remarks on School
Boards, which ceme home to the hearts and the pockets
of many who read them. Theme Boards, he says, have
spent the ratepayers' money very foolishly and very
prodigally; schools are being built where they are not
required, and existing schools are taxed to maintain
rival ones. Here is a remarkable statement "At
present two-fifths of the echools in London," he says,
"are empty, and yet the School Board is about to spend
£100.,000 in the erection of new schools, when there is
sijOne accommodation for upwards of 125,000 children
ot the poor." If the Canon is right in these state-
ments they certainly are worth deep consideration ;
and, if I mistake net, a great many of us are beginning
to feel that these remarks are true.
A well-known firm in Birmingham has con-
tracted to supply the Government with " blanks "
for coining silver to the amount of a million ster-
ling, thus divided. £600,000 in florins, £300,000 ,
in shillings, £.85,000 in sixpences, and 1:15,000 in
threepennieg. Now in my humble judgment this
projortion does not tally with public require-
melds. Of course in one sense a florin is more
useful than a smaller coin, but have you any small
ehanger is so constantly answered in the negative that
small silver coinage appears to be more wanted than
the larger coins.. The plentiful supply of florins already
must be generally admitted, and really I most be ex-
cused if I cannot see that they are particularly useful.
A florM is simply two shillings rolled into one, and is
awkward for change, whereas the two shillings have
the use of the florin and uses of their own. But I
daresay the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Mint
authorities know what they are about, and the public
won't grumble if they can only get enough of the new
issue. At any rate it must be admitted that the gold,
silver, and bronze money of the present day is im-
mensely superior to what it was, for instance, "when
George the Third was king." We get en used to im.
provements that we are apt to take no heed of them,
but what a glorious reform is our present bronze
money!

The supply of clerks, I believe, is always greater
than the demand, but a study of the advertisement
columns of the leading daily papers just now will lead
to the very gratifying conclusion that—so far ma this
can be taken as a criterion—there are fAr more clerks
wanted than there are clerks wanting situations. I
clo not suppose that this is a fair criterion, inasmuch
as a merchant or manufacturer who wants a clerk
commonly advertises, so that he may have "the
pick," whereas clerks out of employment have seldom
money to spare for advertising', but still the fact is
worthy of note that at the present time there are
probably more clerks required than ever. Tent
for they are s hard-working and respectable clam, and,
on the whole, paid less than mechanics and artisan&
After a protracted inquiry into the double murder
at Horton the jury have been obliged to separate with
an unsatisfactory oprm verdict, and it is now to be
re.n.a that the criminal will in all probability never
be discovered, and thus another is to be added to the

already very long hat of crimes that have never been
brought home to the perpetrator.
Among those advertisements that are to be found
in what is commonly known as the " agony column" is
one in which these words occur: "Foot-mark
Co cannot write." I hope the Poet Office autho-
rities have seen this, awl wish they would make a note
of it. "Poet-mark indiAinct." How often does that
occur, and sometimes how annoying it is! At times
this indistinctness is r. ally serious. Surely some
better system of stamping letters than that now em-
ployed could be adopted.