The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-01-24 00:00:00

Plisallanttas nttiligettre,

HOME iOREIGN, AND commun.

OBSERVATION BY OUR DARWINIAN OLD MAID.
—Man was an Ape, was he ? Well, not at all unlikely; ;
he's very often aDonkey.—Punch.

A it tea ow Die Aara.—The Geographies
Society of Italy has received from Alexandria, with
the news of the death of the explorer Mani, awl
various ethnological objects, two living Individuals
whom he had forwarded of the tribes of the Akka or
. _ . . .

Tklcu-Tikki. &n 4 whom the I;a;—eTdn --tr;v-elle7r-Vai
bought of the King MUDZIL These individuals—of
whom one is 18 years old and 40 inches in height, and
the other to and 31 inches high--are stated by Mind
to belong to the race of dwarfs described by Llerodotos,
and recently re-disuovered by the German explorer,
Schweinfurth, who described them carefully. 'l.lsz
are pot-bellied, very thin-limbed. and knock-
-2t
spherical and prognathous crania, very long limbs,
copper skins, and crisp, tow-like hafr.—London
Medical Itec.:,d.

EMIGRATION TO THE UNITED SLUR/I.—lt is
estimated that since the Peace of 1783, and down to
the end of 1873, tilers, have been 8,779,171 aliens landed
in the 'United Stat., en.igrants arlived from various
. . .

part* of the world. Variou; e,thraten have been nude
of the amount of money biouaht icto the country by
immigrant& The late John A. Kronedy, for many
yearn Superintendent at Cantle Garden, foundit about
64 dole, per head for a given period. Placing it at only
50 deli., we have 444,000,000 dole, an the remit up to
this time. But the far greater value caudate in the
. . . .

labour brought Into the n'ountry, a very large propor-
tion of which goes to build up new Territories and
States in the West.
MR. ARCH ON CA/U.1)1.-111e Toronto Mail
of Dec. 19, says—" Some time ago the London corre-
spondent of • city contemporary gave people here to
understand that the Agricultural Labourers' move.
meat in England was a failure, and that it had then
actually collapsed. We promptly to ik occasion to
say that this must be • mietake, and that it was most
unlikely that the movement would collapse at • time
when the extension of household franchise to the coun-
ties, giving votes to no small number of farm labourees,
was favourably spoken of by leading men on both sides
of politics. The event shows that we wore right; the
large meeting heldat Leamington latelyand Mr. Arch's
telling and straightforward recommendation of Canada,
enthusiastically received by his audience, show thatthe
movement, so far from having collapsed, is only be.
ginning to develop its real strength. Not only Mr.
Arch, but the humble class of men whose advocate he
is, are shrewd enough to see that emigration must do
them good in two ways, not alone by bettering the con-
dition of those who emigrate, but also by compelling
better terms from the farmers for those who remain.
_ . . _ _ _

Cr; the landlords -f—;;;;;;;,-;;; a—cimas,—;:rio-iiiTnilit
utterly lost, but the spectacle of • dozen or two able-
bodied men leaving their native parish for Canada.
and next year probably writing back to their friends
to follow, is something that will carry conviction.
And it does appear as if argument of thio practical
kind is about to be forthcoming.

SVDDIN DEATH OP AN OLD JOURNALIST,—
Mr, James Matthew Cape, who for nearly fifty years
has been connected with the London press, died very
suddenly on Sunday, two hour' after an attack of apo-
plexy. He was in hie 78th year, but down to the hone
of his death was in perfect poseeesion of all his
faculties, excepting only that of distinct hearing. His
career commenced on the British Press, of which he
became acting editor. Then he worked very sedan.
ously on the Mirror of Parliament. Subsequently, al-
though several years senior, he was a colleague and
friend of Charles Dickens In the palmy days of the
Morning Chronicle, Later on he accepted an engage-
ment upon The Times, which he retained for nearly
twenty-six yearn, doing ditty principally In the
" Gallery" and in Convocation. At one time he was
an active leader of the old Reform party, him anony-
mous contributions to journalism at that period being
very numerous, and his statistical works especially
noteworthy. He was a man of considerable attain-
ments:_and was held in high esteem by the elders of
. . .

il;'.7l7,;tl;ic.i;i;..—.

CILZMATION MADIC E ASV.— If unreasoning
superstitions were in a rofficiently small minority, the
only difficulty opposing the practice of cremation
would be a question of fuel. Night not this be met by
utilising all the vulgar newspapers, the sensational and
pernicious literature, and all the novels that have had
their run.—Punch.

PLIARANT READING.—The late Bishop Wit-
berforce, during the forty years of his active °Wades.
tieal life, collected all the pamphlets that came in his
way relating to the controversies of the busy day' in
which he lived (remarks the Beek). These were al.
ways arranged from year to year, and carefully indexed
by his own hand; and they went on accumulating
until, at the time of his death, they mustered a for.
midable phalanx of no fewer than 175 thick Sem
volumes, all of which had inscribed on their blue mo-
rocco backs the particular date to which they be-
longed. Not only is the series quite invaluable to the
cootraverstal student, but its interest is frequently en-
hanced by the circumstance that a large proportion of
the pamphlets, being presentation copies, carry the
eutograph of the writers. At the Bishop's sale there
I was a spirited competition for this lot, which was
I eventually knocked down to Mr. Sotheran, of the
Strand, from whom it has been purchased (for 400)
by the National Club. We heartily congratulate the
Club on the acquisition of so unique a prize, which, we
believe, will occupy • berth in the committee-room,
where the very important library presented by the
late Robert M'Ght e is already established.
LEPROSY IN MALTA.—SOMO twelve yeext ago
a committee of medical gentlemen was apnoin'aed by
the local authorities to institute ingeiries whether
leprosy was known to have ever occurred in these
islande, the result of their labeura being 1 a negative
nature. We now learn (says the Malta Timm)thd •
case ef thin loathsome disease, which is a species of
skin dezeneraticn. was observed lately at Cornices, by
Dr. Gulls, the Editor of It Barth, in the courier of his
practice in that city. The patient, a man of 51 years
of age, died a fortnight ago, after suffering intense
agony for many years Dr. Cannon, lately of Beg
Majesty's ship Newport, on returning from Jerusalem,
where he had seen numerous lepers, pronounced this
cue to be typical, and of the worst form.
CLIMATE AND PLI7MAGE.—M. Milne-Edwards,
the well-known Parisian naturalist, has been studying
melantsmc, or the influence of climate in producing a
black hue in the plumage of birds (says the
(haphic). He observes that the quantity of black in
their feathers Is regulated by the regions in which they
live, the tendency to melon (*me being chiefly no-
ticeable in the southern hemispheres, and particu-
larly in New Z-aland, Madagascar, and New Guinea,
The swan furnishes a marked example of this, as
white p'umage of the northern hemisphere becomes
a pure raven hue in Australia, while in Terra del
Fuego and the adjacent portions of South America
some of the wing feathers only are black, and in Chill
the head and neck are like jet, the remainder of the
body remaining snow white. This is again visible in
the parroquets in New Zealand, their plumage show.
, ing only small portions of bright red and yellow, and
the rest being of a dingy green, deepening into black,
while the same species in those Wanda of the PacUlo
, near Africa display similar signs. In Madagascar and
the ltisnritius, the Seychelles and the Comoro Islands,
black parrots are frequently met with. Other
examples, such as ducks, kingfishers. &ea, can be
easily quoted, and it has been found that, in the
southern Indo-Pacific region, those birds, wllich else.
where present the most brilliant colours, are either
there darkened to black or faded away to white.

THoronts oic TTIBIBS.—A Committee of the
Royal Agricultural Society has recommended the
Council of that Areocistion to offer prizes for "disease.
proof potatoes." Do they wippoire that any organisa-
tion, vegetable or animal, can be proof against disease
under unhealthy conditions? Those yet live who re.
member the dal e when there was no potatoe disease to
speak of. Potatoes were not then over cultivated ;
and excess of health alone was indicated by the robs,.
suodisy of the excellent, now extinct, red-rowed
kidneys. Let the Agricultural Society look to coma
tions of atmosphere and manures, and, in due the%
end their prizes to 85, Fleet street.—Punch,

A Btrllizrzsi-Lint WAY OF MAUTING
sloes not take • long preparation for • inarrie,ge the
loving couple mean busineea. The celist-„ated Q.
Adams, of Michigan—all men are
He Ie
he was forty, and
celebrated is
into a dressmaking shop
In Detroit one morning, t-„a y,ked the head hag..
woman if she could make a merino dr.sa by three
o'clock in the afternoon. She said she could, John
had no time it
ho d livedo4 . a bachelor
re :. t I
Quincy went out and came back immediately lead-
ing an Audrey looking girl of about seventeen,
wearing a calico drsas and a straw hat, She had •
bundle of stuff for a dress under her arm. She
agre.-d to telp to make the dress, and sat down at a
sewing-urichine and helped. John walked up and
down in front of the shop, RR a constant admonition
Vat he tees superintending the cnittaet. The gown waR
fleirhed in time, and the girl put in it. In the
mi"siiiirre John hod balsa a preaching Dotting man,
d &skid him if ho ookl hitch up a nmple for I fr.
lie thid that was a branch of hie hairiness. lie was re-
. . . . .

John asked the proprietor of the shop if she
had any ollection to the use of the dress where it
was inmle. She had not, and so John OuMsy
Adams and the Michigan Audrey stood op anti were
rrharro.l hi that &mom:, king sanctuary. John an:ol.d
his pockets of nickels and prinnits, all the mu:my he
had, a hu-hel io hulk, 325 of dollar Ly count,
and gate it to the preacher tor havini tietained itina,
Anti that business pair walked not into the wide
world, arm LT} arm, looking happy. I;lias l nheap
Michi-4aus.

A MiLAVCHOLY DIATH. In Loudon, last
Saturday, an inqueet was held at Guy's Hoepite,l on
the body of Mr. William John Liddell, aged tifty.two
formerly a graduate at Cambridge University. Ml.:
Henry Liddell identified the body as that of hie
brother, and stated that he hal taught Latin and
Greek for the past twenty or thirty years. Witmer
had not, however, seen the accessed kr some tlinepsse,
and could not tell what had become of him. Aaron
Schmidt, the keeper of a common lodging-boose in the
Borough, said that declassed first CS MG to lodge at his
place nine weeks ago. Ile always declined to give
name and was exceedingly quiet. He hawked boob
in the streets; but it was a ard straggle for him to
get enough to pay for food and lodging. On TerMap,
the fith inst., hi came borne limping, and said that he
had stumbled and fallen. He gradually got wasa.
and, having no one to look after him and the, the
wound, proceeded to Guy's Hospital. Charles Keith,
a lodger at the house of the last wines, gave MM.
borsive testimony. The deceased. he added, had bees,
strong and healthy; but privation had told upon him
He persistently refused, "though in a quiet, gentle.
manly way," to give his name, merely 'laying iiiat hi
had been in bet ter circumstancee, had met with
reverses, mid did not want his relatives to know oil%
troublce. Witness could not say if the demand was
starved, but he thought it very probable. Mr.
Jacobs. house surgeon, stated that the wound in the
leg was not very bad, batik. blood was in such • date
througtiliad living, want, and exposure that erysipelas
set in.• Jury returned • sordid cd " Aooldastal
death,"

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