The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-02-15 00:00:00

Our oubon— &rumba'

•
-.W e deem it right to state that we 'do not g al: 'into,
Cleat:4 ourselves with our covrolontlent 3 U 01110113,1

That the approachitig London season will be gayer
than those we have latk m had is mots than probable,
and I hear that the West End house-ag,eztta have
aheadffelt the effect ol the announcement that the
Queen intends personally to hold a Court and three
drawing-rooms. A leading medical journal congratu-
lates the country that her Majesty has " consented
to face the fatigue of persomplrboblifig a, number of
drawing rooms," and adds, f` Vire trust the Queen is
justified in making the effort ble 'The state of her health,
yet we understand that shp as still far from having.
entirely recovered her strength." It is reasonable to
suppose that a statement liins.thlit would not be made
without good foundation for it, but it is just what
most people must have concluded from the terms of
the official announcement. At all events, this notifi-
cation has already- had its effect on fashionable Lon-
don, and ere long fashionable London will begin to
bestir itself, to the great delight of working London:
The forthcoming discussion between Mr. Gladstone
and the Trade Union champions is giving rise to lively
anticipations, and if a full report of the affair be pub-
lished it will be an important contribution to the
literature of political economy ; but it must be re-
membered that after all this will be but a one-sided
set of arguments in favour of trades' unions, while Mr.
Gladstone confessedly rather seeks information than
desires to do battle. Perhaps a necessary supplement
to this argument will be the free-trade statements
which are to be prepared under the superintendence
of Colonel Maude, the hon. secretary of the Free
Labour Registration Society. Writing to Mr. Glad-
stone, the Colonel says, "I am anxious to prevent
your mistaking the specious sophisms of a section of
a class for the general wish of the industrial com-
munity." This is severe, but it seems to me just.
Certainly, we cannot look upon the arguments of the
chosen champions of trades' unionism, and those of
Mr. Gladstone, founded on necessarily imperfect
knowledge of the subject, as a fair statement of the
whole question, though the eminent statesman's acute
intellect will he a guarantee for the discussion being
very valuable, as far as it goes.
Submarine telegraphy is so increasingly interesting
a subject, and especially in connection with our own
country and the North American Continent-- may
time and space be annihilated, not to realise the poet's
dream of waking two lovers happy, but to render
John Bull and Brother Jonothan better friends than
they are just now—that the public may well watch
with some anxiety the effort now being made to put a
stop to one and the same business being conducted by
two different bodies. The Atlantic Telegraph Com-
pany have, to this end, resolved on availing themselves
of the power they possess to sever their connexion
with the Anglo-American Company. To the latter
the former has to pay £125,000 a year, and a half
share of all surplus profits. What an idea this gives
one of the capabilities of the line that lies on the bed
of the Atlantic ! But the Atlantic telegraph is now
earning nearly double what it did this time last year,
and the full effect of the reduction of charges will not
be seen till, as the spring advances, commerce recovers
its wonted activity, and trade revives from the blight
of the last two years. The half of the surplus profits
handed over to another company would then be a
serious infliction on the Atlantic shareholders. The fact
that the Atlantic Company now offer a new pre-
ferential stock of £1,200,000, in 260,000 shares of £5
each, bearing interest at £lO per cent., is noteworthy
as indicating the enormous amount of business that is
expected to be done by the cable. With this sum the
Anglo-American can be paid out, other mortgages
will be extinguished, and the Atlantic Company will be
masters of their own cables, and regulators of their ,
own business. It is stated that the receipts have not
yet reached half their limit, although they are now
some fourteen or fifteen hundred pounds a day. Such
a statement reminds me of Dr. Jchnson's remark in
reference to Thrale's brewery, now Barclay and
Perkins's, that it possessed a potentiality of wealth ,
beyond the dreams of avarice.
Of all plain speakers, John Bright is one of the 1
plainest. What unmistakeable language he used to the
licensed victuallers, the other day, who waited on him
to ask him to use his influence against Mr. Abel
Smith's Sunday Closing Bill. He told them that,
while they proposed that Government should bring in
a general measure, they would in that event set
themselves with all their organisation to oppose it;
that they had no manner of right to open their
places at all' on a Sunday; that there was not
one of them sufficiently elevated in his views to
propose the voluntarily closing of these houses on a
Sunday; and, said he, "you cannot expect impetus to
force men in the House of Commons to vote against
their convictions in order to take your side." There
will be a great battle on this subject in the House, be-
fore long, and I for one sincerely hope the publicans
will get the worst of it. Not looking at the matter
from a teetotal point of view, I nevertheless believe
that any little inconvenience that might be caused
from closing the public-houses all Sunday—and I
would suggt.st 11 p.m. on Saturday—would be more
than compensated for by the indirect benefits conferred
on the whole community.

It is earnestly to be hoped that before these lines
are read the mystery of the disappearance of the Bev.
B. Speke may be satisfactorily cleared up, but at
present all is mystery still. It is not worth while to
add supposition to supposition, but it is worth remark
that many a man and many a woman disappears from
this monster town of ours without being missed, unless
by one or two who perhaps are not in a position to
make inquiries about them. There must be hundreds
of well-to-do single men living, we will say, in a couple
of rooms, with no particular occupation, with no rela-
tives, and whose only friends, if they can be called so,
are psrhaps a landlady and one or two other persons
in the same house. If such men mysteriously dis-
appear, who is to offer a reward and pay a number of
pounds for advertisements and posters? Depend upon
it if walls had mouths as well as ears the slums
and dens of this Babylon of ours could tell some
hitherto unheard tales which would make our ears
tingle. As to street robberies late at night, I believe
they are far more numerous than the public ever hear
of. Take a common case. A gentleman returning
home about midnight is accosted by a woman in the
streets. While endeavouring to escape from her he is
pounced upon by a couple of ruffians and robbed of
his watch and chain. We often hear of such cases;
but in how many instances does the loser say nothing
about it, knowing how good-natured friends will mis-
represent the case?
The hippophagists, or hippomaniacs, have certainly
made considerable advances in conquering public pre-
judice by getting some 180 persons to sit down to a
horse banquet in the largest and most luxurious hotel
in London, and in gaining the good opinion of the ma-
jority of the professional scribes who have reported on
the dinner. Perhaps the strongest opinion in favour
of horseflesh is this plain statement : "The substantial
dishes of true horseflesh were satisfactory proofs that
the food, cooked in ordinary fashion, is palatable."
Prejudice against food is perhaps the strongest preju-
dice existing. It is not an affair of argument ;de
frustebus non eel divutandum, and perhaps none of us
could give a better reason for not liking horse than
the poet gave for not liking Dr. Fell. The concocters
of this curious dinner fought manfully against this
prejudice, and at once supplied the hest argument in
accordance with an old proverb. The proof of the
horse was in the eating. In only one instance did the
bill of fare boldly introduce the word "horse" in
English. We are told that on the buffet were "collared
horse head, baron of horse, and boiled withers."
Whether the horee's head was dressed with his
collar was doubtless a query proposed by some
hinny man at the festive board, for we
are told that "to the man who plays on the names of
things that come to table, hippophagy will be an im-
mense boon. No fewer than twenty-seven distinct

jokes can be made upon horse-eating, inclusive of six
which relate to the word carte." Considering what a
dreary period that is just before a set dinner com-
mences this will hes boon indeed. But the bill of fare
was in French, perhaps on the principle of Dick
Swieeller, who counselled "putting it delicately in
German." But when we come to put this into as plain
English as the difference of the two languages unit !
permit, it sounds not only droll but repulsive. What,
for instance, can we make outof horse soupa to ABC,
and purée de destriers —vegetable soup of steeds? No
doubt soles a l'huile hippophagique sounds better than
soles fried in horse-oil. But what is a fillet of Pegasus
a sirloin of horse with Centaur sauce, Bucephalus-
marrow and Kromeskys ato Gladiateur Does horse-
oil differ from hulls itosinante ? And do both thes?
differ from huile chevalersque And pray what is
veterinary cake? And what are sorbets contreprejutgs
Something unmentionable perhaps. But without at-
tempting to make any of the 33 jokes which it may
be said can be perpetrated on this subject, let me offer
a suggestion which is not a joke. It has now been
proved that horse meat is good for food, nourishing,

and unobjectionable except from prejudice. Perhaps
the lower we go in society the strange are these pre-
judices. Let our prisons then be supplied, amongst
ther meat, with horse, and then perhaps we can give
a little more wholesome beef and mutton to the poor
creatures in the workhouse. It would be doing pri
ic.ners no real harm, but it would infallibly tend to
make people try and keep out of prison.

Her Royal Highnues the Crown Princess of Prussia
Gave birth to • rrince at throe o'clock on Mom:lay morning.