The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-11-13 00:00:00

THE STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER.

performance of his lordship's many impor-
taut public functions; but the popular mind
could scarcely conceive a Lord Mayor who
had had no show, and the big London
crowd would not willingly admit that he
was head of. the. City whom they had not
recognised and approved by -a ninth of-.
November cheer, as he rolled slowly and
grandly past in his beautiful old State car-
riage, preceded by a brilliant pageant hfilf-
an-hour long. An element. of grandeur in-
vests authority with _higher impol:tance, and
impresses the public mind with akeener and
more 'lasting sentiment._ of respect and re-
gard. They of old time knew this, Who in-
stituted the systems of regal and mtnit_icipal
magnificence; and in this matter-Zfabt age
we have so little left of the paid in our
every day life that we should guazd against
the ruthless cutting off of reliquesethe
Middle Ages. Busines men
,are therAy put
a little out of their ordinary trot in the race
for wealth, but it is only once a- year, and
the material gain of the tew must make way
for the harmless enjoyment of the,. many.
Unorincipled rascals and thieves, and noisy-
th.)uthel demagogues may seek to make the
occasion their harvest time and ontinz day,
but a Sir Charles Warren and. a Sir James
-Fraser can render them powerless to prey
upon or menace the leiges. So let London
keep its time-honoured carnival, and may
the November sun ever smile kindly upon
its pleasing pomp.

COMMENTS ON CURRENT TOPICS.

THE Marquis of Salisbury, in a measure,
did not speak se much at the London Guild-
on Tuesday night, as the leader of a
great governing party as be did in the high
capacity of head of her Majesty's ministry.
He spoke for England, and the tone of h's
voice was, we venture to say, in harmony
with the wishes of the people, at any rate as
far as foreign politics go In handling the
eternal Eastern Question, the Premier
adopted a dignified position, with the view
of keeping the country clear of the horrors
of war without losing its pride of place
among the nations. The noble marquis's
utterances anent Egypt will be coincided in
by the majority of her Majesty's subjects,
and as to Bulgaria the Prime Minister seems
also to have felt the public pulse aright.
There can be but little mistake as to the
British sentiment and sympathy with Bul-
garia, so long as she stands out for right and
justice, but at the same time this country is
now too cool-headed to rush with headlong
chivalry in all appeal to arms in the cause of
a small state, the interests of which are less
intimately connected with Britain than al-
inost any other great Power. Not only, has
the Premier spoken the English mind, but
those who read between the lines of Mr.
Gladstone's letter to the Bulgarian delegates,
published in London last Monday, will find
that the ex-Prime M'aister is substantially
at one with the head of the party in power,
so that, for once in a *ay, Liberats and Con-
servatives think almost alike as to Foreign
affairs.

THE tragic end of poor Frederick Archer,
who died by his own hand in the delirium
of fever on Monday, has some saddening re-
flections, apart -from those arising from the
terribe details of the death chamber. Here
was a man who enjoyed the confidence of
high and low for his integrity, his remark-
able skill in horseman, and his good-hearted
geniality, literally killed by his calling ere
he had yet reached thirty. slt was the.hard
and bat barons regimen, of reducing his frame
t.l certain requirements of horse racing that
induced the illness in which Archer"Et reason
left him long enough to admit of suicide.
For half the year he was cut off from the
enjoyments of life by the exigencies of train-
ing. He had a Turkish bath in his own
house, he underwent long inflictions of ab—
stinenc, and swallowed drugs of a depleting
chara.2ter, in order that he might ride light.
All this for what? To please those who
delight iu seeing a swift steed piloted past
the winning-post by a master man. To
a3hicve the distincti,m of being a brilliant
jockey. To win wealth. He served the
splrtin.,); world well, bat their smiles and
esl3:ern avail him little in the silent tomb.
What conzolation will it be to his orphaned
infant in after years to know that the father
WAO died sa sadly had eclipsed all his fore-
go 2g and contemporaries in the sadlle ? He
left, it is said, a handsome fortune of earn.
in-43 and winnings, bat the money cost the
popular racing crack his life. It is pleasant
to know that nothing but good, kind words
a”e spoken of one who lived upon such a
pinnacle of publicity, • beset with dangers
which would have ruined the reputation of
any but a strong-willed, honest man.

Is there no authority nor agency which can
or \vili, if only for the sake of common
charity, rescue from their miserable position
the wretched Greek gipsies who are being
conducted about the country as a -money-
makina speculation? Brought to England
by bad judgment and want of business know-
134ge, they are now at the mercy of any who
will take them in hand. They are moved
about in anything but a desirable way, sub-
jected to many privations, and exposed to
the brutal attacks of heartless roughs, as
well as the rigours of a climate much.
severer than anything they have ever before
experienced. The poor waifs have to camp ,
out often in the mostuncomfortable positions,
and to do forced journeys sorely against•
their will. Have we no society for friend-
less foreigners in distress, which might take
their sad case in hand? It is an outrage
on humanity to parade so much squalor and
suffering for the delectation, at a copper a
head, of gaping holiday-makers: If benevo-
lence cannot right this wrong, then author-
ity, in decency and justice, should, and that
without delay.

• *

THERE is a' disposition to avoid, if at all
possible, the establishment of a central or
Mansion House fund for the relief of the
London poor this winter. The Charity Or-
ganisation Society—with whose objects we
are thoroughly at one, but with whose
methods we at times find ourselves in dis-
agreement—are taking this view of things
in the metropolis; and we hope that similar
conclusions will be arrived at in all great
provincial centres. The best way to relieve
real distress, without wasting alms on Lite
vagabonds, and worthless rogues, is by
means of local combination, which enables
the charitable to work amongst those they
know. Thereby much imposition is avoided.
Local agencies might act in unison by pre-
arrangement for mutual assistance and pro-
tection. Any money subscribed for relief
should be dealt with by the associated ladies
and gentlemen, not by paid relieving officials
and always in their own immediate neigh-
bourhoods, where they not only have useful
knowledge, but wholesome, discriminating
sympathy. Still we would have no relief
fund open anywhere unless it be really
needed,, for where alms are there the lazy
mid the shiftless will of a certainty flock;
and injudicious charity fosters pauperisation
and destroys self-reliance, the very things
which ',;rue benevolence would prevent.

A LESSON to company floaters will be found
in the case of the luckless directors of the
Oxford Building Company, who have been
condemned to pay large slims of money to
the liquidator a the concern which has been

adjudged they have improperly_expended.
There is ngthing commoner now-a-days than
the launching of a new company—
unless, indeed it be its untimely death. There
is always the same braliant promise of
limitless possibilities and big prospective
dividends, always the same allurements,
with the perils all kept in the background
until the capital is subscribed. Often enough
too, we fear, when things begin to go the
wrong way, the crash is suspended for a
time by a manipulation of the funds which
would not pass muster in the eyes of the
shareholders if they were well versed in
financial law. Finally creditors absorb the
cApital by the liquidation of their claims,
when the owners of scrip get next to nothing,
if, indeed, anything at all. The company
is wound up, speculators lose their money,
and the matter ends. But this sort of thing
interferes sadly with legitimate trading, and
is altogether an unmixed evil to all'but reck-
less company-mongers and "guinea, pigs."
A stringent law should be formulated in the
interest; of commercial honesty to regulate
the formation of limited liability companies
and exercise some authority over the manip-
ulation of publicly-subscribed capital.

lU'eumaticm cured
Bf.,St. Jacobs 011.
It never • .

. _
St Jacobs 011 is sold by Chemi!ts at 2s. 61. a bottle,
or by past 2s. 9d., frora tlie Charles A. Vogeler Corn
pany, sole Proprietors, 45.: .Fa.rzingdon Road, Londol