The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-02-13 00:00:00

THE STOU'RBRIDG-E OBSERVER.

Chinese, after their fashion, have long been excel
lent engineers and indefatigable mechanics. Their
bridges and canals, which preceded similar works
in the western world, even now rival them in no
mean degree; and most important results may be
certainly anticipated from the introduction into the
Empire of modern science and modern experience.
The Iron trade in its higher branches doubtless
demands a high degree of scientific skill; yet a com-
paratively small degree Of practice' under under proper
supervision, would suffice to enable Chinese Iron
manufb.ctiii fe PrOduce bolt and rod iron; and' to.
compete *.ith int/in the manufaCture of rails. Several
additional! iron itehmers are now being constructed in
this country for the; Chinese Government, but the
time will probably come when the Chinese will build
them for themselves. They are expert shipbuilders,
though they have hitherto followed their own obsolete
types; and they are excellent pilots and navigators.
A mere glance at the geographical position of China, '
in connexion with the great regions of production and
consumption which lie all round the Pacific and Indian
Oceans, with such channels of inland traffic as the
navigable Amoor on one hand, and the route to India
by way of British Burmah, now being explored, on
another, makes it unnecessary to insist on the conclu-
sions to which these considerations tend. But, with
the opportunity afforded by the Pacific Railway for
extensions of the Pacific trade, perhaps the most im-
portant of the immediate results would be felt in the
Western States of America. The Chinese, it must be
remembered, are by no means, in the common accepta-
tion of the term, Orientals. They differ in a remark-
able degree from the inhabitants of British India.
Inured to severe toil, they-live most frugally, while
their labour-power is almost comparable to that of
Europeans, and in industry and docility they are even
superior.
• We are much mistaken if this does not turn out to
be the most effectual method of "opening China" that
has yet been discovered. With regard to our own
commercial interests, of course, the free competition of
the huge population of China wouldrevolutionize some
oonditions of our native industry., , But such an effect
must be very gradual ; and in. the meantime ths:inere
influx of English skill could' not fail' in producing a
beneficial effect in our ordinary_trade and other rela-
tions with China, and a connection so close as that which
bids fair to be established would Certainly leaittii
increase, on the part of China, in the desire of Commu-
nication with this country. Our Iron trade, though
comparatively less independent, cannot be affected for
maiiy years to come, though it is quite possible that
this nation may, sooner than has been anticipated
even by those who have threatened us with an ap-
proaching exhaustion of our Coal-fields, be destined
to undergo a struggle for her commercial supremacy.
We may, perhaps, hope that this prospect will afford
matter for some serious consideration to English
capitalists and labourers in the midst of the disastrous
and suicidal struggles which have become almost
epidemic among us. The edifice of our trade has not
been built up by the blind operation of unintelligent
force, nor by the mere calculation of proportions,
balances, and percentages. Minute economy, pru-
dence, and enterprise are as necessary to sustain as to
found a commercial system, and those qualities are no
longer so conspicuously developed as they once were in
those with whom lies the maintenance of the main
trade which has given us our present sovereignty in the
markets of the world.

It

work as can be obtained in a month has already pro-
duced satiety. The stairs and saloon do not grow upon
one, but the contrary. The Spanish proverb, "Never
return to the house of which your first impression was
delightful," would have forcibly come home to some
subscribers with whom I spoke. The meretricious
splendour which dazzled on the opening night is begin-
ning to pall on the sight. A very clever woman, in con-
• fessing to me her sense of weariness of the gilding and
polychrome statuary, said :—" Just imagine with. what,
• eyes you would regard a 9th November procession, if
you were condemned to see it twice a
,Week. „fcr
whole season. I feel that to enjoy music hi tbis'.
place we should be blinded like the canary birds.
gilded cages." The Grand Hotel received some ;
scores of guests, who came from England purposely
to see the masked ball. But I did not -see any,lady
being being taken from it in a sedan chair ;to
Opera. Tnere were very few carriages in the Placq,,
de l'Op&a, which was throughout the night crowded
with what I took to be east-end people, who had come
to see the masquers. The cafés about were also very.
full. - -

nt "rni

An "Occasional Correspondent" of Th,e
writing from Paris on Monday, makes the following
reflections upon the Ball :

Even amid the excitement caused by the elections, yester-
day's ball at the Opera created much interest, results having,
been expected from it which do not seem to have been
realized. One of the great economical mistakes of France
is the belief that a ball or 100 balls can.bring back that.un-
precedented prosperity which accrued from 40 years of peace
and settled government ; for if the Empire by its magic his-
torioal associations knew how to give France the wealth which
is still in existence, this arose not only from its representing 20
years' of industry and economy, but from its succeeding to 20
years of peace without uneasiness, of thrift without disturb-
ance, of peaceful labour without warlike interruption. To-
day, or rather ever since the war, the well-being of the
country has been attributed to the luxury and prodigality
of Paris, as a brilliant, inexhaustible focus; and tints con-
fusing effects with causes, people fancy that by getting up
balls they will efface the traces left by a fatal and disastrous
war.
Even viewed from this erroneous standpoint, yesterday's
_ball did not prove a very successful device for Parisian trade,
lor gentlemen were to ladies in the proportion of ten to one;
and everybody knows that it is not male toilet which makes
the fortunes of shopkeepers. It has been ascertained that
out of- 8,000 tickets sold, there were only 800 for ladies,
,making- a total receipt of. 152,000 L i —that s to say, 7,200
gentlemen's tickets, at 20f., and 800 ladies' tickets, at 10f.
Now; considering that at least 400 of the ladies did not stir
from -their boxes, and that only 300 or 400 moved
about among the 8,000 black coats—for the 7,200
tickets sold do - not ' include those given away—an
idea may be formed of the far from gay appearance pre-
sented by the hall and the foyers. At the very threshold,
moreover, gaiety it may be said was checked on the lips of
the arrivals. Much fault had been found, especially on
the opening day, with the discouraging gloom of the
façade; but this defect, which- under ordinary circum-
stances is without real importance, becomes Striking
when masked balls are in question. The isolated posi-
tion of the building, moreover, does not conduce to
that contagious gaiety which coursed as it were through
all the veins of the old Opera. People remembered
the enlivening effect of the great pyramidal gas jets which
lit up the corner of the Rue Lepeletier and the Boulevards ;
the Paris Guards on horseback, who remained immovable in
the hill glare of the Boulevards and the gas jets; the masks
who passed close along the brilliantly lit up and crowded
pavements before ',entering the hall, into which, from mid-
night till 4 am., Parisian folly poured itself. Now, last night
the front of the Opera, which has cost France 40,000,000 f., re-
mained immersed in impenetrable obscurity; lamps without
brilliancy replaced the pyramids of gas jets, and the crowd,
kept at a respectful distance, greeted with ironical laughter
the fey, masks who appeared afar off. When the silent
terrace had been crossed and one penetrated below those
solemn and imposing vaults, which are like the arches of a
cloister, the doors opened and one mounted the step of the
staircase, from the top of which half the public scanned
every disguised woman as she went through the double
ordeal of criticism and laughter.
--••- - - -

Above the broad passage, dimly lighted to stifle laughter
as it rose to the lips, and in spite of oneself, one began to
speak in a whisper. Yesterday more than ever no doubt,
sonorous laughter was silenced by those passages at once
lonely,and thronged, for black coats have this strange pro-
perty that they take up space without forming a crowd. But
the days which used to be the pride and delight of the Pari-
sians are far distant. In those days some malicious daughter
of Eve would, under the protection of the domino, toll some
unsuspecting visitor, to his astonishment, many things which
he thought were known to him alone. Now all this has gone
out of fashion. Women are no longer sufficiently good
natured to chaff without spite, and men have not sufficient
*refinement to be at once witty and well bred. What is now
heard, when anything is heard—for yesterday nobody spoke
to anybody—are commonplaces without end: jokes of ques-
tionable taste, and language which has obtained popularity
in bye-streets. When I heard a domino for the first time say
to a luckless visitor, "I know you ; you have got a dog which
follows you like remorse and a wife who avoids you like a
plague," I was very nearly prepared to find again the long
lost French wit ; but when I had heard it repeated five or
six times without distinction to men whe had neither dog nor
wife nor remorse I bethought me that human folly was
strutting insolently in a palace. I looked in vain for a spark
of that sparkling mirth of yore. The country is hit more
,usly than is generally thought, and its people laugh
now that they fear to provoke a smile.

: r. 4

rniiX

alto&
TOUGHENED GLASS. ;111-
1,-,-
.;
has long been known (remarks The Tinies) that
when glass is heated to redness, and kept at that tem-
perature for a considerable time, its physical properties
are changed in a remarkable manner. Thus it becomes
opaque or feebly translucent, much harder and tougher,
and somewhat like porcelain in appearance. This
change is termed " devitrification," and is caused by
the conversion of the glass into a confusedly-crystalline
mass, of which sections are beautiful objects when
seen with a microscope in polarized light. The sub-
ject was investigated by the renowned French philoso-
pher, 13.6aumur, early in the last century; and to ob-
jects of devitrified glass the name of R6aumur's porce-
lain is usually applied. Such objects are exhibited in
the Museum of Practical Geology, in •Jerrnyu-street.
It has been reserved for another Frenchman, a gen-
tleman farmer, to discover the singular fact that when
glass is heated to redness and then cooled or
annealed in oil its toughness is greatly increased,
or, what is equivalent, its fragility is greatly
diminished, while its transparency remains the same.
Thus, suppose a rectangular pane of glass placed flat-
wise and supported on two, of its opposite edges to
break when a given weight is allowed to fall upon it—
say, from the height of 2ft.—it would, after having
been toughened in the manner above stated, resist the
same weight falling upon it from the height of 6ft. or
Bft. It is strange that, although glass has been mann.
+aired during the last 2,000 years, yet such a simple
probably very important fact as this should only
!ntly have been found out, and equally strange that
discoverer should be a gentleman farmer. The
!going information on the new process of toughen.
glass is given on the authority of Mr. C. W. ,
-)ns F.R.S., who is well known in connection
telegraphy and the furnace which bears his
.3. His 'brother, an eminent glass-maker at
3den, has tried the process, and pronounces it to
"certain and unquestionable." !--

fact
and
rece
the
forei
ing
Sienae,
with
name.
Dresden,
be".
Jou I)
PRISON v. FREE LABOUR. .
At a meeting of the London Trades Council held
last week, Messrs. Green and Adams attended as a
deputation from the Mat and Matting Makers'
Society, to request the aid of the Council in their
efforts to amend the Prisons Act of 1865. The depu-
tation stated that mat-making was carried on to a large
extent throughout the various prisons in London and
the provinces. The number, of prisoners thus em-
ployed was about 3,000; while the number of workmen
in the trade outside prisons was also about 3,000.
Owing to this concentration of prison labour upon one
particular branch of industry, the wages of the free
workmen were brought down to the lowest possible
point, and the prisoners themselves when discharged
were unable to obtain any employment at the trade
they had been taught while in prison. The deputation
did not object to prisoners being employed, but they
did object to their being employed on one sort of work
to the great injury of the free and honest workman.
Mr. Monk (tin-plate worker) moved, "That this
Council sympathise with the workmen employed in
the mat-making trade in their struggle against the evils
of prison labour in that trade, and will assist them in
every legitimate way in influencing public opinion and
the Legislature on their behalf."
Mr. Warren (bootmaker) seconded the resolution,
which was agreed to. I. :

CUTTINGS FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.

A large portion of the swamps of Florida are said to
be capable of producing 500 bushels of frogs to the acre, with
alligators enough for fencing.
Boston proposes a convention of bald men, to be
held next month.

" Halo " bonnets probably derive their name from
the halo they shed on the beauty within, probably also the
exclamation of husbands when they see the bill.
The New York Herald describes as "A Lost Art
in that city," the repression of crime by suspension of the
criminaL"
A Colorado exchange says :—" The Canon City girls
don't take kindly to croquet They say it isn't high-toned
enough for them. Leapfrog is their best hold."
A jaw eight feet long has lately been unearthed in
Wisconsin. It is supposed to have belonged to a woman of
the Miocene age.

A Rochester man recently made a fever some
practical use to the world. He took thirteen eggs to bed
with him and hatched nine chickens from them.
An Illinois barrister returns thanks for a centipede
forwarded to him by mail from Texas, "it being," he says,
"the first cent. of any kind we've received for several
weeks"
The question whether angels fly or not has led to a
serious fight between two American professors. They
fought several rounds. The man for the wings conquered.
A Lowell mill-girl the other day said to a director
who wished her to consent to a reduction of wages:
"Before I'd do it, I'd see you and your whole graspin' set in
Tophet, pumpin' thunder at three cents a clap.
A man who is a philosopher and pigprographist
says :—" I always choose good-natured pigs. Those that,
when they eat, are constantly running from one trough to
another, knocking their snouts against the next pig, I sell to
those who don't know better than to buy troublesome
animals, while my contented pigs get fat."
A pensive young man on Mt. Auburn, while sing..
lug, "Come, love, come," beneath his Dulcinea's window,
the other night, had love, music, wind, and everythinu else
knocked out of him by a something in a long white garment
that fell out of a chamber window. It proved to be nobody
but his girl, who, in her anxiety to know who it was sere-
nading her, leaned too far over the window-sill—hence the
result.
"Stranger, will you try a hand with us at poker? •
"Thank you, gentlemen, but there are seventeen reasons
why I cannot accommodate you just now." "Seventeen
reasons for not playing at cards! Pray, what are they?
"Why, the first is, -I haven't any money." " Stop ! that's
enough; never mind the other sixteen."
A very dirty man came in to vote in a township of
Michigan at the late election. Said a lady, offering him a
ballot, "I wish you would oblige us by voting this ticket."
"What kind of ticket is that?" said he. "Why," said the
lady, "you. can see yourself." "But I can't read," lie
answered. "Can't you read the ballot you have there in
your hand, which you are 'about' to vote 7 " the lady asked. '
"No," said he, "I can't read at all." "Well," said the
lady, "this ballot means that you are willing to let
thu women as well as the men vote." "Is that it ?" he
replied, "then I don't want it; the women don't know enough
to vote."
A practical way of putting it was exemplified the
other day during a dispute between a visitor at a first-class
„Philadelphia hotel and the hotel, keepqr. "Look here, my
, noble friend," said the former, "'our 're ruination to me,
you are. By thunder and some streaks of lightning, and an
earthquake flung in for variety, you must come down in your
prices. I now eat an acre of land a day. Where I live in
California, I can buy good land at five dollars an acre. A.
man may eat up a plantation here in a "month. It is mon-
strous 1"