The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-06-06 00:00:00

FATAL AFFRAY NEAR LEICESTER.

the British by night, but they declined, and descended
to their deaths by daylight. Had they obeyed they
would have had a new proof of the power which
science eau bring to bear in aid f slaughter. :ooir
Robert Napier hail with him an apparatus or employ/4
ing the magnesium light on a grand seaho. At a
distance of WO yards a bewildering blaze of light
would have been thrown into the eyes of the
Abyssinians, and the British themselves, in im-
penetrable shad, ow, would have shot down their lustrous
enemies at leisure mut at eas. The poor Abyssinians
would have been helpless as herrings with the electric
ray streaming on the shoal! It is hardly war, such a
, contest ; but it is better that civilisation should be
armed than that barbarism should be.

Sruriu Ecivxmis. —As for the unintentionally
grotesque epitaphs, they may be found in almost every
churchyard in England. Now and then, when we
hear of them, .ve have a suspicion that they are "to,
good to be true ;" but he who has ha,l any ex-
perience of British monumental stupidity will hesitate
to put limits to the absurdity it may display. The
following are a few which we recal to mho', omitting
such as we happen to have elsewhere seen in print.
Call anything be more Simply touching than the
second line of this couplet in memory of John Daly,
&c. . . .

-
"lie died of a Quinsy,
and was buried at May."
Or the third of this triplet—
" Hero wrapt in clay,
The body of William Wray.
1 have no more to say." •
DECLINED WITH THANKS.—A certain M. Norms,
an actor of the Th&tre Francais, in Paris, is now !
plaving at St. Petersburg in the Dame aux eanaliau.
A 'Russian journal relates that, quite recently, the ,
actor was at his hotel at breakfast, when a domestic !
in livery, the buttons of which bore the arms of a
Prince, brought to him a bouquet. In the midst of the !
flowers was a small casket containing a ring, a pin, and
shirt studs, all in diamonds, and of the value of nearly
£I,OOO, with a note containing these words --"To:
Armand Duval, from Marguerite." "I am not
Armand Duval," exclaimed the actor, "I do not want
any Marguerite I have my wife," and with those
words he returned the bouquet and the jewels. "St.
Petersburg," adds the jot xnal, " is div ided in its admira-
tion for a comedian who has been able to resist the
seductions of MI ?dent licrutuousuess and preserve intact
' his family affeetions, and for the titled lady who,
ceding to the influence of the theatre, has stooped to
wish to become in reality the lordte Marguerite
Gauthier. If, however, anyone is to be admired in
this affair, it is certainly not the Princess."
NEW USLS OF ELECTRO-MAG N TISNI. —For
ornamentation, too, electricity is coming into use.
There may be seen at a fashionable ball at
Paris, a holy, on the top of whose head sits
a butterfly or a humming bird. The fly and
the bird flutter their wings in the most natural
way possible. How is it managed Why, within the
chignon are concealed a small battery and a minute
Rhumkortf coil. On the bosom of another may be a
brooch, with a head upon it, the eyes of whieh turn
in all direction& This, too, is accomplished by the
use of a battery and coil so minute as to be concealed
within the brooch itself. These small batteries, easily
carried about the person, are the inventions Elf f.
Trouv,,. The batteries of zinc excited by solution of
sulphate of mercury are enclosed in vulcanite cells, so
that the exciting solution cannot escape to the damage
of the wearer.

A LOVE FOR THE COUNTRY !—The Parisians
affect love of the e•ountry, but there is grate reason
for doubting whether their love for it is really so great
as they pretend. A Parisian journalist relates the
following incident, which strengthens the doubt :

One of my friend; invited me the other day to go and see
him at his country place, at Neuilly. "Yea a ill get a little ,
fresh air," he •• and will obtain a supply of oxygen for '
the week. I will show you my garden at the stone time," lie
added. The next day I arrived at Neuilly, which place is
as much country as Camden-town. My friend took me up
two flights of stairs into a furnished apartment, which
formed his rustic home. This washardly what I expected.
I, however, • ' led him if the pleasant walk he bail
promised, bet Its wall tired and afraid of the rain. "And
your gal den ?" I sabl. I have no garden, lot only a
look out in one," and lie opened a window and showed uses
paved court, in which were four stunted acacias. "Shut the
window," exclaims Madame, "we shall all take cold." The
card-table was then brought out, mid a dreary game of
eingto,van commenced, and was only varied by ex, lainations
of " What beautiful sir'"" Mow pleasant to live in the
'country !" I bore it as long as I could, and then snatched
up my hat, and, hastening back to Paris' could only shake
off the lit of dullness I had caught at Neuilly by spending the
evening at the joyous little theatre in the Patois Royal