The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-06-04 00:00:00

JLNE 4,1, ib 1 .

REVIEW IN BERLIN.—On Monday the Emperor
William held the usual grand spring review of the
troops stationed in and around Berlin. The troops,
numbering over 20,000 men, were under the command
of Prince Augustus of Wurtemburg. The Emperor,
who was in the best of spirits and health, seemed
greatly pleased at the fine appearance of the troops.
His Majesty has for some time past held special in-
spections of individual regiments and has often been
for two or three hours in the saddle without showing
any signs of fatigue

-
CON. FROM TUNIS.—Q. What colour would French
sport-men het against just now ?—A. The Bey.—
Punch.

"MOUNTAIN MAHOGANY."—A valuable wood, moun-
tain mahogany, grows in Virginia, U.S. It is of a
rich red hue, and very hard; while, when used for
fuel, it produces such intense heat as to burn out stoves
more rapidly than any coal. After blazing as long as
a log of ordinary wood, this mahogany becomes con-
verted into charcoal lasting twice the time.
COPYRIGHT IN CHINA AND JAPAN.—The subject of
an international copyright between China and Japan
is now under consideration. Chinese authors com-
plain that their works are not only printed in Japan,
but that cheap editions of them are imported into
China and sold to their detriment. Indeed, Japan
stands in relation to China -61 - this head in almost the
same position as the United States do to this country.
It is worthy of note that Chinese authors have per-
petual copyright in their productions, and that any
infringer of an author's right is punished by receiving
100 blows and being transported for three years.
A th enceum.

ETON COLLEGE.—According to the list for the pre-
sent Midsummer school time Eton College remains in
a flobrishing condition. In the sixth form there are
20 ; fifth form 554; remove, ; fourth form, 102;
and third form, 3; giving a grand total of 888 students.
Among the noblemen and gentlemen now being'
educated at the school there are a duke, an earl, 26
lords, two princes, two counts, five baronets, and 44
honourables, the register including the names of the
Duke of Newcastle, Prince Frederick Duleep Singh,
Prince Victor Duleep Singh, the Earl of Ancrum,
Count de Salis, Count Dudley, Beaumont Gurowski,
Count de Haro, Lord R. Cecil, Lord H. Cavendish
Bentinek, Lord Kenyon Lord Skelmersdale, Lord W.
Cavendish Bentinck, fiord Aspley, Lord H. Fitz-
gerald, Lord W. Gordon-Lennox, Lord Albert
Osborne, Lord Douglas Compton, Lord Newtown
Butler, Lord F. Pelham-Clinton, Lord Ennismore,
Lord Erskine, Lord Deerhurst, Lord Rosehill, Lord
Porchester, Lord Royston, Lord J. Thynne, Lord E.
Cecil, Lord J. Cecil, Lord Ed nam, Lord Molyneux,
Lord Southampton, Lord Ashtown, and Lord Garloch,
Sir R. Gresley, Sir H. Lawrence, Sir J. Duke, Sir J.
Stirling-Maxwell, and Sir R. Hare.
THE NATIVE SUPPLY OF SALMON. What may be
done by legislative enactments in the way of increas-
ing our nati v e supply of salt:ton is strikingly shown in
Mr. Walpole's recent Report. In 1861, when the Acts
for regulating the salmon fisheries were passed, the
produce of our fisheries was at so low a point that
even thme years later it had only reached the total
value of £lB,OOO. The Fence Act was passed in 1863,
and in 1865 Mr. Ashworth, a competent writer, placed
the value at £30,000. Since then further enactments
have improved the regulations, with such happy
results that for some years past the produce has been
estimated at £100,900. G eat as this increase is (-says
Mr. Walpole) it would hal, e been much greater if the
drainage of land and the increase of river pollution
had not made improvern 'n many cases impossible,
or actually ievd piod,ress which in other cases
had been made.

-----
INSTINCTIVE CRITICISM. —An amusing story is told
of a young Parisian artist, who painted a portrait of a
duchess, with which her friends were not satisfied—de-
claring that it was totally unlike. The painter how-
ever was convinced he had succeeded admirably, and
proposed that the question of resemblant..e or no re-
semblance be left to a little dog belonging to the
duchess, which was agreed to. Accordingly the
picture was serit to the hotel of the lady next day,
and a large party assembled to witness the test. The
dog was called in, and no sooner did he see the por-
trait than he sprang upon it, licked it all over, aria
showed every demonstration of the greatest joy. The
triumph of the painter was complete, and all present
insisted that the picture had been retouched during
the night, which was actually so—the painter having
rubbed it over with a thin coating of lard I The dog's
nose was sharper than the critic's eyes.
THE }ESTHETICS OF THE WINDOW. —ln some valuable
hints respecting window decoration, the Pottery
Gazette says :—" If a window commands a lovely view,
let it if possible be formed of but few sheets (if not,
very large, of one sheet) of plate glass; for the works
of God are more worthy of contemplation, with their
ever-changing beauty, than the works of =AI ; but if
a window commands only a mass oft bricks and
mortar inartistically arranged, let it, if possible, be
fcrmed of coloured glass, having beauty of design
manifested by the arrangement of its parts. A window
should never appear as a picture, with parts treated
in light and shade. The foreshortening of the parts,
and all perspective treatments, are best avoided. I‘do
not say that the human figure, the lower animals, and
plants must not be delineated upon window glass, for,
on the contrary, they may be so treated as not only
to be beautiful, but also to be a consistent decoration
of glass; but this I do say, that many stained
windows are utterly spoiled through the window
being treated as a picture, and not as a protectior%
from the weather and as a source of light,"

"CRISPING PINS."—A correspondent of Notes and
Queries, writing on the subject a n Crisping Pins,"
Isaiah iii. 22 says :—These aro usually explained to be
"curling irons for the hair," but, so far from viewing
them as synonymous terms, I apprehend them to be
distinct articles for the toilet, unlike in form and in-
capable of being applied to one and the same use. And
just as Richardson (Diet.' vol. i. Supp.) has defined a
"corking pin" to be "a large pin, used to fasten a
lady's headdress to a mould of cork," so a crisping pin
I consider to be a pin for fastening a crisp to a head-
dress, and the crisp to be an ornamental band of either
plain or embroidered material appended to the head-
dress and dependent; and in a woodcut of a Latin
version of the Scriptures now before me, printed at
Lyons by John Marion in 1520, Judith is represented
as wearing such an ornament. Crisp as a substantive
does not occur in any dictimary to which I have
access, but I once possessed a metrical version of the
book of Judith by Thomas Hudson, who has thus de-
scribed an act performed by her when she "set forth
herself"

"Upon her head A ti;lver crispe she pined,
Loose flowing on her shoulders with the wind."

A -NARROW ESCAPE. —A few days ago the Arch-
duchess Isabella was driving on the road which runs
by the bank of the Danube from Wilhering to Linz.
The road passes for some distance at the foot of a
steep cliff, which rises to a considerable height above
the river. Some time ago a quarry was opened on the
face of the cliff, and an entrenchment or sloping dike
was thrown up to protect the road from any stones
which might roll down from the quarry above.
Exactly, as the carriage of the archduchess was pass-
ing the quarry, a huge block became detached, and
bounded clear over the dike, but fortunately fell in the
soft ditch which lay between the dike and the road.
It fell from a height of over 43 yards, and was esti-
mated to weigh over two tons. The archduchess wae
for a time almost paralyzed at recognizing the terrible
danger from which she had had so narrow an escape,
Her husband, the Archduke Frederick, was following
In another carriage behind.

AVERAGE PRICES OF BRITISH CORN.—The following
are-the average prices of British corn for the week
ending May 2, r4s received from the inspectors and
officer 2 of Excise :—Wheat, 445. lid.; barley, 31s. 9d.;
oats, 24s id. per imperial qr. Corresponding week
last year :—Wheat, 44e. lid. ; barley, 30s. 4d.; oats,
255. id.

YAuIITING IN FRANCE.— According to a return
which has been prepared by a committee of French
yachtsmen, it appeara that there are now 103 steam.
yachts, 1,073 sailing-schooners, and 8,192 pleasure.
boats, with a tctal burden of 24,105 tons and an ap-
proximate value of £550,000, on the registers. The
numbers of persons employed in them, exclusive of
the owners, is ,391, while the number of members
belonging to the different sailing clubs is 11,478.
These clubs give away nearly £24,000 a year in prizes,
and spend about £1.40,000 in other ways. Out of the
eighty-six departments of France, forty-two have
either yacht or boating clubs; and at all these clubs
the flags have been floating half-mast high as a sign of
mourning for the late Admiral La Runcire le Noun
who was president lf the Yacht Club de France, and,
who did very much to popularize this pastime through,
out the country.

No NEW Ac m OF PARLIAMENT REtIUIRED.—A very
remarkable discovery has just been made in respect to
a Bill long familiar in the last Parliament, and which
has found a place on the orders of the present (says the
Daily News), It will be remembered how persistently
Mr. Wheelhouse,pressed the Deaf-Mutes' Education.
Bill on the attention of the late House. Mr. 'Wheel-
house not finding a place in the new Parliament, the
Bill was taken up by Mr. Woodall, who, in going into
the matter, has discovered that the object sought to be
attained by this much disputed measure is already
achieved by various existing statutes, and that the
Bill, had it become law, would merely have authorised
what is already legal,
FLAGRANT IN,TvamicE.----Our Deaf Neighbo:dr (to
Lady seeking " an appointment as Cook "4,—What
say'? Why did you leave your last place 9,'' Lady.—
My last app'intment ? Why, sir, 'cos .I'd'stipperlated
for a Darby " day bout," and they wanted to put me
hoff with a "floala."—Funny
DEATH OF THE EwRESS-RErsigNT OF CHINA.—At
Peking, on the night of the, Bth of April, suddenly
died the i` Eastern Empress," ruler of a third of the
human race. The deceased Empress was the first or
legitinaate wile of the Emperor Hsien Fung. At her
death she was, it appears, only forty-five years of age;
much younger than was generally supposed. Her ill-
ness was of only a few hours' duration; and she is
said to have died of heart-disease. The
.event bears
greater importance from the fact that her colleague in
I the yagency, the "Western Empress" (second wifo
of Ilsien Fung and mother of the late boy-Emperor
Tung Chi), has for some time been seriously ill, and,
by last accounts was not expected to live
, FATAL MISADVENTURE.—On Saturday morning Mr.
William Longshaw, jun., about 30 years of age,
member of the firm of Longshaw and Sons, Warring-.
ton, met with his death under shocking circumstances.
. He attended his place of business at his usual time,
and there appaared to be nothing peculiar in hie
demeanour. About 11 o'clock he drank from a bottle
which contained carbolic acid, but which he supposed,
contained beer. He was driven rapidly to the War-
rington Infirmary, but died immediately after ad-
mission. •

THE VOTE ON "DERBY DAY."—Three hundred
and sixty-five members (exclusive of Speaker and
tellers) voted on Tuesday night on Mr. R. Power's
motion for the adjournment of the House of Commons
over Derby Day. Sir NV. Harcourt, who, in the ab-
sence of the Premier and of Lord Hartington, acted as
leader, opposed the motion, as did several subordinate
members of the Government, but Sir Stafford North-
cote, Colonel Stanley, Sir R. Cross, Mr. W. U. Smith,
and Lord J. Manners supported the adjournment.
Mr. W. IL Gladstone and Mr. Herbert Gladstone
voted against the Derby, as did Mr. Biggar. Of the
Home Rule party, 32 voted for adjournment and seven
against. The Premier it the Use before the divi.
Eon.