The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-06-13 00:00:00

)intelligcnce.

HOME. FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL,

A HAPPY MAN.—American papers state that
a Mr. Hepner, of Reading, Pennsylvania, who is not
60 years old, has been the father of 41 children. He
married in Germany in 18W, and his wife, in the eight
years she lived, bore him 17 children—twins twice and
triplets four times; but not one of the 17 is now living.
His second wife, also a German, in her nine years of
married life had 15 children, twins being born five
times in succession; only two of the 15 are now living.
In 1858, having emigrated to the United States, lie
warned a third wife, by whom he has had nine
children; only three of them are now living. So that
36 of the 41 children have died.

WORTH KNOW ING.—Ne &tined Deacon.
"I suppose you generally make longer Coats for Men
who hold Extreme Views ?"—Chrical Tailor. " Well,
Sir, they do generally prefer a long Coat ; but with
that Coat, I assure you, you may hold any Views you
like ! "—Punch.

THE NEW POTATO BEETLE—As, nappuy,
readers of this paper (says the Garden) have no ex-
perience with the Colorado beetle as yet, but are an-
ticipating its invasion of their potato fields during the
coming season, they will, of course, be interested in
learning the results of observations and experience
where this pest has been prevalent for several years
past. And first I would state it has been found, as a
general rude, that it takes three years for the beetles to
attain their strength of numbers and mischief in a
locality. That is to say, their first appearance is
usually in small numbers, and only in a few fields of
a township or neighbourhood ; the next year there
will be found abundance, and destructive to some
fields if not opposed; then the third year, and for
several years afterwards, they will be in full force.

MR. JOHN BRIGHT ON THE TEMPERANCE
QUESTION.—In answer to a communication from Mr.
James B. Bennett, of Birmingham, respecting do-
mestic missions as tending to the decrease of drunken-
ness, Mr. Bright wrote as follows:-
- .• • •

" London, May 5,1874. - Dear Sir,- -I thank you for your
note and its enclosure. Every one must approve of the plan
you have described to me. Sympathy and kindness to the
weak will do much to make them strong, and your domestic
mission deserves the warm support of all the friends of ten,
perance. I wish you all success in your noble and Christian
work. • -Yours very sincerely, Jons BRIGHT."

DINNER AND DRES.4.—FuII dress is not ill-
compatible with Low Dress. At dinner it is not
generally the roast or the boiled that are not dressed
enough. If Young Men are raw, that does not much
signify ; but it is not nice to see Girls underdone.
Punch.
SPIRITS AND ALE OF CANADA.— Emigrants
to Canada need not fear that they are going into a
"teetotal" country. The Canadian Inland Revenue
report for the last financial year shows 4,739,027 gal-
lons of proof spirits manufactured and entered for
consumption, or considerably more than a gallon per
head; and 1,584,474 gallons of gin, brandy, and other
spirits were imported into Canada in the year. The
malt liquor manufactured is stated at 11,060,521 gal-
lons, and 439,875 gallons of ale and porter were im-
ported. The imports include, also, 867,656 gallons of
wine. This gives a total of more than 181 million gad
lons of intoxicants to be disposed of in some way.
"WOMEN AND WORK."—An old and faithful
worker in the cause of women (Emily of that ilk) has
started a weekly paper, which, if it keeps up to its
purpose and its promises, deserves Push'n support and
that of all friends of the feebler and fairer, softer and
sweeter, willinger and weaker, worse-used and worse
paid, harder worked and harder-thrashed, sex (Punch
is bound to add, in fairness, and under his breath, the
nagginer and nastier when it chooses). Miss Faithfull
calls her paper Women and Work; its object being to
make known the work to the women who want it, and
the women to the work that wants them. Poach can
only wish good speed to the woman and her work ; for
it is sorely needed.—Punrh.

GERMAN IN . AinnEE. —A traveller in th
Vosges neighbotulood rautes in the Magdeburg
2eitung a little eireum.tance illustrating the position
of German in Alsace. At illoliheizu an &sumac' lady
entered the railway carriage with her little boy. licr
mother tongue WAS apparently French, for she con-
versed with her little child only in that lancnage.
But in consequence of a difference of opinion between
mother and child the latter began to cry :old behaved

,
in a very naughty way. In vain did mamma try with
all flatteries and motherly talk to keep the little thing
quiet. " Sois tranquil, mon ange, men petite, b6be.”
But no use till the mother, in terrific wrath, cried out,
"du infamer Lausbub !" The child looked with wide
eyes, and, feeling that when mamma began to speak
German she was in earnest and that all play was over,
became suddenly still and well-behaved for the rest of
he journey.
A PLAGUE OF Locrsrs. --A litter from Al-
giers, published by the French journals, states that a
terrible scouge a locusts, as serious as that of 1866.
has again this year fallen on the colony. It made its
appeAraney on Whit-Monday, coming from the south.
At present, the whole of the population of the Mitidja
is engaged in combating it. The object is to destroy
the insects and also their eggs, for this is the time of
laying. No idea can be -formed of the fecundity of
these acrydians and their incalculable number. At
Medeah, in one week, the reward for the destruction
of this pest had to be paid on 1,500 double decalitres
(30 cubic metres) the report of the general command-
ing the sub-division states that the quantity men-
tioned is not one-thousandth part of what will have to
be destroyed.

A MODEST REQUEST. - The Bishops of Cal-
cutta, Madras, and 13ombay have addressed a letter to
Convocation, in which, after explaining the need of
clergy for India, they remark Give us men also.
.. . And lend to us as well as give. Lend to us, in
that season of the year when the climate of India is
a 4 temperate as that of Europe, men of matured minds
and ripened knowledge. Lend us men like the Bishop,
of Peterborough and Derry, and Canon Liddon, who
may travel throughout India and visit the chief centre.
of population and thought. Such men will find
audiences of Indians to whom English speech is
familiar, and by their sanctified oratory will exercise
an influence upon the whole continent of Asia, which
words cannot describe or figures estimate." The
Bishops proceed to request money also. The Timer.
A KINDOO THEIST PREACHER.--111 London,
on Sunday morning, Baboo Protap Chunder Mozoom-
dar, coadjutor of heshub Chunder Sen, the missomuy
of the Hindoo Theists, called the Bralimo Sonutj,
preached at the sercice held by the Rec. Charles
N'oysey, late vicar of Healaugh, at St. George's Hail,
Langham-place. The Bala., a tall man of striking
appearance, apparently between 30 amd 35 years
age, selected no Scriptural text, but counneuceil by
saying that the transition at present going on all over
the religious world made it necessary for every one to
form those positive ideas about God and immortality
without which practical religion was simply haws
Bible. Theists believed that God existed as surely as
they knew that this world existed. They were free,
he thought, from that wide-spread hatred which pre.
vailed in the religious world, and which arose from
ignorance of the law of love, for love could never be
found where men were bound up heart and soul in
, their prejudices. He earnestly asked his hearers to
I forget for awhile their dogmas and to engage earnestly
in prayer, which was the only a of reaching the
' God of all truth. _ _ _

• •
AN INCIDENT OF BYGONE DAYS !—The Morn-
ing Post, in noticing the death of the Hon. Mrs. Henry
Byng, thus describes an incident which occurred to
that lady in early life : —The daughter of a member of
Council at Cape Breton, who sacrificed his property
in the cause of loyalty to the British Crown, she IVWS
scarcely eighteen when she accompanied her husband
in command of a transport ship on the West India
station, on board of which was Colonel (afterwards
General Sir) Charles J. Napier, with soldier, of
the 102nd Regiment. A strange sail appeared
in the offing, and, each vessel mistaking the
others nationality, they were making ready for
action on both sides. On a nearer approach
the strange sail turned out to be the Goliath, under the
flag of Captain (afterwards Sir Frederick) Maitland,
whe, on coming close and seeing that the other ship
was a Britisher, said it was fortunate she had not fired
a gun, as in that ease he should have sent ship and all
to the bottom—including, of course, Mrs. Ilyng and the
future con meror of Schole. This little incident brought
about a friendship with the Byngs and the Napier+
which ended only with their lives.
THE RIGHT TO REEF GREYHOUNDS.—A case
relating to the right to keep greyhounds has been
decided in the Court of Queen's Bench, Dublin. A
person had been charged with keeping such a dog
without the qualification romired by an Aetof William
111., viz., freehold property valued at £lOO a year, or
£l,OOO personalty. Ile relied on an Act of George
111., by which the necessary qualifications was altered
and no penalty mentioned; also on the Dog's Regula-
tion Act, which declared that a person possessing a
licence may keep any dog he pleases. The court
unanimously decided that the Act of George 111.
abrogated the statute of William, and dismissed the
appeal with costs.
HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN.— The Cloth'
workers' Company London, have voted the sum of 200
guineas per-annum during the pleasure of the Court in
aid of the higher education of women,—viz., £lO5
towards establishing exhibitions in connexion with the
North London Collegiate an I Camden School for girls;
£52 10s. towards establishing a Scholarship in con-
nexion with the entrance examination at Girton Col-
lege, near Cambridge, for "ladies of scanty means,
especially those engaged in or preparing for the pro-
fession of education ; " and £52 10. r. towards establish-
ing two Exhibitions for ladies of Merton Hall, and
others in attending the lectures for women in Can,
bridge.
DOUBLE EXECUTION IN JAPAN.—The morn-
ing of the Ist April, nays the Hiogo News, was marked
by the execution of two criminals at the ground set
apart for that purpose near Wada-no-Misaki. One of
them was a comparatively ordinary kind of criminal,
while the other was a man whose case has excited con-
siderable interest, from its having been at one time
rumoured that he was to be crucified, and that the
woman, to obtain whom he murdered his brother, WWI
to be torn to pieces by cattle. After the two men
were decapitated on Wednesday last the head of the
one was placed on a spike on a board resting on two
uprights after which an iron nail was driven down-
wards through the orifice of each ear and another in
the same way through the back of the neck. The
woman has been released, for want of sufficient evi-
dence that she was an accomplice.
A NATIONAL WANT !—When our volunteers
went to Havre. and played "God save the Queen!"
after landing the courteous French saluted the national
air (says the Court Journal). This WM all right, and
it was incumbent that the civility should be returndsl,
and that our fellows should salute the national air of
France. But the difficult question arose: What was
j it? The " Marseillaise "is forbidden again ; the air of
Heine Hortense belongs to the Empire " Vive Henri
Quatre " is Bourbon, and the " Pansienne" is ex-
ploded. What to do? The Frenchmen hesitated and
consulted; then they struck up an extract from /
Purilani, and our men gravely presented arms. But
there was a good deal of suppressed sniggering; while
as for the ocean, that is said to have smiled openly.

- -
THE COAL DISCOVERY AT SANDWELL-PARK.--
From inquiries made on the spot, the Rirminghass
Gazette finds that the thickness of coal, as proved by
the borehole at the Sandwell-park trial sinking, is 18
feet. The shaft is sunk about 11 feet into the seam.
The beds are found to lie in regular order, and ap
parently of a very fine and equal quality. The coal
is being got out of the pit in as large blacks as possible,
under the somewhat difficult circumstances of raising
it downward. Some of these blocks are five feet long,
and weigh nearly a quarter of a ton each. It is in
contemplation to continue to sink the shaft below the
present coal without delay, in order to prove what may
exist below. By some it is thought that the filX yard
seam of coal may not be the whole of the bed, while
others are of opinion that the 18 feet represents the full
thickness, which, at the nearest colliery, may be taken
at an average of seven yards and a half.
BRITISH COLUMBIAN GOID MINES. The
Hudson Bay Company's steamer Otter, which arrived
at Victoria on the 4th if May, brought two gentlemen
direct from Deese Lake Mines with very encouraging
news. They left the mines on the 15th of April, left
Buck's Bar, per canoe, on the 21st, travelling down
the river, entirely free from ice, and arrived at Fort
Wrangel on the 23rd. At Pease Lake there WllB still
plenty of ice, but the Mow was off the lake. The men
were thawing the ground, and taking out dirt paying
from 37e. to 50c. and 75c. to the pan. Several com-
panies were also taking out from 25 dole. to 50 dots.
per day to the hand with rockers. At the mines there
were upwards of 500 men, and the rush at these mines
were such that it was thought there would be some
; thousands lathe district by Midsummer.
THE COURSE OF EVENTS. —On Thursday, the
" off " day in the Epsom Week, the ground was
"harder than ever." It was not, therefore, surprising
that the first race should be won by Macadam.
Frown.
A BAND OF LADY PRAYERS.—The Germans
; are not so courteous to the ladies as are the Amencana ;
; so the band of lady prayers for closing drinking places
has met with a rough reception at Cincinnati. About
500, the majority of whom were Germans, gathered
' around the band, which went out about four o'clock.
There were about 19 women in the band. The crowd
pressed upon the women and used insulting language.
Only one policeman was on the ground, and requested
the women to return to church, as he would be unable
to protect them. The ladies said God would protect
them, and expressed their determination to go on.
The crowd at this time used no violence, but were
noisy. When the ladies sang or prayed the crowd
' struck up a chorus, drowning their voices. Fighting
began in the crowd, and a reporter of a German paper
was struck several times and finally driven away. The
women, finding no other way possible, escaped from
the crowd one by one, and returned to the church
from which they came.
DEAD MEAT SUPPLY.—The quantity of dead
meat imported into the United Kingdom front abroad
has greatly increased within the last few years. The
total was 1,246,781 cwt. in 1869; 1,158,407 evrt. in
1870; 1,968,800 cwt. in 1871', 2,851,519 cwt. in 1872'
and 3,877,721 cwt. in 1873. But three-fourths of it all
now consist of bacon and hams from the United States.
The import in 1873 comprised 2,987,217 cwt. of bacon
and hams, nearly nine-tenths of this large quantity
coming from the United States; also 289,605 cwt. of
pork, principally salted, more than two-thirds of it
trim the United States ; and 260,474 cwt. of beef princi-
pally salted, above two-thirds coming from the ITnited
; States. The remainderof the importie meat not specially
I described, consisting of 79,772 cwt. Baited or fresh
(half of it coming from the United States), and 260,653
cwt.* "preserved otherwise than by salting." This
last item has, perhaps, moat interest for us at present.
It includes 10,630 cwt. of preserved meat from
Uruguay, and 234,695 cwt. from Australia. The
quantity thus received from Australia in 1873 was
much less than in 1872, when it reached 318,616 cwt. ;
but the import of 1874, thus far, shows a large increase
ever that of 1873. lathe year 1873 as much as 79.6
per cent, of our total import of dead meat came from
the United States; 2'9 per cent. from. British North
America; 61 per cent. from Australia; 7'7 per cent,
from Germany; 1•5 per rent. from Denmark.