The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-05-15 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN,

The whole of the Flying Squadron will, it is said,
form the escort of the Prince of Wales on his visit to India in
October.
The penalty to which the proprietors of any place of
amusement or recreation are liable for being open on Sun-
day is £2OO a day.
Why is the success of the Arctic Expedition certain?
—Because it cannot get into hot water.—Judy.
It is stated that a large number of snr.rious half-
sovereigns, dated 1872, are in circulation.
By a return just issued it appears that various
public departments have vested in Consols, £98,037,349, and
the annual interest thereon, amounts to £2,936,439.
The highest price ever realised for land in this town
was obtained on Thursday, when, at a sale of Corporation
property, £52 per yard was paid for part of the site of the
new Liberal Club in Bank-street and Queens-gate.—Liver-
pool Albion.
It is officially announced that orders have been
given for the replacement of the statue of Napoleon on the
summit of the Vendome Column, and that the complete res-
toration of the monument will not be long delayed.
Yakoub Bey, the envoy from the Khan of
Kashgaria, who has been on a mission to Constantinople, is
about to come to England, and will visit at his leisure
several European countries on his way to the East. He will
be accompanied throughout by Prince Adil Khan.
A review took place on Tuesday at Potsdam in
honour of the Emperor of Russia. One of the regiments
was led by the Emperor William. The Emperor of Russia,
rode at the head of another. Both Sovereigns were enthu-
siastically received. L
Lady Smith, widow of Sir James Edward Smith,
the President of the Linnasan Society, on Tuesday entered
her 103rd year in perfect health.
On Tuesday the annual meeting of the Royal
National Lifeboat Institution was held in the Egyptian Hall
of the Mansion House, the Duke of Edinburgh in the chair,
A conference of clergy and laity, presided over by
the Duke of Westminster, was opened at the rooms of the
Society of Arts, in London, on Tuesday, at which the best
means of promoting the cause of temperance was discussed.
A German paper in St. Petersburg states that
6,000 German families in South Russia contemplate emi-
grating this summer on account of the rigid enforcement of
the Military Service Law. They think that they should have
received as much consideration as Mennonites and niters.
The St. Petersburg journals, in their comments upon
the "resent meeting of the Emperors of Russia and Germany,
emphatically point out that the object of the meeting is the
maintenance of European peace, and its defence against
any party, whoever it be, attempting to disturb it.
Earl Carnsrvon received a deputation on Tuesday
from the British and Foreign Anti Slavery Society, on the
employment of coolies in South Africa and other colonies.
His lordship said the interests of the natives would be duly
considered and protected.
A flight of locusts is devastating the vineyards in
some of the districts of the Bouches du Ithene. Several of
the swarms cover an extent of five to six hundred mitres
long by forty to fifty wide.
A distinguished gathering in aid of the Artists'
Orphan Fund, held at the Freemasons' Tavern, in London,
was presided over by the Duke of Edinburgh. As a response
to an appeal on behalf of the fund by the chairman, the hon.
secretary announced the list of subscriptions as amounting
to £6,631.
In the Prussian Parliament on Saturday the Bill for
the suppression of the Religious Orders was read a second
time without amendment. At the same sitting the Bill
dealing with the rights of the Old Catholics to the Church
property was read a third time.
The Prussian Minister of Commerce has despatched
eight railway officials to England with orders to stay four
weeks, and to study the management of railways in the
United Kingdom.
On the occasion of a recent Levee two distinguished
ecclesiastics (a bishop and an archbishop) were walking side
by side in full canonicals, looking for their carriages. Said
one boy to another, "Who's them two coves,. Bill ?" Said
boy number two with great scorn, "What an ignorant chap
you are, Jack! Why, them's Moody and Sankey !"—Court
Journal.
Rule Britannia! and may she rule straight down
the pages of history and not make it hard lines for any of
us I—Judy.
The Comte de Paris has written a letter expressing
regret that the illness of one of his children prevented him
from attending the funeral of M. Michel Levy, the publisher
of his book on the American War and of his father's works
on the Army of Africa. "My position as Prince, and my
name," he says, "made me attach additional importance to
mixing in the ranks of the citizens of the Republic of Letters
on that occasion."
Recent experiments with fog signals, made by
Professor Tyndall and the Board of Trinity House Brethren,
formed the subject of a lecture delivered by Vice-Admiral
Collinson at the United Service Institution on Friday after-
noon. The lecturer said that the American " siren ' signal
was superior to either guns, whistles, or trumpets.
It is announced from St. Petersburg that, shortly
before the Emperor left for Berlin, a convention was signed
with Japan, ceding to Russia the Island of Saghalien, at the
mouth of the Amoor. This island is stated to contain exten-
sive coal-fields, which will now be worked by Russian
engineers and miners.
The New York correspondent of the Globe writes
—" Another gold mania has set in here. The tempting dis-
covery is said to have been made in the Black Hills in the
Far West,' a territory handed over by treaty with the
American Government to the Sioux Indians. The rush to-
wards the coveted region is at the moment creating con-
siderable excitement. The rough element, of course, pre-
dominates in the adventuree but they will decidedly have a
lively time of it with that admirable junction of allies the
Sioux and the regular army of tbe United States."
Her Majesty the Queen on Tuesday afternoon
entertained at Windsor a juvenile party, including over
twenty Princes and Princesses, among whom were the chii-
dren of the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Crown Prince
and Princess of Germany, the Prince and Princess Louis of
Hesse, the Prince and Princess Christian, and the Duke and
Duchess of Teck.
The Journal des Debats announces that the general
revenues of France produced, during the month of April,
considerably more than had been calculated on, the excess
being 1,700,000 f. on registration and stamps, 1,700,000 f. cus-
toms, 7,500,000 f. indirect taxes, and 300,000 f. on the Post
Office. This surplus, added to that of the first quarter, gives
an increase of more than 23 millions.
The concluding sermon of the series which has been
preached in St. James's Church, Piccadilly, London, on the
use and abuse of the world, was delivered on Sunday by the
Bishop of Lincoln, who selected as his special subject
"Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture." There was a
crowded congregation.
The Chinese fancy for bright hues is now being ex-
tended to their newspapers. A Shanghai journal, the
Shenpao, recently published its daily edition on vermillion
paper, and a few days previous printed the news of Tung-
cke's death in blue. Double the usual number of copies
were sold on each occasion. This is not quite a novel idea,
however, as a short time since a magazine was started in
New York with different coloured paper for each article—
varying from true blue to Radical red.—Graphic.
If you write poetry, prithee don't print it. If you
write poetry, have it all of a sort. Don't be like Dr. Watts
on Monday, and like Tom Moore or Dr. Maginn on Tuesday.
You must write poetry? Then keep it locked up. Think
of it as something to be ashamed of—that is always the
safest. Read it by yourself, to yourself at midnight in the
secrecy of your bedchamber. Whisper to yourself "flow
beautiful !" Compare yourself favourably with Milton,
Byron, and the American poet laureate Smith, but don't
print.
"What a nuisance !" exclaimed a gentleman at a
concert, as a young fop in front of him kept talking in a loud
voice to a lady at his side. "Did you refer to me, sir ?"
threateningly demanded the fop. Oh, n.! I mean the
musicians there, who keep such a noise with their instru-
ments that I can't hear your conversation," was the stinging
reply.—Pictorrat Worta.
Why is an empty Irish cabin like the domestic fow
who crows in the morn ?—Because it is a shanty clear (chanti-
cleer).,—Judy.
The Paris Salon this year contains 2,019 oil-paintings,
808 drawings, water-colours, chalks, miniature., and enamels
on china and copper, 620 pieces of sculpture, 46 medals, ex.,
105 architectural designs, 230 engravings, and 34 lithographs.
Somebody who wanted to know who wrote a sharp
article in the Texas Telegraph has been answered thus
"The man who wrote that article, early in life was a hard
working blacksmith ; later he was a deck-hand on a steam-
boat; then he was a cowboy on the frontier, but of late
years he followed the profession of prize fighter. He only be-
came an editor to reduce his flesh by starvation, so as to
become more successful in his peculiar calling." The Tele-
graph received no further inquiries.
The Board of Trade returns for April show an in-
crease of £719,560 in the value of the exports, compared with
the corresponding month of last year; but a decrease of
more Mtn a million sterling compared with April, 1873.
Ttskin," the first four mouths of the -present year as against
the tir'st four inoutb.s of 874, the returns show a falling off
of pearly nye noillionis in the valee of experts.