The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-02-19 00:00:00

Our yontta Correspoutent:

tVle deem it sight to state that we do not at all time 3
Identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.)

The Queen, who will shortly return from.;
Osborne to Windsor, has announced that she I
will hold two Drawing-Rooms, and the Prince of I
Wales, on his return from the Continent, will
hold two Leve,es on behalf of her Majesty. The
fashionable season will thus soon be in full life.
It would be interesting to know how many
thousands of pounds are circulated in the West.
end in connection with each Drawing-Room.
eArs approximate estimate might be made by
multiplying the average cost of a Court costume
by the number of ladies presented. Twenty
thousand pounds would probably not be an
extravagant calculation. To the Queen a Deaw-
-ing-Room must be a trying ordeal. Her Majesty
generally st ands f or the several hours during which I
the ceremonial lasts, but if the proceedings are I
unusually protracted she retires and the Prin-
cess of Wales takes her place' presentations to
the Princess, of course, as well as at the levees
by the Prince of Wales, being reckoned as pre-
sentations to the Sovereign. But if it be a
trying time for the Queen it must be very much
worse for the ladies who come to the palace.
They have generally to wait in their carriages—
often in a cold wind, and sometimes subjected
to the uncomplimentary remarks of the crowd
—for hours at a stretch. Within the palace
there is a .rush, in which expensive toilettes
are irretrievably damaged, and then a long
wait before the carriage can draw up for
,the journey home. No refreshments are pro-
vided, unless a lady should be taken ill. The
first experience of a drawing-room, therefore, to
which so many ladies look forward is often ac-
companied by anything but pleasant remem-
brances.
It is strange how life in London, as reflected
by its daily newspapers, is altered by Parliament
being in session. If the Houses at Westminster
halnetellben.sitting the papers would have been
full of the tragic occurrence at Hoxton and the
mysterious disappearance of the supposed mur-
derer; but as it is, comparatively little promi-
nence has been given to the circumstances
connected with the crime, although in some
respects it is similar to the notorious Lefroy
case. A porttait of the man who is
" wanted " has been distributed "throughout the
metropolis, but, as a matter of fact, if a man
has money or can have money conveyed to him
without exciting suspicion, London is the safest
place for him. Units among millions people
live their lives apart; and so long as a man
pays for what he gets it does not matter if he
has a local habitation or a name. A slight alter-
ation of the personal appearance, and a person
for Whom everybody is looking, has only to move
into a different postal district to be swallowed
up in the tide of humanity, which is ever ebbing
and flowing. Scores of murders in London in
recent years remain mysteries, While the mur-
derers still probably go to and fro in our midst
every day.
The death of Mrs. Henry Wood has raised
once more the vexed question of dramatic copy-
right. With the "Ticket-of-Leave Man,"
"Black-eyed Susan," and one or two other pieces, I
"East Lynne" has been, especially in the pro- '
vinces, one of the most constantly played pieces
ever produced. And yet the talented authoress
of tho story never received a penny for the
acting rights. But, although she took to litera-
ture as a profession rather late in life, Mrs.
Wood had no cause of complaint on the score of
remuneration. She was not such a well-known
member of society as another popular authoress,
Mrs. Maxwell, better known as Miss Braddon,
but in her quiet home at St. John's-wood-park
she occasionally gave receptions' to a select few
of the artistic and literary world. In addition to
her.editerial, labours she was enabled to do a
large amount of writing by the regularity with
which she devoted herself to work. Like the
late Mr. Trollope she did not believe in waiting
for what is called "inspiration," but turned to
writing with the regularity with which a City
clerk opens his day-books and ledgers.
The agitation in favour of Sir John Lubbock's
Bill for shortening the hours of labour in shops
is being. vigorously carried on, but whether it
will be successful or not is a question. It is
urged, and with some show of reason, that
although
.the objects of the bill are commend-
able enough, the conditions of life in certain
elistrictssef London render it necessary to keep
open shops until a late hour. It is also con-
tended that the shortening of hours', if enforced,
will lead to a decrease of wages, which is not
unlikely, in the present overcrowded state of the
labour market. To meet the convenience of the
public it is 'proposed by some to make exceptions
in the cases of newsvendors and tobacconists,
but -the general traders are opposed to this,
for they contend that if they are compelled
to close while the shopkeepers in ques-
tion can remain open, the latter will gradually
intiOduce'the sale, of other articles. The subject
is 'certainly beset with difficulties, but the testi-
mony of niedical men is conclusive that the
present long hours worked in metropolitan places
of business are ruinous, physically, and fraught
with all manner of evils, socially and morally.
Serio,us railway accidents in and around
London are, happily, comparatively rare; but
when one' does occur the unfortunate company
has cause to remember it. For the accident
which occurred about a year ago at Finsbury-
park it ' has just transpired that the Great
Northern Railway Company has had to pay
over £30,000 in compensation, although not one
of the passengers had a bone broken. Of course
the claims on the company are so much greater
- than in cases in the country for the reason that
at certain hours of the day, morning and even-
ing, the suburban trains are crowded with com-
mercial men going to and from the city, and men
of the class who are not likely to let an oppor-
tunity of obtaining compensation escape them.
It says a great deal for the much-maligned com-
panies and their employees, that considering how
frequently the signals are obscured by fog and
that the detonators placed on the rails are at
best an unsertain precaution, the serious accidents
that occur are so few.
The bending known now as Olympia, but
originally intended to be
.a kind of West-end
• Agricultural Hall, :has so far had a most success-
ful season. The immense central building has
been crowded daily for the performances of the
company from- the' Paris Hippodrome, who intro-
duced some attractive variations, if not improve-
ments, on the circus entertainments to which we
have been accustomed. Some idea of the capacity
of the hall might be gathered from the fact that
• the span is nearly as possible the same
as that of the St. Pancras Railway Station,
without doubt the finest railway station in
London. Attached to Olympia are someliten or
twelve acres of ground, and as the spring ad-
' :1 vancee; these will be laid out in ornamental
fashion, so that in the coming summer the place
will probably be opened for out-of-door enter-
tainment after the manner of the grounds at-
tached to the South Kensington Exhibition.
Electric light of course will be used for the illu-
mination, and periodical displays of fireworks will
psobAbly. form an attraction. This is wreminder
that the well-known Mr. Pain, now .by the way,
James Pain and Sons, is startling our cousins
in Australia by those pictorial pyrotechnic dis-
plays to which we have been accustomed. It
shows the enterprise of trade and commerce in
the present day when a London jeweller braves
the perils of a journey to the ruby mines of
I3urniah and a pyrotechnist establishes a branch
at the antipodes.
The weather we have recently been experiencing
however is not of the kind to suggest out-of-door
entertainments. More fatal in its effects than snow
and:rain has been the cuttingeast wind with which
we have been afflicted. The Registrar-General's re-
turn for this week will probably show an increase
in the death-rate over recent periods. It is
fortunate that London is not built on the Paris
model of long straight streets, but we have some
main thoroughfares a mile or more in length,
running just due east and west, and with the
wind in the quarter it has recently been
blowing, these have not been pleasant pro-
menades.
There is a society and an Act of Parliament
for the preservation of ancient monuments, and
something of the kind will shortly be wanted if
we wish to retain our modern ornaments in
streets and public places. Scarcely a Sunday
now passes without a demonstration of some
- kind in Trafalgar-square. Nobody would wish
to interfereesvith the liberty of. public meeting,
but something ought to be done to protect the
Landseer " lions " which form the chief artistic
feature of the spot. These works are priceless,
not so much from their intrinsic merit, which
strikes the most inartistically inclined, but as
having been executed by the hand of a master
who has gone from our midst. It is a shame
that London roughs should be allowed to kick
and gradually distigure works which, if placed in
• a museum, would be guarded with the most
t• jealous care.
The servant-girl question is one of those diffi-
culties which we have always with us. From
what I have heard lately the evil seems to have
entered, not on a new but on an accute form of an
old complication. By staying a short time in ona

or two places a girl is enabled to get a character
by which she enters a family of considerable
means. Sometimes she is the willing agent, and
at others the ,dupe of men who utilise her to
give information concerning the house,
and to help them in robbing it. This
- kind of thing has so frequently occurred
of late that it seems to be done on a system.
Town-bred girls are, broadly speaking, not to be
trusted; and it seems a pity that there are not
agencies working in connection with recognised
and approved agencies or registries in the
country by which reliable servants can be
obtained. At present London housewives are in
a constant state of change, uncertainty, and
trepidation. A. Fe it.