The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-07-24 00:00:00

An Italian newspaper says that Peganint's violin is
to be photographed. The photographs are ihtended for sate.

- -
The yield of melons in Florida is so great this year
ttutt the farmers don't know what to do with them aIL Con-
tracts have been made to ship 200,000 to the West.
A destructive fire broke out at Simla on the ‘morn-
ing of the 23rd June. The origin of the fire was accidentali
Property of the value of one lakh of rupees has been des-
troyed.
The Maharajah of Cashmere intends to visit Cal-
cutta during the stay of the Prince of Wales there. The
Maharajah of Jeypore is making preparations on a grand
scale to celebrate his royal highness's visit to Rajpootana.
A letter from the Pnnjaub says that a company of
Sappers and Miners are engaged in exhuming Gresco-
Buddhist figures and relics in the neighbourhood of resha-
One of the curious institutions of Stowe, Mast, is a
"Three Score-and-Ten Society," composed of eighty-seven
members over 70 years old. One of the members, a lady, is
, 100, one 93, and another 91.
Captain Boyton, it appears, ha i a predecessor in
Dardanus, who, at the time of the deluge of Deucalion, .
swam from Sans to the coast of Troy. Dardanus had his
body vrrapt up in a dress which was inflated as a leathern
bottle, and swam with the aid of one paddle.

In a recent number of the Wan-kuo Kung-pcto
magazine published at Shanghai in the Chinese language),
the writer of an article makes a statement, which, if true,
will have an important bearing on the future of the Celestial
Empire. He says that Li Hung-chang, the famous governor-
general of Chihli, has memorialised the throne, asking that
foreign learning and the sciences may be placed on an equal
footing with the standard subjects in the literary examina-
tions of the Empire.
The Working Men's Club and Institute Union held
their annual meeting in London, on Saturday, wider the
presidency of Lord Rosebery. The report stated that there
are now 321 clubs in association with the union. Addresses
were delivered by Earl Fortescue, Sir Henry Cole, Lord F. C.
Cavendish, ALP., and Sir Harcourt Johnstone.
The German papers report that serious disturbances
have broken out near Koenigsberg among the builders em-
ployed in the construction of the new fort at Laiith. The
men not only struck work, but rose in open revolt' to sup-
press which a strong party of Cuirassiers had to be sum-
moned in haste. By the interference or the troops order
was restored. A number of ringleaders were arrested.
- - -

Once upon a time a certain French banker expressed
the wish to write a play with Scribe, the dramatist, which
play he would bring out regardless of expense, provided his
name figured on the bills with Scribe's as his collaborator.
Scribe declined the proposal in a note in which he said that
an ass and a horse never worked well together. He had his
little joke, as he thought, until he received the banker's reply
—" What do you mean by calling me a horse?"
A Montpelier farmer found in his cornfield, lately? •
cent bearing the date of 1788. On one side was an Indian •
•
with bow and quiver of arrows, and on the other an American
eagle with the inscription: " Massachusetts Commonwealth.'
Across the eagle were the words "One Cent. ' S•
According to the return of the Registrar-General,' -
2,203 births and 1,431 deaths were registered in London last
week, the former having been 40 below, and the latter 3 „
above, the average. The 1,481 deaths included 4 from small
pox, 27 from measles, 90 from scarlet fever, 10 from diphwt
theria, 61 from whooping-cough, 26 from different forms of
fever, and 204 from diarrhoea; thus to the seven principal • -
diseases of the zymotic class 422 deaths were referred, - •
against 279 and 335 in the two preceding weeks. • 0 -
A cashier of a rural national bank, transmitting ail
lot of United States bonds to be exchanged for registered ,
bonds, wrote thus :—" I may not have expressed thyself
properly, not knowing much about the business of swapping S • ,
bonds ; but my intentions are pure and innxent. I wish to.
have these bonds in such a condition that when a burglar =
comes to my room at midnight, puts a pistol to my head,
twits my nose, and takes me by each ear and leads me to ,
my bank and compels me to unlock my safe, I can contem- 4 t
plate the removal of my bones with a smile that is child-like
and bland(
The sea-mouse is one of the prettiest creatures that
lives under water. It sparkles like a diamond, and is radiant ,
with all the colours of the rainbow, althouch it lives in mud •
at the bottom of the ocean. Itehould not be called a mouse, ' •
for it is larger than a big rat. It is covered with scales that ri
move up and down as it breathes, and glitters like gold*
shining through a fleecy down, from which fine, silky bristles
wave, that constantly change from one brilliant tint to w
another, so that, as envier, the great naturalist, says, the ,g
plumage of the humming-bird is not more beautifuL
The Michigan University has just been presented ~,j•
with a large collection of natural curiosities, the fruits of a 7
recent vZlyage to New Zealand. The collection embraces. AS
among other things, about fifty specimens of New Zealand 411
birds, including the wingless variety, and an emu's egg,
fifteen by thirteen inches in circumference. There is she a at
carved club of singular workmanship, used by the natives of
New Zealand as a weapon of war, and called a men i paraawa.-
With reference to the weather, it may be stated that'll' •
at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, no less than 3'27 inches isa
of rain were measured last week, of which 2•39 inches fell
during the forty-four hours ending at 7 a.m. on Friday. SO
.7
large an amount of rain has not fallen in London during any ,41 •
week since the last .seven days of September, 1871, when 3'34; g 4
ihches were measured. In other English towns the rain A.
measured during the week ranged from *32 and *56 of an inch
in Bradford and Leeds, to 3-04 inches in Bristol, which was U-a
the nearest approach to the rainfall in London. 40
It appears from the report of the trustees of the
Astor Library, New York, that the original endowment of 'L. •
400,C00 dole (£80,000), given by the late Mr. John Jacob Astor,
has increased during twenty-five years by additional dons,- a, •
Limas and investment of income to 773,300 dols. (£154,660), .
and that the number of volumes in the library has increased
during the same period from 20,000 to 150,000. The number**l
of readers in 1874 was 41,692, and the number of volumes',it
consulted 127,579. The annual cost of keeping up the library h.
Is about £3,000.
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