The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-08-22 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

As a curious fact, a New York paper cites the
present custom adopted by ladies at the summer resorts of
promenading in the open air bareheaded, and of sitting at the
dining table with their hats on.

The Turkish journal Boßsiret states that a Turkish
mattress-maker has won the grand prize of 600,000 franca in
the last drawing of the Ronnie Min Lottery Loan.
- • - -

Mr. James Lick, of San Francisco, has left to the
State of California 700,000 dols., for the purpose of erecting
and endowing an astronomical observatory, and furnishing
it with a "powerful telescope, superior to, and more power-
ful than, any telescope ever yet made."
At the meeting of the Executive Committee of the
Labourer, Union at Leamington on Monday, Mr. Arch pre-
siding, a resolution was adopted thanking the trade councils
and the relief committees for the help they had given. It
was stated that the bulk of the labourers had resumed work
without giving up their tickets, wages has improved, and the
Union was as firmly established as ever.

On Saturday 1)r Manning received a deputation
which waited upon him to ask his support on behalf of the
hospital Saturday Fund. The Archbishop of Westminster
in reply, made some trite remarks on the fact of the non-
attendance of the working classes generally at religious ser-
vices. He promised all the support in his power to the
movement

It is stated that eighty emigrants have just re-
turned from Brazil to Berlin ins miserable condition, having
been forwarded from Antwerp at the expense of the German
Consul. At Hanover several residents supplied them with
provisions and clothes.

A Foresters'demonstration on a large scale %Vll,B held
last Saturday in the Glasgow Crystal Palace. About 5,000
Scottish brethren were present, and the proceedings passed
off most successfully.

A good example for our railway companies, which
would put money in their purses and at the same time Le a
boon to the public, is that of the Swiss railways. These com-
panies issue, in lieu of season tickets, books contaning 50,
10e, or more return tickets, which are served out to applicants
who frequently require to use the line. These tickets are
reduced 26, 50, and even 75 per cent, on the ordinary returo
fares, and are torn out as required.
. .

An intelligent Elephant and Castle boy on being
asked the other day who was prime minister of England.
answered, without hesitation, "Mr, Spurgeon."—Court
Journal.

" From a return of the business done at the Man-
chester Assizes during the last ten years, it appears that the
total number of causes disposed of was 1,662. Of 235
were against railway companies-Law Time*.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer acknowledged (in
The Times) the receipt of the first halt o a £5O-note from
"C. 11." for unpaid Income-tax.
_ _

-
In the loot 13 years sums amounting to £6,775,000
have been raised for fortifications in the United Kingdom.
The repayment is to he by annuities amounting hi the whole
to £510,542, payable until the year ISIS. They are calculated
on the terms of repaying the principal with 31 per cent. in.
Wrest

The Board of Trade has received from the Secretary
of State for Foreign Affairs a copy of a French law, pro-
mulgated on the 26th ult., instituting a prize of 300,i 00 francs
(about 412.000), to which may be added suhscriptions from
other sources, for the discovery of Sr. efficacious and econ,
mical means of destroying the Phylloxera, or of preventing
its ravages. A commission, nominated by the Minister ,d
Agriculture and Commerce, ill determine the condition of
comp-tition and the award of the prize.
. _

I)Thnehiaffrstthaertihcele'dosf
of ANA -Zearti
owo
oi with
itf
oh
roe c
aormo ebto
tenni; dt
ohfoy2r 01
the new redacteur of the Boston Globe runs thus : "New York
talks about six subjects at present Havemeyerhydrophobla-
comet ; hydrophobishavemeyercomet ; haverneyercomethy-
drophohia ; comethydrophobiahavemeyer ; hydrophobia-
comethavemeyer and comethaverneyerhydrophobla.--pk.
tonal World.
On the lot September an Act passed on the day of
the prorogation will take effect, and will abolish several
offices in the Court of Chancery, namely, those of the Mes-
senger of the *eat Seal, Clerg of the Petty Bag, and the
Clerk of the l'atents. The offices of Gentleman of the Chamlwr
and of the Parse-bearer to the Lord Chancellor are to be
united. The duties of the several officers are trans-
ferred, and the holders of those shout o be abolished are to
be attached to the Court of Chancery.
The combined School Board of Kirkwall and St.
ila have resolved that a treatise on the stature and effects of
alcholie beverages shall be read in the schools under their
cantrol during the time devoted to religious instruction.
The Creusot Works, the first mechanical establish-
ment in France, produced last year 90 locomotives. the
quantity of steel rails turned out of the works increased last
year to 35,500 tons,
This season lavender has bloomod earlier than usual,
and is being sold in London and the suburbs by itinerant
vendors. Borne cart loads are sent daily to the London mar-
kets. There are many fields of lavender grown at Mitcham,
honey, for distilling, Ac. An acre of this fragrant herb 14
valued at £l2O.

The st-1-1-1.-:e-s in Belfast and Gifford continue without
any siof cowp valise or accommodation. A meeting of the
Belfast millowners has beet, held, huts. an expected deputa-
tion :4 workman did not attend, no decision was an-feud at
At Gifford a meeting of the operatives has taken place, at
which continued resistance to the reduction of wages was
resolved on.
A. fatal gun accident occurred at Exeter on Satur-
day. A. well-to-do and much-respected auctioneer of that
city, named Itichani Hayward Pidsley, was engaged in
cleaning his gun, a double-barrelled breechloader. He was
Bitting, and the gun was on a table in front of him, when by
some means it went off, the contents of one barrel entering
his abdomen, inflicting fatal injuries. The poor fellow died
about half an hour afterwards. No account was given as to
how the gun isecame loaded. At the inquest held in the
evening the jury returned verdict that the deceasod was
accidentally killed. Deceased, who was fifty years old, leaves
a wife and four children.
Og Saturday afternoon, a young man described as an
Englishman, threw himself from the parapet of one of the
Towers of Notre Dame. Ile fell to the ground at the foot of
the building and was killed on the spot. lie was apparently
from 25 to 2.‘, years of age, and his passport showed that he
had visited the principal cities of the C'or,tin.at lie had a
considerable sum in his possession in eotes and coin, and had
given the beadle a sovereign before ascending the winding
stairs, lie rorlic.l eat his intention so quickly that the
visitors who were enjoying the view did not notice his climb-
ing the parapet. His watch, though the glass was broken in
the fall, was still going when the body was picked up. A
crowd besieged the Morgue during the evening, but the corpse
was no mutilated mat it was not exposed there.

A "Telegraph? Capital Account," made up at the
Post Office in May bit, states the expenditure to that date
at £9,028,745 namely, £tt,764,409 for undertakings, e,2,132,696
extenhionss ..ke. and £131,741 for pensions and commutations.
There is now on view in Kew Gardens an American
Moe in bloom. It in a sight which cannot be see:i every
day, for, as its! pretty lien known, this plant flowers but
Unice inacentury. Thin piuticular cpeciu.on Is one of the
ftnest, Its levee made tip a circumference of thirty feet,
and its tonna, ist bloom is twenty-two feet high_ In eider to
ma, room toe its mo,miticont efflorescence, oporisol of the
roof of the Succulent Home. as its habitation is designated,
had to be removed.
•• • •

M. Tbiers is reported to be unwell. There ilia story
current that the aged statesman recently remarked, " I only
gained a single thing by the Presidency of the Republic-sa
bronchitis. which has not since left me."
"Some passengers who stepped into a compartment
of a first-class carriage at a neighbouring railway station one
day fact ask, were somewhat surprised, and had their
dignity a little ruffled, on finding that they had for a fellow-
traveller a fine pt:, of which the apparent owners. a number
ot ladies, wsre very careful. This beats the hap dog mania''
--Conti Journal.
After the military suntan envier at nwrow at the end
of next month, the Emperor and Empress of Russia will
proceed to the Mimes.
It seems as if paper could he made from almost
every vegetable substance. The Din wire arcrtiarr intro-
duced the making of it from varieties of the palm. The
material is cut or torn into pieces of suitable size, then
cooked in a close digester, a ith thorough agitation and
under steam pressure, in a weak solution of alkali, naphtha
benzine, or reap : then it is completely ground, while stems
passes freely through the grinder sod intermingles with the
stock, reducing, bleaching, and finally washing it.

lu the yeas. 1873 there were 9,531,0r8 gallons of
proof spirits distilled in Eng:, .1 !(1,421,701- gallons In
land; 10.526,000 gallons in Ireland ; making a total at
26,479,640 gallons distilled in the United liingdoni.
. . . -

Mr. Stanton, who backea himself to ride from Bath
foiondon on his bicycle hi eight hours Oot a half, won his
wager on Monday, accomplishing the 106 miles in two niinutes
under the time. The last part of the Journey was performed
under great difficulties ; through an accident his left arm and
shoulder were disabli d, and for the last 26 miles he could
only use his right hiuid
. . -•-

-
Further atrocities by the Uarlists in the north of
Spain were reported on Tuesday, contemporaneously with
statements of continued reinforcements of the Republican
troops Damage done by the Carlists on the Saragossa Rail-
way is estimated at See,ooo reels, and it in calculated that
forty-five days must elapse before the hue is again ready tor
traffic.
Marshal 31acItlahoti'scontemplated progress through
several of the principal provincial towns of France com-
menced on suintay, when the President of the Republic a,-
rued at he Mans, in the Vendean district. The arrival being
shortly after midnight, the streets were illuminated, the
t,wnspeople were astir, and the reception is described as
being of a friendly character. Marshal MacMahon visited
several of the principal institutions of the town, and a review
was held in his honour in the afternoon.

On Saturda-,, the Bishop of Whinchester delivered
the prizes in a jersey school, and In doing so remarked that
the present was an age of great intellectual high pressure.
For his own part he thought the pressure too high, and that
it ought to be lightened, if all was for secular and none for
negirklus knowledge. Without proper religious training, the
i rising generation would not only be overworked and rre-
ligious, hut would be a generation of rogues.
- - - _

Sadler has accepted the ehalleng.e of George Brown,
of Halifax, Nova Scotia, to row for £5OO and the champion-
ship of the world. Brown proposed a live mile race. two and
a half miles out and home. Sadler has telegraphed that he
Is willing to row a match on the river Bann, at Coleraine,
In Ireland, but that it should be a straightaway race of four
miles and be rowed under the new English laws of boat.
racing, which embody most of the proposals of Brown. The
date of the race, as suggested by Sadler, is to be the 19th of
October.

The Home Secretary has addressed an official letter
to the Archbishop of Canterbury, requesting his grace to
make returns of all chur.hes situated within the Province
of Canterbury which have been built or restored at a cost
exceeding £5OO, since the year 1040, and the sources whence
the funds in each case were obtained The return asked for
I, in purmauce of an order of the House of Lords of the 22nd
June last, the scope of which extends to every diocese In
England.
-

Reporting on harvest prospects the Scotsman says :
From various districts of Scotland there come to us reports
of the great damage done to the crops by the stnrms of last
week, more especially by that of Thursday night. lied it not
been for the unfavourable weather, harvest operations would
have been general in the earlier districts, and it is expected
that if toe change for the better which set in on Sunday con-
tinue. cutting will be immediately commenced In the
south, Saturday was wet In the morning, but as the day ad-
vanced the weather slightly improved, although occulonal
shoe ere fell _ In the north the weather was beautiful Sun-
_. .

---
day was a delightful day and a pleasant south-westerly
breeze would have the effect of dr)ing the saturated crops,
which, however, will continue much tangled, and will thus
not be in good condition for machine cutting.
During the week ending August 15, the total
amount of revenue received into the Exchequer was
£2k4E8,617 as compared with A:25,735,968 last year. The
expenditure during the same period was £29,876 336 as com-
pared with £32.155,728 last year. The balance in the Bank
of England, w. 1,522733, and in the Bank of Ireland
£659,402 as compared with £2,578,545 and £896,272 respec-
tively in the corresponding period of last year.

Mr. W. E. Forster, M.P., and Mr. Roebuck, M.P..
were present at the opening of five new Board Schools in
fthetlield on Tuesday. Mr. Roebuck said England had been
ruled by the upper classes, but from this time forward the
destinies of the country would be in the hands of the work-
tag classes. What he wished instilled into working men
were self-independence and mental political freedom, so
that they might be capable not only of governing, hut of
choosing governors of wisdom, caution, and prudence, and
should be free men—free not only in action, political, social,
and civil, but free ITS that higher anti more important con-
sideration—free mentally.

The consumption of the flesh of horses mules, and
mem is decidedly on the increase in Paris. Returns show
that the flesh of 2,111 horses, asses. and mules was sold tattoo
Parisian public during the first quarter of the current year,
'against 1475 in 1872, and Dad in IS7O. A similar increase of
consumption is also reported from the provinces. The Society
for the Propagation of the Practice of Eating home-flesh, at
their last meeting, conferred medals on DI. Decrose, a military
veterinary surgeon, its jauntier; and on M. Condere, who was
the first to preserve horse-flesh It was stated at the meeting
that horse-flesh preserved In February, 1871, by M. Condere's
process, and opened in April; 1874, could not be distinguished
from beef preserved according to the best methods now in
use —Loadon. Medical Record.