The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-10-03 00:00:00

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HOME FOREIGN, AN R COLONIAL.

GENEROSITY OF LORD NORTHRROOK.—A plea-
bant story comes from Agra, showing that the cares of
government do not prevent Lord :Northbrook from
taking a generous and personal interest in the little
tioubles of the humblest among his countrymen in
India. The North-West Provinces Volunteer who
lately won the Viceroy's Prize in the rifle competition,
sent the cup home to his relatives as a trophy they
might well be proud of. Not being well up, however,
in the mysteries of the Custom House, he made no
provision for his valuable missive being passed over
that inexorable barder in safety. The consequence
was the cup was seized by the English Customs officers
as an Indian manufacture liable to a duty of kti sterling,
which was not paid, pending a reference to India. By
some means the tidings of this misadventure became
known to Lord Northbrook, who immediately ad.
dressed a kind note to the volunteer prizemau, enclos-
ing a substantial token of his lordship's sympathy in
the shape of seventy-five rupees to defray all the
charges on his trophy to its English destination.—
Times of India.

A PRINCE AT SCHOOL.—Prince Frederic Wil-
liam, eldest son of the Crown Prince, has been placed,
as is already known, in the second class of a gymnast
at Cassel. The Crown Prince and Princess went them-
selves to announce the entrance of their son to the
teacher of his class, Dr. Heussner. This was done in
the most simple and easy manner possible, no cere-
mony being observed, at the request of the Prince's
parents, who likewise desire to have him addressed
with "You," as the other boys, the title "Highness"
being dropped, of course. The Crown Prince exhorted
his son to do all in his power to give satisfaction to his
teachers and acquire all knowledge he could.—Deutsche
Nachrichecn.

JUVENILE EXIGRATION TO CANADA. —On
August 26th a party of forty-seven boys, from the Rev.
T. B. Stephenson's "Children's Home," London,
sailed thence for Canada in the Dominion Line
steamer untario, Captain A. F. French. The follow-
ing letter from the gentleman who went out in charge
of the party has just been received by Messrs. Flinn,
Main, and Montgomery, the managing directors of
the Dominion line :

"Gentlemen,—l have great pleasure in informing you of
our safe arrival here, and I take the earliest opportunity of
expressing my entire satisfaction at the manlier in which
your instructions for our comfort were attended to. Captain
French and every officer under him were most assiduous in
their attention, and I desire, through you, to express to
them my hearty thanks for their kindness, and I trust that
they will feel themselves able to give as satisfactory an
account of the conduct of our lads. Thanking you for your
kind interest In thin undertaking. I am, dear :ere. youra very
truly, CogRAD W. Tales.—liamilton, Sept. 10, 1074."

SUICIDE OF A SPANISH NOBLEMAN.—The
France says :—"We have to announce the melancholy
suicide of a most distinguished member of the Spanish
colony in Paris, the Duke de Santiago d'Arcos. He
had been for a long time suffering from a terrible
malady, a caries of the jaw, complicated with a cancer
in the cheek. Being in continued pain and scarcely able
to eat, he resolved to destroy himself, and accordingly,
at about half-past eight on Tuesday evening he quitted
his residence in the Rue Newton without informing
either his wife or son, aud drove in scab to the bridge of
Argenteuil. When there he dismissed the driver, and
climbing over the parapet, precipitated himself into
the Seine. Before leaving home he had written a
letter to one of his friends to announce his determina-
tion. On Wednesday morning the river was dragged,
and the corpse found near the spot indicated by his
letter. The cancer had made such ravages in his
cheek that some persons thought at first that he must
have discharged a pistol into his face before throwing
himself into th water. He was a distinguished man
of letters, having written in particular a very remark-
able "History of La Plata."
THE BISHOP OF EXETER ON SELF-CULTURE.

--On Monday evening the Bishop of Exeter lectured
to the Young Men's Improvement Society on Self-
Culture. He pointed out that the mental culture of
mankind depended upon the degree in which they
could understand each other, and the world in which
God had placed them. Whatever brought the mind
into contact with those of others, either by study or
conversation, had a real power in cultivating the intel-
lect. Men studied for different reasons—some with a
view simply to improve their position in life; others
with a view to becoming more really men by enlarging
their understanding. Study to be of real value must
be gradual, and it was necessary that the student
should thoroughly enter into whatever he undertook.
Nor should he be discouraged by the slowness of his
progress. Above all things he must warn them to
avoid vanity, and to remember that the greatest stu-
dents felt that their greatest learning served only to
show only their own ignorance.

THE LATEST Novavry.—The latest novelty
in the way of weddings is the fitting up of the vestibule
of the sacred edifice as a dressing-room Lir the bride
and her attendants. According to a report of a
wedding ceremony which took place recently in New
York, the vestibule of the church was furnished for
the occasion with "mirrors, tables, chairs, brushes,
powder, and hair pins." This is a step in the right
direction. But like many a similar step it serves to
show how far short we really fall of completeness in
these matters (remarks the Court Journal). To have a
really elegant and unexceptional wedding in the
church, there should be, in addition to the dressing.
room for the Idles, a similar room for the groom and
his supporters, with a tonsorial artist in attendance.
This might appropriately be located in the basement,
and if a small space in the organ loft could be allotted
to the sale of neckties and other liiihter articles of
gentlemen's wear, there would be nothing for the most
fastidious to desire.

BEARDED WOMEN. —Bearded women are singu-
lar curiosities, no doubt, though, if very much bearded,
scarcely attractive objects. Two of these eccentricities
of humanity are at present in Constantinople, affording
a lively topic of conversation in Turkish circles, and
have been presented at the palace of Dolmabaghtche to
the Sultan, who had expressed a wish to see them.
They came to the capital, in fact, with their father and
brother from Bassorah, on the Persian Gulf, where
they were born, for the express purpose of presenting
a petition to his Majesty, craving that some provision
might be made for them. In other countries they
would exhibit themselves, anti thus make money; but
this, of course, Mussulman women cannot do in
Turkey. They are sisters, named Leila and Nahara,
the elder being 24 and the younger 20 years of age,
and each has been strangely provided by nature with a
full silky beard of considerable length. Otherwise,
they are short in stature, with swarthy complexions and
small bands and feet, and are unmarried. The
bearded sisters speak the Turkish and Kurdish
tongues, and are for the present lodged in a house in
Stamboul at the expense of the Government by the
Minister of Police.

ENGLISH WHEAT. —Foremost as wheat, is
among the cereals of the temperate zone, it is not
selected for uniformity of composition; few grains,
indeed, vary more amording to season, soil and situa-
tion (remarks the Sanitary Record). English wheats,
however, come nearest to an average standard of beet
bread-making qualities; and if we do not turn out the
highest-priced flom, it is entirely owing to the want of
skill or judgment on the part of the miller. The
wheat-corn of southern climates, and during exces-
sively warm periods of growth, preponderate in
glatin and hardness of grain over those of colder
countries and cool, wet 8234W11.9. Hence, the hard
wheats of Venezuela, Africa, and Taganrog. Payen,
who chiefly illustrates from these, declares that
they yield over 20 per cent, of nitrogenous sub-
stance when chyrnically dry; but this is an impossible
ordinary condition, and leaves the real amount very
uncertain. Whatever may be the maximum per-
centage of flesh-forming compounds in wheat from the
sunnier clime, anything exceeding 13 per cent must be
taken from the entire grain. But when the kernel
of hard corn shows as much as this, it is altogether
unfit for bread-making unless a large quantity of a
poorer or softer wheat flour be mixed with it. We
find the hard Italian wheat only suitable for making
macaroni, vermicelli, and similar pastes ; nevertheless,
good hard Itto.sian corn, coarsely ground and dried,
makes the best substitute for oatmeal in porridge,
when that is found too heating the blood of yaung
children, as experienced l3cotch physicists§ tell us is
sootetunes the caw