The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-07-20 00:00:00

ACCLDLATISATION IN AUSTRALIA. —The accli-
matisation in this colony of valuable animals and birds
from foreign countries hi carried on with some difficulty,
owing to the unprincipled conduct of sportsmen and
other persons (says the Melbourne Argus). An instance
occurred the other day in which the offender, from his
position in society, might have been expected to assist
in the conservation instead of the destruction of
imported game. Mr. George Kirk, of South Yarra,
was summoned to the District Police Court by Francis
Meeker, the bailiff of the Acclimatisation Society, for
having, on the 9th of March, shot three pheasants at
Dandenong. The case was not gone into, as the de.
fends at once pleaded guilty. His excuse was simply
that if he hail not shot the birds some one else would.
The penaliat for the offence under the Game Protection
I Statute was a flue not exceeding 4:2, and the value of
i each bird £3, as fixed by the echedule in the Act.
The society waived their claim tothe value of the birds,
and merely applied for the penalty and the coats.
Mr. Call, P.M., made an order for 4:6, being 472 penalty
Ifor each pheasant, and la; Os. costs.
Tints ENGLISHMEN DROWNED AT N
—A very distressing occurrence has happened on the
Lake of Neuchatel. 1 hree young Eegliehmen, of from
23 to 28 years if age, who were staying at the Hotel
de Belles us, where they had arrivsd only the day
before by the train from Pontarliee, went out in a row
boat about fi.,e o'clock in the evening. The lake was
calm, and a light breeze was blowing, but about 6.30
p.ni. a sudden squall arose. The beat was then out of
sight. About 8.30 the squall recommenced more
violently. It is supposed that the boat must have been
capsized in this last squall, but no particulars are
known. The accident happened a long dietanee from
the shore, for they were all good swimmers, and might
have gained land at a leas distance. The boat was
found on Sunday morning at 7 a.m., opposite Pra-
fargier, about fifteen minutes distant from the ishore;
two hours later a fisherman, named Bourguignon,
found an overcoat about the same spot, which was
recognised as belonging to one of the parties. That
part of the lake, which is very deep, was ordered to be
dredged, but up to the present time without success.
CAN WOMEN STAND I—A controversy has been
raging in the Ness York Tribune on the question
whether women can stand. This is only part and
parcel of the reactien against the ladies, which, un-
pleasant so the fact is, and silly, really is the result of
their agitation against the men. One of the writer
nays . . . . .

7. They can stand hours looking In at • shop-wliviow,
gazing at sonic lay figure, robed In the latent Pirisian
fashion, often dragylog their small chilaren by the hand or
tiny cal, without apparent fatigue, spend an hour in ar
ranging a pound or two, more or less, of artificial braids,
marls, topsies, kg. , they can go into crowded assemblies, and
stand for hours at bridal receptions; dance till midnight
with those pretty little feet of widen the writer of the article
speaks. I say that woman can do ad this, and more; and
It is odd that site cannot stand in a steamboat for five
minutes. Let her take off her high-heeled boots, lat her go
out into the fresh air and walk three or four miles a d ,y, or
go about her household duties in real, sober earnest, making
the insist, aof her home comfortable and ham-y let her
dress, In sh:•rt, as a decent woman ought to do, not seeking
to make a dromedary or camel of herself, then she may pos-
sibly be able to stand up in a sioam-beat without being sub-
ject to all • the physical disabilities unfelt by masculine
humanity.'"
' • •

A fr-uflmoli lAL WLLL DESERVED. Hanley
and other Staffordshire towns have been doing them.
selves honour by presenting Mr. Bright with a beau-
tiful cabinet containing beautiful specimens of the ware
for which the district is famous. In one respect the
gift seem inappropriate, for it is difficult, nay impos-
sible, to think of Mr. Bight in connection with any-
thing that looks like "pottering."—Punch.

SAVAWILY HUNGRY. —A homicidal assault has
Just been committed by an individual named Gerard
at Vuitry-laiVille, France. He entered a raid kept
by a widow, Menne. Hatat, and culled for some
paridiular dish. On being told that it was sit to be
had, be became most violent, and, on the landlady
remonstrating with him he seized a knife and stabbed
her several times. 'the customers interfered, and he
turned his fury on them, wounding seriously three
women and three men ; the last he struck was a young
soldier just recovering from a wound received in the
late war; the blade having broken in the skull, the
assailant took up an iron bar and attacked an eldeily
woman, the mother of the soldier, and an old man of
72. The whole affair did not last more than See
minutes, and the ruffian was at last seized by three
men and handed over to the police. He is believed to
be insane.

.JtJVItILE SPORT. —There are three Gun
Clubs, the Hurlingham, the Senior, and the Junior.
The gunnery of these Gun Clubs consisting, in the
Fractice of shooting domestic pigeons, theie is mil)
one of them that could be approved of in any measure
by any true sportsuias. That cme i 3, or would be, if
constituted as its name implies, the Junior Gun Club.
If the members of that Club were no many schoolboys,
Gude word, I be something to be said for it : Datnely,
that it is an institution serving to teach the 3.oung idea
how to shoot,—Punelt.
GIRDLING Titers TO PRODUCE FRUITFUL
NEss.—(From rite Garden .)—I tiCnk it is lel generally
known that girdling apple trees will cause fruitfulness.
In the spring of 1669 a young one in the orchard of a
friend of niine was full of bloom and promised a rich
harvest. A gentleman, who happened to be stopping
with him at the time, told him that if he would have a
crop of apples he must girdle his trees. The idea
seemed preposterous, and the owner urged that to girdle
them would kill the trees. But the gentleman insisted
that that was the only way by which he could get a
crop, and that he would pay for all the trees that were
injured by the operation. But my friend being a
cautious man, and not daring to venture far on untried
ground, simply girdled a branch or two here and there,
which he thought might tartan away in case the girdling
proved fatal. But to his surprise the girdled limbs
, immediately commenced forming a new bark where
the old one had been removed. The blossoms on those
broaches set fruit, and in the antumn bent under the
weight of luscious apples, while those trees and
branches not girdled scarcely produced enough fruit t
pay for picking.
SOMETHIAG LIKE A FIGHT !—According to
the Savannah Pepsi/ has a nioecattin snake and a cat•
fish indulged- in the luxury of a deadly fight clown in
that vicinity recently. A gentleman, who is net down as
reliable, reports :
.• While Wilding on the marsh near a pool of water, lie
noticed that something was going on in it.ttiat one was not

accustomed to see every day, and on investigatimt the
splatter that was brim: made In the water found that a ver,
tat ge moccasin mid a good-sized catfish were having a terrible
fizlit. The occurrence was highly intermtirig to him, aud he
got as near as possible to see what would be the end of it.
The connbittaut3 were fearfully fa cameos and ten tidy eller-

gctic in their efforts to annibllate each Cother. The catfish
would make daring passes at the snake, always using his fins
to strike his antagonist with, and the snake, on the other
hand, would have to be equally energetic in keeping clear of
the points of the catfish's Ills. The moccasin would throw
himself into striking positions, and strike very last, in order
to be equal with the frantic Burgis of the catfish. At last,
the catfish, in making a pass at the snake, struc,l his sharp tin
somewhere in a tender part of the nake's belly, and the
tuo,easin in turn clinched the catfish in tile sack part of the
neck. In this position both antagonists clung to each other
until they were dead—the poison in both st coring equal.
The fight listed about twenty minutes, including the last
clinch of the contestants."

STRONOMICAL. is well understood (in
upper circles) that Luna dislikes any allusion being
made to her age.—Punch.
TAKING THE REAL FOR THE SEMBLANCE.—
(From "Service," in Tinsley's Maga:ine.)—With ser.
vants' vulgar assumption of gentility, and of manners
beyond their 'Asti in, we have no patience. Ordinary
stujility we can generally overlook, even when incon-
venienced by it. One instance of the Latter is too
good to pass unchronicled. Certain young Indian
gentlemen, who were pursuing the study of the law,
were invited by the Master of the Temple to spend an
evenieg at his house, and belied provided such delicacies
an were deemed suited to their pe .uliar tastes. The
time fixed for the arrival of the interesting party
arrived, but nobody came. When nearly an hour had
passed in fruitless waiting, the doctor's laily rang for
the maid, who had not become quite accustomed to
the ways of the house. She entered in a state of con-
siderable excitement. "Have noue of the gentlemen
arrived?" asked her mistress. "No " answered the
domestic, "but a lot of impudent Christy Minstrels
has been a-ringing at the bell, and I have been a driving
'em away, mum!"
SIXPENNY TELEGRAMS. -- In the House of
Commons, on Monday evening, Mr. Lea asked the
Postmaster General whether he was yet prepared to
reduce the charge for telegrams to lid. ; if not, when
he expected to be able to do so. Mr. Monsell pointed
out that the reduction of the rote for telegrams would
naturally cause a considerable increase of work. At
the present moinent,..in the Telegiaph Office there was
not room for a single additional wire, and the clerks
were overcrowded. He could not say how soon the
new building would be complete, and under the cir-
eurnstances he did not think the time had come when
he could give any more definite answer to the question
of the hon. gentleman.

THE RAG-PICKLE 6 o PARIN. —Many Pane
rag.pickerii make six francs a day, or rather per night.
Their headquarters are fixed at the Pot-d'Etain public.
house, where there are three large MUMS called re-
spectively the " Chamber of Peers," the "Chamber
of Deputies," and the " Proletaire's Salon," admission
being dependent on the fatness of the purse. In the
third degree of this human misers', customers have to
take their meals out of a hole made in a wooden block,
beside which an iron spoon is chained; ea-es of kis pto•
mania are thus impossible. The price of a repeat is
next to nominal—from three to tea sous. At the
Ilalies Ceutrales is an out-of-the-way shop having for
a signboard the Changed Chemise. The man who
wants a change of linen puts down half a franc, and
(huts behind a screen. A colloquy ensues between
client and shopkeeper as to the largeness of neck and
length of arniA, finally, a white armies is based over
the screen, and the member of the sovereign people
departs in due course, leaving hissoiled garment behind.