The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-10-09 00:00:00

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HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL

COLONIAL AND INDIAN EXHIBITION.—The number of
visitors to this Exhibition for the week ending 2nd
October was 265,709, and the total since the opening
4,398,641, as compared with 1885 (Inventions),
3.)60,407; 1884 (Health), 3,379,672; 1883 (Fisheries),

2,150,108.
DroN AND PARLIAMENT.—A Woolwich clergyman
who was at Eton with the Speaker has made a list of
members of the present House of Commons who were
educated at his old school. He has been able to
identify 112, a fraction over one•sixth of the total

number of members.
CroNsTRucTioNAL PROFESSIONS.—In the metropolis
there are no fewer than 2067 architects and 1173 sur•
veyors, while of builders there arA 7333. The total
aggregate of all the various classes of trades who are
engaged in the constructional art is a little in excess of
125000; and if the entire kingdom be taken into
account there is an estimated total of 688,114.
THE CoNao.—The white inhabitants in the Congo
Free State number some 300 persons, according to Mr.
0. Baumann, who has been accompanying Professor
Lenz up the Congo River. The riverside stations now
amount to 30, including the missionary posts; and the
American missionary, Bishop Taylor, is trying to estab•

lish new stations.
()Ataxia AND GorniE.—The " Academy " states
that Messrs. Macmillan will publish immediately a
selection from Carlyle's early letters, in two volumes,
edited by Mr. Charles Eliot Norton. They have also in
the press the correspondence of Carlyle and Goethe, by
the same editor.
A NEW RAILWAY.—The Elbam Valley railway
between Canterbury and Shorncliffe has now been 80
far completed—the line having been carried on to
Bridge—that on Saturday Sir George Russell and
several gentlemen connected with the South-Eastern
Railway were able to make the journey in the first

passenger train.
RAILWAY Juntrm.—The jubilee of railways is to be
celebrated in Paris next year, when there will be an
in ernational exhibition of railways, and of industries
connected with them, to be open from May till
October. An internationai congress will also be held,
composed of delegates of railway companies, chambers
of commerce, syndical chambers of trades, scientific
societies, and others.
DESTRUCTION OF AN ANGLICAN CLERGY HOUSE.—
Father Benson's Clergy House, in Marston-street,
Oxford, the headquarters of the Cowley Fathers, has
been almost destroyed by fire. The outbreak occurred
in the upper part of the premises, and communicated
with adjoining houses on both sides, the flames spread-
ing with such rapidity that the tenants had much diffi-
culty in rwoving their goods in time. Eventually,
however, the fire was confined to the clergy house, the
upper part of which is completely gutted.
HIGIICLERE CHURCH.—Lord Carnarvon has just had
placed in Hight:litre Church a handsome memorial
brass, bearing the following inscription: "The remains
of the above Charles Herbert, buried in Italy, in the
Castello, Dolivolo, 1635, sacreligiously torn from their
grave during the French Revolution, were recovered by
his kinsman Henry, fourth Earl of Oarnarvon, 250
years afterwards, and after many vicissitudes rest here
among others of his race and name. Requiescat in
pace." The brass is affixed below an old memorial to
the deceased, bearing a Latin inscription.

A VoitaciOus-OAT-.—A snake-eating cat recently died
in the United States. The animal was a large black-
and-white Tom, with lop ears like a rabbit, having a
good appetite for ordinary food, but caring little for
rats and mice. He would sometimes watch a week for
a snake; and then drag into the room a reptile six feet
lorg and as thick as a man's wrist. Although the
snakes were poisonous, the cat was never bitten, the
former appearing paralysed with fright, making no re-
sistance when pornced on by the cat, which used to
play with its reptile victims as felines are wont to do
with mice.
Tam ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.—The additions to the
Zoological Society's Gardens, Regenta'-park, London,
during the past week include a Rhesus monkey from
India, presented by Mrs. Faulkner; two golden eagles
from the Isle of Mull, Argyllshire, Scotland, presented
by his Grace the Duke of Argyll. K.G., F.Z.S. ; a stock
dove, British, presented by Mr. Charles Whyroper,
F.Z.S. ; an anaconda from South America, deposited, a
lesser white-nosed monkey from West Africa, pur-
cbassed ; a maned goose, from Australia, received in
exchange; a spotted hyena, born in the gardens.
TRH TOWER OF BABEL.—The gigantic iron tower,
which is to be a leading feature of the 1889 Paris
Exhibition, is to cost £300,000. Of this the State will

contribute £60,000, and the remaining sum of £210,000
will be furnished by the contractors, who will be con-
ceded possession of the tower for 20 years. The height
of the structure will be three times that of the Arc de
Triomphe, but it is feared that tho surrounding build-
logs will be utterly dwarfed. In order to gain some
Idea of this, a captive balloon will be let up to the
height in question, and four cables reaching down to
the ground will represent the four edges of the tower.
At intervals flags will be hung to mark out the positions
of the several storeys.
IMITATION V. REAL.—lmitation amber has largely
taken the place of real amber in the manufacture of
pipes. This is the last information from the Konigs•
burg coast, where amber has, time out of mind, been
sought by dragging at Schwartzort, and by mining for
the last 20 years at Palmnicken. The company pays
2,000,000 marks (E 100,000 to the German Govern-
ment for the right of mining for amber. The mines
produce about 3000 cwt. a year, and large pieces fetch
£6 per kilogramme as taken from the mine. The
largest manutacture of pipes with mouthpieces of
amber is at Vienna, and there the sham article is very
much used. In the mines at Palmnicken about 1000
men are constantly employed.
COMMERCIAL STATISTICS.—The number of failures in
England and Wales gazetted during the week ending
Saturday, October 2, was 97. The number in the corre-
sponding week of last year was 84, showing an increase
of 13, being a net increase in 1886, to date of 287.
The number of bills of sale published in England and
Wales for the week ending October 2 was 281. The
Dumber in the corresponding week of last year was
277, showing an increase of four, being a net increase in
1886, to date, of 361-. The number published in Ire-
land for the same week was 11. The number in the
corresponding week of last year was 13, showing a de-
crease of 2, being a net increase in 1886, to date, of
131.—" Kemp's Mercantile Gazette."
SKOBELEFF'S FEAR —lldme. Adam' in her mono-
graph of Genezal Skobeleff, says that the General had
a presentiment that he would be treacherously mut.-
dered ; and she speaks of strong evidence which has
been furnished her to show that it was fulfilled. He
was garotted. One day he said to her, as they were
bantet log about death and danger, "But do you know
that I often think of death 9" !" And rtoo," replied the
lady," "But I do not jest," returned Skobeleff, "I
wish for a glorious death. It is far easier to live
grandly than to die nobly. Most deaths are wretched.
What I fear is a stupid, vulgar death. The idea
follows me like a shadow. I should not like to be
killed among a lot on a field of battle. My dream is
to die like the Horatii. If I could only get Bismarck
to single me out, and for both of us to perish in a duel,
how satisfied I should be"
THOUGHT-TRANSMITTING EXTRAORDINARY.—What is
at present pronounced the climax of thought trans-
mitting is accomplished in andon at Mr. Du Val's
entertainment at the Prince's Hall by Mr. and Miss
Lilian Morritt. Their feats are mentioned here as
scientific marvels. The thought - transmitter. Mr.
Morrill, flits about the hall, and the young lady who is
tran smitten—to invent a word for the occasion—stands,
blindfolded, on the stage. The communications he
teceives from the audience are then silently and
mysteriously conveyed to her, and she reproduces them
with a piece of chalk upon the blackboard, Mr. Blorritt
of course remaining among the audience. The young
lady also selects from a pack of playing cards any which
may be named to her brother by some persons in
various parts of the hall, and finally she performs the
great bank-note trick, giving the correct number of a
note confided to Mr. Merritt by anyone of the spec-
tators
UTILISING GREASE FROM WOOL.—The grease from
sheep's wool, a substance hardly utilised hitherto, tugy
now find use, according to a process lately brought
before the French National Society of Agriculture by
M. Rohart. He finds that, brought to its point of
fusion, it very readily absorbs certain sulphur com-
pounds; thus it will fix as much as 100 times its
volume of sulphuretted hydrogen; and so treated it
becomes saponifiable in the cold state: M. Robert
presented some excellent soap made from the grease.
The operation required takes less than an hour,
whereas soaps with a base of soda generally take six or
eight hours in their production. Moreover, the saponi-
fication can be obt.ined completely without caustic
alkalies, and simply with alkaline carbonates; a new
scientific fact, applicable to all fatty matters when
sulphurised. Thus a great economy is possible.
VOLTAIRE'S Hosol. A French correspondent has
just paid a visit to the home of Voltaire at Ferney.
Toe chilteau now belongs to a sculptor, who has pre-
served the philosopher's bedroom in exactly the same
state as it was in 1778. The bed is not tempting, being
flat and hard. The rest of the furniture consists of a
table and a few armchairs. Themare two portraits on
the walls: one of the Empress Catherine, and the
other of Voltaire at 40 years of age. His wig on the
bed remains untouched, but somebody has stolen his
walking-stick. The writer was struck with the oblivion
into which the great Frenchman's memory has fallen in
the neighbourhood. He says not a photograph nor
any moment° of him is to be found there. How un-
like Shakespeare I" he exclaims. Whereas Stratford is
full of the British bard, at Fernerthe name of Voltaire
appears almost forgotten.