The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-06-04 00:00:00

EPITOME. OF NEWS.
BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

The Queen has signified to General Roberts her wish
that he should sit to Mr. Frank Moll, A.R.A., for his por-
trait, which.is to be painted for her Majesty.
Farms in Scotland of which the leases expire at
Whitsuu•day are usually being re-let at considerably lower
rent, varying from 20 to 50 per cent.

Intelligence from Lasalle, Illinois, reports that a
shock of earthquake has been felt there.

Caroline Lady Hill, widow of Sir Rowland Hill,
died late on Friday night in last week at her residence at
Hampstead, after a long illness. Lady Hill was in her 85th
year, and had survived her husband rather less than two
years.

A telegram from Ottawa says that her Majesty
Queen Victoria has transmitted through the Marquis of
Lorne the expression of her great sorrow for the Victoria
disaster, and her deep sympathy for the bereaved.
On Monday evening a number of students from the
Baptist College, Llangollen, were bathing in the river Ts
about half a mile below the town, when one of them, Da,
Davies, was carried beyond his depth, taken down the
torrent, and drowned, in spite of the efforts of a companion
who dived after him. The body was recovered half an hour
later.

Dee, ;
Avid 1

A telegram from Sydney, under date May 31, says
that the British ship Queen of the Nations, from London for
Sydney, had been driven ashore there, and was expected to
become a total wreck.

In London last week 2,411 births and 1,452 deaths
were registered. Allowing for increase of population, the
births exceeded by 5, and the deaths by 3, the average
numbers in the corresponding week of the last ten years.
here were 92 deaths from small-pox in the metropolis
during the week.

The first coins struck in the United States bore a
portrait of Martha Washington, the great General's wife.
When, however, the General saw the likeness he was highly
indignant, and before any more money was issued he had
the features of the effigy altered, and a cap placed on the
head, this being the original of the present Goddess of
Liberty on American pieces.
The Berlin correspondent of the Morning Post says
that a number of Moscow capitalists intend to found it
company having a capital of a million of roubles for the pur-
pose of promoting the commerce of the newly annexed
Akhal Tekke oasis with Persia and Central Asia.

It is understood that her Majesty's second State
ball at Buckingham Palace is fixed for Friday, June 24;
and that her Majesty's second State concert is fixed for
Wednesday, June 29.
There were 13 British and foreign wrecks, of which
eight were British, one being a steamer, reported during the
past week, making a total of 808 for the present year, or an
increase of 196, as compared with the corresponding period
of last year. The approximate value of property lost was
£2,500,060, including British £1,900,000.

A Reuter's telegram, dated Shanghle, May 27,
states: The Glen Line steamer Glencoe left Woosung
on the 24th inst. with 2,950,0001 b of new season's tea on
board.

Last week's receipts of cotton at all United States
ports have been 37,000 bales, and since Ist September
5,496,0 0 bales. Shipments to Great Britain, 46,000 bales;
and to the Continent and Channel, 20,000 bales; total since
Ist September, 4,037,600 bales. Stock at all ports, 494,000
bales.

A New York telegram says that the visible supply
of wheat on May 27th was 16,600,000 bushels ; Ditto Indian
corn, 11,200,000 bushels. Export clearances of wheat for
Europe during the past week, 1,390,000 bushels; export
clearances ot Indian corn forrEurope during the past week,
1,630,000 bushels.

Te:egraph-operators in Austria, following the
example of their British colleagues, are now complaining
bitterly of their hardships, and have sent up a long list of
their grievances to Parliament. Their work, they state, is
trying alike to sight and hearing, they need great muscular
strength and agility, they have few or no holidays, and suffer
particularly from the night-spells.

The Queen and Princess Beatrice are expected to
reside in Scotland till about the 24th of this month, and at
the close of their visit to the highlands will return to
Windsor Castle. Her Majesty, while in residence at Wind-
sor, will hold a grand review of the Volunteers in the Great
Park on Saturday, July 9, and later on will proceed with the
Princess and Court to the Isle of Wight.

"Tables and Shoes.—Sadly disappointed to have
no letter yet, but well know no fault of yours. Notice 10th
May, but none 20th. York since 17th. Knives 20th. Must
hear before then, surely. Try your uttermost."—Advertise-
ment in The Times.

Mr. Fawcett's stamp deposit saving system is to be
tried in the New Zealand Government schools, and if suc-
cessful will be introduced generally throughout the colony.
•
Sunday (29th), being Royal Oak Day, the time-
honoured custom of singing anthems from the top of the
central tower of Durham Cathedral was observed. The full
choir in their surplices ascended to the top, and at each
corner of the tower, with the exception of the west corner,
sang an anthem.
Mdlle. Rosa Bonheur, who has quite recovered
from her late illnsss, is now working at a life-size picture of
a lion and lioness, with their cubs, in a lair in the desert.
The studies for the picture were taken from a family of
lions which Wile. Bonheur kept for three months last
summer in the grounds of her villa near Fontainbleau, and
when the artist had [Wished with her models:she
.presented
them to.the Paris Jardin des Plantes.
For some weeks past a large number of horses its
Paris have been attacked with a malady which is said to be
a typhoid affection, although not identical with the human
fever of that name. In spite of skilful treatment, great
losses have been the result. In one private stable alone
there were 22 horses ill at the same time.

At the meeting of the Royal Botanic Society, on
Saturday, the Secretary reported that the wonderful plant
Aristolochia Goldicana, from Old Calabar, was just coming
into flower for the first time in the Society's garden. It is
said to be the largest flower but one of the whole world.

Joseph Mclntee, who was convicted of murdering
his wife at Liverpool on the 14th of April, was executed at
Kirkdale Gaol on Tuesday morning, at eight o'clock. A
crowd numbering several hundreds of persons assembled
outside the walls, and displayed considerable excitement
until the black flag was hoisted.

Among the arrivals by the Allan mail steamer
Parisian which reached the Mersey on Monday, were Sir
John A. Macdonald, Premier of the Dominion. of Canada,
and Lady Macdonald. They are about to make a tour in
Europe.

"Been to Board School, my boy? "—"Yes, sir ! "
—" Passed out with a certificate ?"—" Yes, sir ! —"Well
look here! Four pounds of salmon at half-a-crown a pound
--what Would that be ?"—" Ten shillings, sir!"—" Quite
right, my boy. Here's sixpence for you. But stop a
moment! What would twenty pounds of salmon at
Fourpence-half-penny be ?"—" Why, stinking, yer jolly old
stupid ! 'Olesale it 's eighteenpence I "—Punch.
The special New York telegram to the Ironmonger
newspaper states that the iron market continues, on the
whole, dull in the United States.
A group, in white statuary marble' of the late
Princess, Alice (Duchess of Hesse•Darmstadt) and her
daughter is being sculptured by Mr. J. E. Boehm. The
Princess and her child are represented reposing, as if asleep,
upon a couch, the little girl lying upon her mother's left
arm. The features have been copied from original portraits.
The sculpture, which is similar to the memorial of the
Princess recently placed in the Royal Mausoleum at Frog'
more, near Windsor Castle, is intended for the Grand Duke
of Hesse, the husband of her late Royal Highness, and will
be forwarded to Darmstadt upon its completion.
On Sunday evening Private Denham, of Belfast,
who has just joined the 22nd Cheshire Regiment, stationed
at Chester Castle, was bathing in the Dee near the railway
viaduct with six or seven comrades, when he was observed
to sink; but, as he was a capital swimmer, and was accus-
tomed to daring feats, no notice was taken of the occurrence
until he was missed. Ineffectual attempts were made to
rescue him, but it was half-anhour before his body was
recovered, when it was taken to the barracks on a hospital
stretcher. He is supposed to have been seized with cramp.
Beavers seem likely to-rbe exterminated in Germany,
The colonies in the Elbe, which have hitherto been highly.
prized owing to the comparative rarity ot the animal in
Central Europe, have done so much damage to the bark of
the woods along the river that the game laws protecting
them are to be reduced to a minimum.
The arrivals of live stock and fresh meat at Liver-
pool from the United States and Canada last week were of
live stock a large increase, and of fresh meat a decrease on
the arrivals of the preceding week. The totals were 1,426
cattle, 1,377 sheep, 3,326 quarters of beef, 1,19 carouses of
_
mutton, and 197 hogs.

The large Anchor Line steamer Macedonia went
ashore near the Mull of Cantyre on Monday morning while
on an inwtird voyage from New York with a full cargo of
produce and live cattle, and went down in deep water.
Sqlvage steamers returned to Greenock on Tuesday night
reported the vessel lying broadside to the sea and full of
water. The ship and cargo, valued at £150,000, is prin-
cipally insured in Glasgow. No lives were lust. The crew
proceeded to Glasgow.

- - -
An inquest was held at Penrith on Tuesday on the
bodies of two youths named William Black, seventeen, and
John Mitchell, fourteen, who were drowned while bathing in
the river Camont. The previous evening about thirty lads
were bathing in a portion of the river generally used for
that purpose, when Mitchell sprang from a tree branch into
the water, and when he came to the surface he appeared to
be exhausted. He made signals for assistance, which were
quickly responded to by Black, whom Mitghell convulsively
clasped, and both were drowned, the terrified lads on the
bank being unable to render arc/ assistance. A verdict of
"Accidentally drowned" was returned.

The stertmu Itanzani, from Newfnundland for
SwaPsea, came into collision on May 23 with an ice floe,
during a fog, 400 miles to the south-east of Gull Island, off
Cape John, staving in her bows. She was beached and is
now discharging her cargo for repairs. Telegrams indicate
that the ice floe is now floating southwards. It is most
formidable at its southern end and is in about 46 north
latitude, immense icebergs accompanying it. The floe has a
steady southern drift towards the Transatlantic steamship
route.

Lieutenant Colonel Winsloe, who ooruraanded at
Potchstroom during the siege, has brought to the natio., of
the Major General commanding in Natal and tho Transvaal
the gallant conduct of Sec,ond Lieutenant Dalrymple•flay
and ten men of the It rusiliers, who at the risk ( f their
own lives volunteered to carry a dangerous position held in
force b We enemy, and succeeded in driving out the Boers
at the point of the bayonet. The heroism displayed by this
young officer and the men who so nobly supported. hi vikls
spoken of by Colonel Winsloe as being beyond all praiso, and
we understand that the whole of the gallant little party are
to have their claims considered with a view of their being
decorated with the Victoria Crcosi.

The rrinoe af Wales, having been invited to unveil
tho memorial to Sir Rowland Hill at Kidderminster, his
Royal Highness's secretary, writing to the Mayor, says •
"
am direeted to assure you that it would have afforded the
Prince of Wales much pleasure to have had an opportunity
of seekg a town so well known for its industries at Kidder-
. minster, and at the same time a doing honour to so great a
benefactor to his conotrymen as Sir Rowland Hill, but to
state that his engagements are so numerous that he regrets
he is imattle to hold out any hope of having it in his power
tap advantage of the proposal which has been mazdtl ta
Wm• .

4.A.c.

Five brigade field days of metropolitan volunteers,
numbering altogether about 10,000 of all ranks, were held
last Saturday.
A Woman's Stock Exchange is held daily in Paris
at a confectioner's near the Bourse. Here, a Paris paper
says. between 2 and 5 p m., congregate innumerable ladies
all bent on serious business, well versed in 'Change slang,
clad soberly in dark colours, and ready to conclude im-
portant monetary operations.
The Census returns show that the present popula-
tion of the parish of I' ampstead numbers 45,436, against
32,271 in 1871, being an increase in the ten years of 13,165.
The population in 1861 was 19,104.
Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar has accepted the
office of President of the newly formed Portsmouth centre
of the St. John Ambulance Association.
A Sydney paper says that Messrs. Nlacdennott
Brothers and Scarr report having sold 1,775 square miles of
country, northern territory of South Australia, near the
Queensland border, for £3,000.
Mr. Bradlaugh addressed two crowded meetings in
the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, on Sunday. At each votes
pledging him support in his present parliamentary struggle
were carried.
In London, last Saturday, a further serious increase
of small-pox was reported to the Metropolitan Asylums
Board, when it was stated that the Board had now sixteen
' hundred patients on its hands. The offer of the Admiralty
to lend the ship Atlas for the reception of patients was
, accepted, and it was resolved to bring it from Chatham and
moor it off Half-way Beach, below Deptford.

The Bishop of Norwich has received intelligence
that a fatal accident had befallen his son, the Rev. Herbert
Pelham, while travelling in Switzerland with his brother,
the Rev. Sydney Pelham. Mr. Herbert Pelham was curate
of St. Phillips, Heigham, Norwich.

A malignant horse disease which was first prevalent
in Chicago, has spread seriously in the States, hundreds of
horses being affected by it in Ohio and Wisconsin. The
affected animals are altogether unfitted for work by the je
disease, which is balling the skill of the veterinary sur-
geons.

Farewell, fourpenny-bit ! The Master of the Mint
remarking that no fourpenny-piece has been coined since
1856, 'say s that the coin continues to be withdrawn in con-
siderable quantities, and adds the sad words that they will
shortly cease to circplate.
The Emperor of Germany proceeds to the baths of
Ems about the middle of June. The length of his stay
there this summer is not yet decided. As the aged monarch
playfully remarked a few days ago, "lie does not yet know
what ' leave of absence' he can grant himself this year."
The American branch of the Universal Peace Union
has voted a letter to the Czar expressing regret at the death
of his father, and urging the adoption of the methods of
peace and freedom as his only real safeguard.
It is understood (says the Standard) that the Govern-
ment will not attempt to make any further progress with the 1k
Corrupt Practices Bil this session. " A
The patriotic American colony in Paris are pre-
paring to celebrate the Fourth of July by an entertainment
surpassing in magnificence anything of the kind ever seen
outside America. A superb château, some 250 years old,
with grounds capable of accommodating 6,000 expected
guests, at liaison, half an hour by rail from Paris, has
been granted for the occasion by the owner, a Russian noble-
man.

The unfortunate Tunis war has made the Parisians
perfectly mad upon Africa. Old pictures of Algerian battles
and the portraits of Arab chiefs crowd the shops. The
Kroumir has replaced the Turk, at whose battered features a (
persons used to shy as many sticks as they had sons to
wads. lit
It is stated that arrangements are being made to
remove the remains of William Penn from England to Penn-
sylvania.
At Chester, on Saturday evening, Sydney Adolphus
Humphrey, aged twelve, was killed by a tramcar. He was
crossing the Grosvenor-road as a tramcar was approaching,
and suddenly ran back immediately in front of a tramcar.
He was knocked down by the horses and the wheels passed
over his head, crushing it in a frightful manner. Death was
Instantaneous.
The Rev. Paxton Hood, pastor of the congregation
worshipping at Hulme Town Hall, Manchester, has resigned
his ministry, having decided to leave this country for
America.

An old woman named Robinson was burnt to
death at Huddersfield on Saturday morning. She went into
the cellar with a paraffin lamp, and Slipped on the steps
and, tunned herself. The lamp broke and set fire to her
cloth 3. Her screams, when she recovered consciousness
brought the neighbours, and the fire was put out, but she
died in a few minutes from the injuries.

In consequence of the number of persons bearing
foreign orders, especially those of Portugal, the Two
Sicilies, and Venezuela, who walk about the streets of Paris
with red ribands in their button-holes resembling the
Legion of Honour, the Government has decided that they
must not wear the ribbon without the cross attaZhed, which
will show what their decoration really is.—Paris Corre-
spondent of the Daily News.

In Chicago a largely-attended meeting of Jews has
been held, at which resolutions were adopted protesting
against the recent Jewish persecution in Russia. A sum of
! money was subscribed for the relief of the sufferers. In
' Montreal, at a meeting of the Jewish Society, resolution
were passed condemning the recent persecution of the Jews
in Russia.
The King of Burmah, it would seem, doesn't fully •
appreciate the utility of postal cards. Recently, when he
had occasion to drop a line to the Viceroy of India he '
enveloped his communication in two elephant tusks fitted.
.„
with a gold cover, costing about a thousand dollars.
Chinese interlopers are summarily dealt with in ti •
some of the rising mining settlements of Colorado. One of 4,
them recently set up a laundry in the new town of Gothic, ,
the American tells us, and immediately received warning -
to quit. As he took no notice he was "called upon by a
committee and hanged." It is further stated that " there
was no excitement over the affair."
A meeting of the committee to promote a national
memorial of Sir Francis Drake and the Armada has been
held at Plymouth. Reports were f eceived as answers to-a
request made to a number of gentlemen throughout the
country, and nine peers, including the Lord-Lieutenants of
Devon and Cornwall, as well as the Bishop of Exeter, were
stated to have intimated their willingness to become members
of the General Committee. A communication was received
from the Prince of Wales, who had been early applied to, to
, the effect that he could not at presept head the movement,
but that further application might be made to him when the
scheme is more fully developed and the first subscription
list is issued, when he would again consider the matter; and
probably become a subscriber. The memorial that is con-
templated will cost from £5,000 to £lO,OOO, and to carry it
out a national appeal will be made.
The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens,
Regent's Park, Loridon, dnringilast week included an African
cheetah, a secretary vulture from Africa, presented by Mr.
James S. Jameson; a plantain squirrel, from Java, a chipping
squirrel, from North America, presented by Mr. W. Bassano
a Ceylonese hawk-eagle, from Ceylon, presented by Mr. G.
Lyon Bennett; a loggerhead turtle, from the Atlantic Ocean,
presented by the Earl Brownlow ; three bull frogs, a noisy ,
frog, from Nova Scotia, presented by Mr. Hugo Muller; two
green lizards, jaropean, received in exchange; a crested
guinea fowl, a Jill-nosed crocodile, from West Africa, on
approval; six speckled terrapins, two painted terrapins, 34,1 T.
from North America, purchased; an eland, an axis deer, lx)rra
in the Gardens; three spotted-billed ducks, .bred in the 11,' .1
Gardens.
A letter was read on Tuesday from the colonel and•-itos
officers of the 3rd Buffs at the Court of Aldermen of the t•ae «eel
City of London, calling the attention of the Corporation to
the change which was proposed in the army reorganization
scheme to be made in their uniform, and the removal of
certain privileges, particularly that of marching through
the City with drums beating, bayonets fixed, and colours
flying. They asked that the Corporation would intercede
with the War Office authorities on their behalf, so that they
might be permitted to retain their present uniforms. with
buff facings, as worn originally by the Train Bands of the
City. It was decided to refer the letter to the Privileges
Committee for consideration.

The Duke of Westminster has decided to reduce
the rents on the whole of the meadow land on the Eaton
Estate, in Cheshire and Flintshire, by 10s. an acre, in conse-
quence of floods and agricultural depression. The tenantry
have been also further informed that the reduction will be
retrospective to January, IgBo, so that it will cover the three
past half-years' rentals. The Duke's meadow land is now
rented at only £1 an acre. The tenantry are deeply grateful a
for the remission. 1 V
T
Prince Bismarck's large hat seems to have found %I U'
special favour in the eyes of the Prince of Wales, who not „
only strenuously insisted upon having a felt hat just like it, ft
but gave an order to that effect to his body servant (says mO
the Court Journal), After many unsuccessful enquiries, the r
inventor and patentee was finally discovered in the person . ta..;
of C. Bortfeldt in Bremen, and lengthy negotiations were
carried on in order to determine the same to forego the
privilege of stamping the lining of the hat with his name
and that of the place of its production. Mr. Bortfeldt refused '
both, but finally acceded to the compromise of insertimr the 'fi sA4
names under the silk lining, the reason assigned on the Eng- Is rs.
lish side being that it was against all usages having an Eng- . !it
lish Prince wear anything that had not been made in England,.
"as

The annual meeting of the Birmingham Liberal
Association (the Eight Hundred) was held on Tuesday night
at the Town Hail, when it was mo ,ed and carried " That w
believing it is unjust and unwise to limit the free choice of
constituencies by the imposition of any 'religious test upon. .
the admission of their representatives to the House of Com-
mons, this association is of opinion that a declaration ot
allegiance should be substituted for the 'oath now in use, 4141
but that, recognising the difficulty of legislation during the
present session, the Association approves of the practical A,
measure of relief proposed by the Bill intiAbduced by the .
Government, and urges the Liberal members of the House of.
Commons to give it their support."