The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-09-18 00:00:00

Cur Fonbon Cartspinbent.

[We deem it rfght to stke that we do not si all time
identify ourselves wilt our Corresponclmt'a opiutone.]

In the three months of July, August, and
September, during which most of us who can get
a holiday manage to take it, those citizens who
hold the appointment of overseers of the poor
have their busiest time. It is not that pauperism
is more preval•mt during that period, for, in
point of fact, it is less so in the summer than in
the winter months; but that the preparation and
revision of the lists of voters, Parliamentary and
municipal, and of those qualified to serve on
juries are then the chief occupation of the over-
seers. It is a somewhat thankless task, for many
who would seriously complain if by accident they
were left off the list of voters, just as seriously
complain when by right they are put on that of
jurors. For it cannot be denied that, in our
large towns, at least, service on juries is not
popular among business men. It is a serious
matter, for instance, to a London tradesman to
be called away from his shop to th 3 Old Bailey.
there to be occupied for a week in a criminal
trial; and it is notorious that many attempts
at evading the duty are made. Some men
have their houses rated in the names of their
wives, so that they may not be placed on the
jury list; and others habitually neglect to ap?ear
to the summons if issued upon them. Occa-
sionally, however, these latter are bitten, for a
judge, chairman of magistrates, or coroner will
take it into his head to fine every absent juror,
and the payment of such a fine is far from a
pleasant process.

Despite the lower dividends of recent years,
our railway system continues to extend; and
the latest report on the results of its working
tells the same tale as every year has told for a
long period. It is true that the increase for
185 was of somewhat -smaller amount than for
the previous two or three years, but as the increase
was one of fourteen millions sterling it can
by no means be considered a light one. The
sum invested in our various railway concerns
is immense almost beyond cenception, for
it touches £815,00j,000, or about i:50,000,000
more than the National Debt. Upon this
enormous capital the net earnings last year were
slightly over four per cent., these having gradually
decreased for several years. But, when the lone-
continued depression in trade is considered, such
a result is not to be wondered at; rather is it
reason for satisfaction that the decrease has not
been more marked. The present hope of a trade
revival, if it prove well-founded, will bring about
an increase in the net earnings of the railway
companies' and it is almost impossible to esti-
mate into how many homes this will bring added
comfort and satisfaction. People sometimes talk
as if all who invest in railway shares were large
capitalists, when, as a fact, the number includes
a very substantial proportion who are in medium
circumstances or who hold the shares in
trust for the widow and the fatherless. It is to
such as these that an extra quarter or half per
cent. means a distinct addition to the income,
and, if only for their sake, one would wish to see
a large increase of prosperity to our railway com-
panies.
One of the ideas which was distinctly fixed in
the popular English mind not so very long ago
was that the "flat system," as applied to
dwelling-houses, would never succeed in this
country. The fact that it was extensively in
use in Scotland was held to prove nothing; what
might please the Scotch, it was argued, might be
seriously displeasing to the English, and the
prospect of ever seeing " flats " in London, for
instance, was dismissed with a wave of the hand
as something altogether unlikely. But some
figures which have just been published show that
the flat system is distinctly making headway in
the metropolis. The huge blocks of workmen's
dwellings scattered over London are all built on
this principle; and how much this means
may be gathered from the fact that
over 220 of such blocks, accommodating
more than ,2,030 tenants, have been erected
upon ground acquired and cleared by the Metro-
politan Board of Works alone. In addition there
are several public companies formed for the pur-
pose of building similar dwellings, and one of these
has on its own account provided 5000 distinct
homes. It was at first objected—though princi-
pally by those who were not likely to live in
them—that the houses had too much the ap-
pearance of barracks; but this has not proved
repellent to those for whom they were intended,
for it is a rare thing to find a single set of rooms
untenanted.
It is not only, however, in the working-class
districts that the flat system is becoming in-
creasingly popular; in middle-class quarters more
specimens are to be found than ever before, while
in the aristocratic sections the love for flats is
becoming almost a rage. In Bloomsbury,
Bayswater, Notting - hill, some parts of
Kensington, and the regions around, Oxford-
street there are many flats at rents of
from £55 to £lBO per annum, these sums
including rates, taxes, and water. The
price varies, of course, not only according
to the number and size of rooms, but also ac-
cording to situation. Flats in Piccadilly or close
to Grosvenor-square command much higher
rents than those near the British Museum: and
while in Bloomsbury flats of six rooms can be
hired at from £ll5 to £lBO per annum, the
saina number of rooms in Mount-street,
Crosvenor-square, would bring in from £5OO to
4-'6OO if on the ground floor, and £350 if on the
third floor. The significance of all these facts
lies, however, in the proof that the flat system is
extending. It does not accord with the old
English notion that "every man's house is his
castle," and that the possession of the key of the
front door is the outward and visible sign of
having a home of one's own. But there are ad-
vantages in the new system as in the old, and
the doctrine of the survival of the fittest may be
trusted to make the better flourish in the end.
Despite the many difficulties with which it has
had to contend—difficulties which have been
financial almos, as often as they have been
scientific—the electric light continues to make
headway in extension to public buildings. The
authorities at St. Martin's-le-Grand have decided
to illuminate the Central Telegraph Office by its
means, and the busiest departments are, as is
only fitting, to be made the centre of the experi-
ments. At the British Museum, also, there has
been an extension of the system; and, in addi-
tion to the R ading-room, which, to the great
advantage of students, has been lighted in this
fashion for the four last winters, the " news-
paper-room " has this year been similarly
illuminated. In process of time there is little
doubt that the whole of the museum will be
made available to the public by this means. At
present, owing to the absence of artificial light,
this great and most interesting institution has to
be closed to thepublic at dusk; and consequently
in the winter it is to all intents inaccessible to
the bulk of the popelation to whom the evening
is the only slack time. The gradual extension of
the electric light gives promise that this will be
remedied at no distant date.
Consideration of one kind of artificial light
leads almost naturally to consideration 'f
another, another, though from electricity to paraffin is
certainly a long stride. But just as the electric
light is especially the property of large institu-
tions so is the paraffin lamp the necessity of
smalihomes. So great are the comfort and con-
venience the latter confers, that it is much to he
regretted that we so often hear of severe acci-
dents through its means. Captain Shaw, chief of
the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, tells in his anneal
report of a very large number of severe fires which
have been caused by its explosion or by its being
dropped; and though, while nothing can pre-
vent people from being as careless as to do the
latter, a word of warning may do something to
save others from being injured by the former.
An unusually sad instance of the effects of such
an explosion occurred only a few days since at
Bournemouth. It appears that a young woman,
who has seven children, was trying to extinguish
a paraffin lamp by blowing down the chimney,
when it burst, and her arms were so shockingly
injnred that both have had to be amputated. A
more severe warning against blowing down the
chimney in order to put out a lamp could not be
given; but many will ask how otherwise the
flame could be extinguished. The answer is,
that if the flame be turned down to a flicker,
and that then the breath is blown across
the top of the chimney, an explosion cannot take
place; and the adoption of such a simple process
would prevent a multitude of fires.
The cyclists have won another victory, and
have secured that, with regard to Richmond-park,
the same rules shall be put into operation as
those already in force in the Regent's, Victoria,
and Battersea-parks. These are that they may
enter the Rai* subject to four conditions, the
first of these being that they shall ride only on
the roads; the second that no meets or assemblies
of cyclists shall be held in the park; the third,
that racing shall on no account take place; and
the fourth, that the pace shall never exceed eight
miles an hour. These are all reasonable regula-
tions, to which ta sober-minded devotee of the

wheel islikely to take exce-n-t-i-on, and the fact that,
- after long strnzzling, - the cyclists should
have secured the;r adoption in Richmond-
Dark is one more testimony to

the 1 ' "

continued vitality of the spa. Cyclhig has, in
fact, passed out of the region of merely fashion-
able pastimes, and has become a recognised in-
stitution. Its popularity may fluctuate, but it
is never likely to he wholly lost, for, in addition
to supplying a healthy form. of exercise, it
enables thousands of young men to broaden their
minds by travel in a way which, if bicycles and
tricycles did not exist, they would never be able
to accomplish. Every fresh concession to it,
therefore, is worth noting as an additional testi
mony to the worth of the pursuit. A. F. R.