The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-06-22 00:00:00

VisteHumus .ittelligcnre,

HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL,

ACCIDENT IN S WITZ D. —Mr. H. S.
Oakeley, Prof. Moe., Univ., Edinburgh, writes, from
the Grand Hotel, St. Nicolas, Zermatt Valley, Swit-
zerland, June 12, the following to The Times :
Travellers should, I think, be warned in the present state
of the roads here against taking a carriage from Zermatt to
this place. A frightful accident occurred yesterday, when a
small carriage, containing three nelsons, was precipitated
tido a rocky torrent As one of those unfortunate persons—
I might altunat say fortunate, in a mu rciful preservation from
death-1 venture to dictate these few lines to you while
1)1,4; helpless here with an 'inset Proken leg and other

A YEAR'S WlLLS—Official returns recently
issued show that in the financial year 187071, 35,990
probates of wills, letters of administration, and tehta-
mentary inventories were stamped, the personal prorn
perty of the deceased exceeding £l.OO. The number is
below the recent average ; but the gross amount of
stamp duty charged on these instruments—viz.,
£1,989,318, has never been equalled. Except in the
year 1669 70 the amount was always below £1,800,000.
TAKING ANGIE 14.1 t VIEW OF Iv —lt seems
that English agriculturists have not yet learned the
danger involved in the destruction of mall birds. A
writer in the Chanter of Agriculture Journal says :
..•• • " '

"The Legislature, having been called upon to protect wild
fowPfrom annoyance on the part of inconsiderate or cruel
persons, it appealed to by the lion. Auberon Herbert for
enactments against bird-nesting, sparrow dumplings, and
the shooting Sr netting of birds in general (especially rooks
miii woodpigeous) which are so beneficial to the husband-
man, if that poor benighted individual only had sense enough
to perceive it. Well, puss what laws you please, we shall tin
our utmost to keep slimy Lathered and other pests all tie
same, and even continue to grieve the sensitive souls of the
poets by popping off skylarks in spite of their heavenly
melody when there are too many of them. But we sh,tll not
stand any visits of policemen, v appear hetes° magistrates,
or pay fines, when our children follow out the natural rustic
instinct of studying nidology in hedge-rose classes, and of
making lovely little collections of oval gems white, lull, blue,
streaked, spotted, speckled, from the fairy egg of the urea to
the more ponderous beauties of the owl or the gull."

PRONUNCIATION OF AMERICAN NAMES. —Con
necticut is almost universally called Conneticut.
Michigan in celled Mish e-gan, with the accent on the
fir 4 syllable. The people .4 Tenne,see call their State
Ten-nes-see • ebewhere it is generally called Ten nes-
see ; the Abinigines call it Ten-ocs-see, as all Indian
barues of three syllables have the acco.t on the middle
ayllable. Illinois is called Illubnoy or Illahnoir, usually
the that. Maryland is called Mer-ruh lund, accented
on the first syllable. The people of Mitwouri call their
State At'z zoo ruh ; elsewhere it is usually galled Miz-
zoo-me. Cineinatti in called Sin sin nalotuh. Annapolis
was fermerlycalled Annopolis. Terry Haute in Indiana,
founded by the French, is commonly called Terry-Hot.
RELIGIOUS ORDEus IN GERMANY.—According
to statistics that have been collected and printed in

the official organ, the North thrown Gazette: there are
in Prussia 97 religions orders of men and congregations,
containing in all 1,069 members. Of these there are 11
convents ,4 the Jesuits, with 160 members, and 5 con-
vents of Redemptorists," with 69. In Bavaria there
are 71 convents, compored of 1,045 members, and in the
Grand Duchy of Hesse Darmstadt four, with 20. The
entire number of female orders and associations in
Prussia is 626 establishments, with 5.586 rtligiettaes, or
about 1.8410 above the number in 1865. Bavaria has
188 r stablishments, with 2,533 members. The convents
of males are mainly under the control of superiors of
Italian nationality, though there are a number with
French superiors.
A FASHIONABLE LADY'S FULL DRESS.—Much
the reverse.—Punch.
THE GIRL OF THE PERIOD AT THE _ . .

a --- -
friend of ours gives us (Court Journal) this vivid des-
cription of the manner in which a girl of the period
makes ready to ilay, and plays her grant piano:—" It
was a young woman, with as many white muslin
(lances round her as the planet Saturn has rings.
She gave the music stool a twirl or two, and fluffed
in to it like a whirl of soap ends in a hand-bask.
Then she pushed up her cuffs as if she was going
to fight for the chauipients' belt. Then she worked
her wrists and hands to limber 'em, I suppose,
and spread out her fingers till they looked as
though they would pretty much cover the key.
board, from the growling end to the little squeaky
one. Then those hands of hers made a jump at the
keys as if they were a couple of tigers coming down a
flock of black and white sheep, and the pMno gave a
great howl as if its tail had been trod on. -Dead stop—
so still you could hear y our hair growing. Then another
jump, and another howl, as if the piano had two tails
and you trod on both f 'ern at once, and a clatter and
scramble and string of jumps, up and down, back and
forward, one hand over the other, like a stampede of
rats and mice more than like anything I call music."
FINE WRITING.- MT. Wordsworth wrote
some time ago, in a description of London at sunrise,
that "even the very houses seem asleep;" bnt it was
reserved to an Irish p ,et to improve upon this figure,
and to invent houses which are able to "stand aghast."
The same master of his art speaks also of a " sworded
lightning blast." This beats the 'greased lightning"
of the Yankees, hat there is nothing surprising in it.
The poet whose exuberant fancy enables him to read
sorrow and consternation in the appearance of a brick
house cannot be denied the privilege of witnessing
and describing a "lightning blast" which is also
" sworded."
A SWISS MEEDER.-17nder the head of
Eriburg, the Swiss Times says that an atrocions crime,
calculated ti renew the alarm felt in 1870, when
Surchat was the victim, has happened in this district.
The scene of action was the gains as in the former mur-
der. An oil servant, originally from Porsel, was slain
by a blow from a }dudgeon last Sunday morning during
divine service. The family were out attending mass,
and on their return from the church to their house,
they found the unfortunate domestic lying on the
hearth-rug, stone dead, with a halvenly smile on her
countenance and a fractured skull. The murderer
broke ~pen a chest of drawers, but failed in his search
after something ot value.
FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.—An inquest has
been held at Esher, on the body of Major Oldfield, late
of her Majesty's 15th Foot. The evidence showed
that last Saturday night deceased took a ticket at the
Esher Railway Station for the last train to Waterloo,
and crossed the line to the up side. Soon after this
he was seen by a signalman at the lower end of the
platform, but off it, and walking as if intending to re-
cross the line, when a fa.t train from Aldershot,
travelling at the rate of thirty miles an hour, caught
him, and dragged him nearly thirty yards. mangling
his body fearfully. Death was instantaneous. The
jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death."
SUPERANNUATION AND COMPENSATION AN-
NrITIES.—The annual return relating to the public
offices or departments shows that in the year 1871 com-
pensation allowances amounting to £76.051a year were
granted, and allowances amounting to £42,446 ceased;
leaving the annual amount payable, £471,488. Super-
annuation allowances amounting to £54.400 ayear were
granted, and allowances amounting to £16.745 ceased;
leaving the annual amount payable £634,192. In ad
(Rion, annuities amounting to £27,095 are to be paid
for 10 years to the National Debt Commissioners, hire-
payment of advances made by them for commutation of
retiring allowances. Compensation allowances granted
in the year 1871 on reorganization and abolition of offices
amounted to £16.641 in the War I ,ffice and military
departments; £21.505 in the Customs; £8.751 in the
Registers of Sasines the joint keepersfor Renfrew re.
ceiviug annuities of 1:1,101 and £,886 respectively ;
0.1,706 in Cmart of Bankruptcy, including four an-
entities ranging from £l,OOO to £1.500. The stir ssrannua-
don annuities granted in the year were cenerally of very
moderate amount, but in each of the following departs
:Lents a grant exceeding £l,OOO a year was made—viz.,
the Treasury, the Colanial Office, the Inland Revenue
Department, the Paymaster-General's Office. Consuls,
House of Common's Offices (two), and diplomatic
pensions. Annuities to members of the household of
the late Ring of the Belgians and the Princess
Charlotte are still payable, the amount being about
£l,OOO a year.

131 re
.ta.
ereciltirinigl,DsMayGs Te
eChlitcglacA 'MeiirL Far*e'
1
o e e, aitst tau
street, a large stable, 89 by 100 fret, three etories and
basement, the walls of which, two feet thick from
uglill
bettom to tup, are coniossed o concrete. the ehtuents
of which are one part Louisville cement, and three
parts sand, ashes, and the finer particles el burnt dis-
trict debris. The stuff is mixed somewhat thinner
than mortar, and is poured into the pine board moulds
which shape the walls, and at the came time broken
brick and stone from the ruins are embedded as thick
ae may be in the concrete, which sets firmly in 48 hours,
and in a few days hardens to the firnanes of grauite.
It is then to be coated over with Portland cement,
of which, also, the trimmings are composed, the sauface
being so cut and pointed as to be almost indistinguish-
able from a handsome dark grey sandstone or tlegaut
finish. The cost of such a wall, while being far pre-
ferable to brick or stone for its fireproof qualities, is
not more than one half of those materials, inasmuch
as the debris costs nothing but the handling and sort-
ing, while no skilled labour is required in the construc-
tion. Common labourers are perfectly competent to do
the work under proper supervision.
I: FREEDOM IN RELIOIOUS I NOT:TRY. —On Mon-
day evening Dr. Fraser, the Bishop of Manchester,
preached at Trinity Church, Conduitstieet, Bond-
street. Referring to the right to free inquiry in re-
ligious matters, he mid that the Church of Rome,
acting on whet appeared to be a natural tendency in
all dominant Churches, had tried to itnigme a new law
on men's minds, which had been a sigual failure. Men
would not be excommunicated, or anathematized, or
dragooned, or tortured into thinking what they did not
think, or saying what they did not believe. In countries
where this Church was supreme there was said to be al-
most universally a festering ulcer of unbelief under a
thin skiu of artilicial faith. The Church must ulti-
mately rest her credentials on what [she can do for
man. That system tif doctrine arid discipline which mu
the widest sense of the word believed in God and be-
lieved also in man; which did not claim to speak with
mere authority, but condescended to give reasons to
those who asked for them; which was favourable to
reverent inquity, and did not condemn the efforts of
the human mind enlarge the domain of truth. That
would be the system that would be most widely and
readily recognised as the Church of the age that was
coming, as it had really been the Church of the ages
that had gone by.
CURIOITS HALLITCINATION.—AIBaCO is the
theatre of a curious kind of epidemic. For some mouths
past, thousands of persons imagine they see all sorts of
figures on the house windows, commencing with those
inhabited by public functionaries. These are chiefly
religious or warlike—madonnae, zouaves, Turcos,
cannons, cnirasses, &c., are the objects most frequently
seen, and it appears to be an occupation in most of the
villages to watch the panes of glass for hours together.
The work of the field suffers, and each day anew village
is favoured with a new apparition. This epidemic took
its rise at Haetadt in the Grand Duchy of Baden.
Creases, swords, and death's heads acre there seen on
the windows. Its first appearance in France was in
the arrondissement of Wissembourg, since which it has
spread even to Strasbourg.
VARIATION ON ROCHEFOUCAULD.— -There is
something singularly delightful to us in the growing
infirmities of our oldest friends, notwithstanding that
their age may be the same as our own. —Pug ch.
TRADES' UNIONS.—Mr. Mundella's Bill, now
before Parliament, for amending the provisions of the
Act ef holt Seseion, which altered the criminal law
relating to violence, threats, and molestation, repeals
the first section ..f that Act and substitutes a new sec-
tion. The real difference between the two lies in the
definition of the sets which are to constitute molesting
or obstructing a person. In the Act of last Session
they are--(1) persistently following such person about
from place to place ; (2) hiding any muds, clothes, or
other property owned or used by such person, or depriv-
ing him of, or hindering him in the use thereof ; (3)
watching or besetting the house or other place where
such person resides or winks, or carries on business, or
happens to be, or the approach to such house or place,
or, with two or mire or other persons, following such
person in a disotderly manner in or through any street
or road. The present bill proposes to define the off once
as being " molesting or obstructing any other person
(a) by persistently following him about from place to
place; or (b) by following him in or through any street
or road with two or more persons in a disorderly
manner ; or (et) by hiding or depriving him of, or
hindering him in the use of any tools clothes, or pro-
perty, owned or used by him." The other parts of
the clause are unaltered. The offences of using vio-
lence to person or property, or threatening or intimidat-
ing a person in such manner as would justify a binding
over to keep the peace are left untouched ; and so is
the definition of the required intent of the acts pro-
hibited.
CONSUMPTION OF TEA.—A Custom-house re-
turn has been issued which shows the enormous in-
crease in the consumption f tea in the United Kingdem.
In 1811 it averaged 11b. 4oz. per head, and the average
price was 6s. Bd. per pound ; in 1821 the price was
about Is. less, and in le3l there had been a further fall
of is 23. ; hlt the consumption per head was sub-
stantially the same as in 1811. In 1841 the price was
2d. lower than 1831, and had fallen to 4s. 313., and
the consumption tier head in the year had advanced to
noz. In 1851 the average price had fallen to
4 ' 1.1. and the consumption had increased to 11b. 15oz.
In 1861 the price had fallen to 2s. 10d., and the con-
sumption had risen to 21b. lloz. per hi-ad. In 1871 the
average price had fallen to Is. 100., and the year's
consumption had risen to Ills. 15oz. per head, the
total quantity entered for consumption exceeding
123,000,00016. The average rate of duty on tea, paid
by the consumer, was is. 21e1. per lb. in 1801, Is. 4,1. in
1811,2 w 9.t-1. in 1821, 2s. 21.1. m 1831, 2s. in 1841,
the same in 1851, is. sd. in 1861, and 6.1. in 1871.
THE CRIMINAL LAW AMENDMENT Acr.—On
Friday in lest wcelc, the Master Engineers of the
United Kingdom waited upon Mr. Bruce, at the Home
Office' to urge reasons why the Criminal Law Amend-
ment Act, 1871, should not be amended as proposed by
Mr. Vernon Harcourt, who desires to leave out the
picketing clause. Sir Thomas Bazely, M.P., in intro-
ducing the deputation, said it consisted of all the
chief mater engineers in the United Kingdom, who
employed 120,0181 men. They desired that the penalty
for threats, molestations, and obstructions in thebill of
lset year should be continued. It had only been in
existence ten neniths' and no inconvenience had arisen
from its operation. Other gentlemen, including Mr.
E. Potter. M.P., and Mr. Joshua Fielden, having
spoken, Mr. Bruce, in reply, said he agreed with the
deputation that there was not sufficient experience of
the ss ct to call fir any change, and he was in favour of
its remaining as at present.
AROUND THE WORLD !—A Boston capitalist
was visited by a Yankee scheolmasster whose head was
bursting with a great idea. It was this :he proposed
to buil,l, somewhere near Boston, two Maumee hemis-
pheres, each about an acre in extent, upon whose con-
vex surface should be represented, in relief or depres-
sion, the seas, islands, continents, rivers, mountaints,
valleys, kingdoms, empires, republics, cities, towns and
villages of the world, each in accurate proportion to
the size of the hemispheree. It was to be the womb! in
miniature. The material was to correspond with the
geologic formatatin of each country—granite to be re-
presented by granite, chalk by chalk, sandstone by
sandstone. The ocean and rivers were to be real water;
chemical appliances were to be called into requisition
to supply volcanic eruptions, and whitewash was to be
used ass substitute for snow at the poles and above the
snow-line on mountain ranges. Thin was not intended,
as one might suppose, for educational purposes, but to
enable persons desirous of seeing and enjoying foreign
countries to do so without the trouble and expense of tee
journey. -The idea was considered too practical,
and only abandoned from that cause.
Btoon RELATIONSHIP.—The other evening
Mr. F. Gallon real a paper before the Royal Society,
on the question whether it be impossible to define the
connexion between relatives in a way that should do
justice to the latent elements, which every creature in-
herits and may bequeath, but which give no sign of
i their existence n its own person. He argued that this
difficulty may be wholly avoided by the 'simple ex-
pedient of tracing the intervals of descent from the
very origin of life in each generation, and not from one
adult person to another. There are three well-defined
stages in each of these intervals —namely, the ovum, in
which all the elements are confounded and no structure
exists, the embryo and the adult, in both of Wilich they
are imparted into personal and latent. The anther de-
scribed in detail the character of the processes by
which each stage in either f the lines was derived
from its predecessor. By protrasting these stages into
a genealogical diagram the true relation of a man to
either of his paa mita becomes clear. It has a two-fold
character, one part pas.sing by the latent and the other
by the personal line. The former is, according to Mr.
Gallon, much the more important, but it is only col-
lateral, because it will be found to descend through
five steps to the parental ovum, and thence to descend
through three other steps to the paiental person. The
personal line, though of minor importance, is nearer
and quite direct ; it deseend.s through three steps.
Brothers ami sisters are more closely connected ; their
descent passes through only three parallel steps,
though it is derived from no less than four variable
sources—namely, the latent and personal coutributions
of either parent.
REMEMBRANCES OF CHARLES LEVER. The
following is an extract from a private letter, dated
Trieste, June 4 :
s You will of course, hove known by this time, that
'Charles Lever 'is now sums of the past. Re died quietly,
and withont a struggle. in his Alm% en Saturday last, be-
tan n twelve an two p tn. When I saw his remains, a
little bet-re five, he was lying a Ith his coat and waistcoat
oft on his light side, with his head resting on his right
hand. But for the perent stillness and the grey look
upon his face, he might have been sler ping only. The
heart's action simply died out. Poor fellow ! it was the
death he wished for, as lie greatly dreaded a long and
painful snuggle w e laid his remains beside those of his
Silo, last evening. at a little after six. lier death broke his
heart. From the time sLe oicd his recent illness dated, and
he has not rsmuined long behind her. I neyer met a man
who attached to h unielf those who were at en Intimate with
him sake did. I knew him hut for a short period, and 't
really loved him. He had an immense funeral. lie lett his
alLirs thoroughly arranged • the very money for the ex-
penses of his interment Was found in au envelope with these
words, 'Thin molest slim I wish expended same funerel.'"
FANCY HARDWARE !—There recently pessed
through the Sew York Custom house several cases eon-
taming a large variety of "brass knualsles," billies,"
and "siting shots," which came from Belgium, con-
signed o e prominent fun dealing in fancy hardware
(says a Philadelphia paper), These goo .ds arrived with-
out any invoice. hnd were sent to a general order ware-
house, where they remained for some time. The cases
when sent to the appraiser's depertment for examinee
Mon and an estimate of the dutiea excited great sur-
prise among the Custom-house officers, none of whom
had ever known a similar lot of ertieles to have
been imported. The chief appraiser examines' the
matter thoroughly, and came to the conclusion that
the gooos must be permitted to pass the Custom-
house, notwithstanding the existence of a law of
the State of New Ye-k forbithling the sale of "deadly
weamus," and notwithstanding the existence of an
ordinance in the City of New 'York authorizing the
Reizure of ouch articles. The New Yolk statute
specifically mention* the particular Lind, of weapons
recently imported from Belgium. The "brass
knuckles," as a "manufacture of iron," paid a duty of
30 per cent., and the " billies" and "slung shots,"
being elapsed as "manufactures of weed, hot], and
leather,' paid the same rate. The importers say that
the gOO,IFI were sent AA " Eample,," and hal baen cogs
signed to them withont any preVio;B 'Order.