The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-06-30 00:00:00

OOMMENTSON CURRS2TT NNW&

AN investigation of the reputation of a
professional rider of racehorses has for -1
fortnight past monopolised all the raachin4ry
of the High Court of Justice, engaged the
attextion of the most eminent men of the
Bar, occupied an extraordinary propor-
tion of the space of many of the newspapers,
and had an all-round investiture of import-
ance far beyond the merits of the natter
specifically at issue. Into that parti .ular
matter—the integrity or otherwise of the
jockey Wood—we have no desire here to
inquire further than Lord Chief Justice
Coleridge and aspecial jury have been doing;
but we cannot avoid making the general
deduction frora the proceedings that therein
the "turf" has been on its trial, and has,
reviewing the aggregated testimony of re-
presentative persons of every variety of
social stations, come out of the ordeal any-
thing but well. We have had it demon-
strated that there is so dense and tortuous a
stratum of knavery, corruption, and chicane
in the formation of the entire horse-racing
system of to-day, that we are compelled to
conclude that no one can participate therein
withont being in some measure either an
aider and abettor or a victim of very dis-
honourable practices. This is a sweeping
and unpleasant comment to have to make
respecting a sport which posseses an undeni,
able attraction for so many people, but we
fear that incontrovertable evidence leaves no
room for arriving at a more satisfactory
verdict. One of the wisest of mortals as-
serted that he who touched pitch should bo
defiled therewilh. The time-worn proverb
might have apposite and obvious application
to the turf.

TE[E young head of the House of Hohen-
zollern has declared himself, in the Parlia-
ment of his people, to be an apostle of peace.
It will be well for the great Empire which
-William 11. has been called to rule, and well
for Europe, if the years to come see the ful-
filment "with German fidelity" of the lofty
sentiments felicitously spoken by the n3w
Kaiser on Monday so a brilliant and repre-
sentative assembage of Teutonic might. On
the throne's threshold the third Emperor of
modern Germany gives fair promise of the
possession of those rare qualifications for
sovereignty which so distinguished his
glorious arandsire and the loved and la-
mented father whom he has so lately lost.
May he be gifted with an ample endowment
of the wisdotn, depth of principle, and stern
fixity of purpose requisite to enable him to
render a good account of the splendid herit-
age and the heavy maponsibility which have
f3llen to him.

The farmers tell us that they have had
enough wet now in almost every neighbour-
hood for the requirement of the crops, and
for once they are in agreement with the
rest of mankid in hoping for a settled spell
of sunshiny weather, This week heavy
storms of rain and thunder have passed
over many parts of our isles, in some cases
working considerable havoc. We trust that
these violent disturbances will have the
effect of clearing the way for a lengthened
season of genial warmth, of bright blue skies
and unbroken summer, which will be all the
more welcome after the bleak and fitful
spring we have this year experienced.

Of the many sad episodes in the stirring
story of the sea few are more pathetic than
that which Captain Winchester, of the Cape
mail steamer Drummond Castle, had to tell
on landing at Plymouth this week. He was,
four weuk9 ago, the helpless witness of a
disabled ship's hopeless straggle with the
wind-lashed waves. He saw and spoke the
distressed vessel, watched in agonising im-
potence her captain's frantic signals of dis-
tress, heard the heartrending cries of the
doomed souls on board, supposed to be either
emigrants or coolies, and then had to atand
back before th 3 fury of the tereifio hurricane
until the stronger ship sank in the darkness,
to rise no more. At day-break no sign re-
mained of the awful catastrophe which those
on the Drummond Castle were powerless to
in any way alleviate ; and now all that those
who were on the homeward bound steam-
ship can tell is a terrible tale of a vivid night
vision of a sailing vessel, heavily heeling to
port before a howling storm, her mainmast
gone, her mizenmast a mere stump and her
foremast standing with tattered and useless
sails. Tw(i sailorswere tied to the helm;
the panic-stricken crew and passengers ap-
peared to be battened under hatohes, their
wail of despair rose above the roaring
tempest ; rockets, tar-barrels, and blue lights
were burnt in vain; every boat had been
swallowed in the seething foam. Next
morning those in the L'Agulhas lighthouse
.could discern no evidence of the tragedy
which had taken place within the range of
sight; and if the record of the wreck is ever
completed, it will be from information sub-
sequently gathered of a ship that sailed and
never reached her desired haven, but which
was likely to have been in the Southern
Ocean on that fearful first Sunday night in
June of which Captain Winchester and his
watch have given such a moving narrative.