The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-01-09 00:00:00

Disretlanams

HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.
GRAPES AT CHRISTMAS. —There is much labour
bestowed on the growth of grapes in middle-class
gardens, and the result is, generally speaking, a fair
supply of good fruit at a time of year when first-rate
grapes are a drug in the market, and fetch only a
shilling or so per pounkl, the Continental supply being,
at its height when there is nobody in London or any-
where else to run up the price. A. very slight change
of tactics would alter the case advantageously. Instead
of starting the vines early by, the aid of costly fuel, it
would be better to start them late and use a little fire-
heat to ripen them perfectly, and then let them hang
and " grow into money." In August and September
it is cheaper to eat purchased than home-grown grapes,
but now the case is different, for grapes are worth
money, and yet any one with a small vinery and
commonplace skill in grape-growing might have first-
class grapes at Christmas, costing no more than in the
season of glut, when the Continental growers pour
grapes into our markets at about the price or plums.—
Gardener's Magazine.
LIFEBOAT SERVICES. —The lifeboats of the
National Lifeboat Institution have during the past
year saved 543 lives, in addition to 15 vessels saved
from destruction. In the same period the Lifeboat
Institution granted rewards for savilig 170 lives by
fishing and other boats, making a grand total of 713
lives saved last year mainly through its instrumen-
tality. Altogether since its formation the society has
contributed to the saving of 22,866 shipwrecked per-
sons, for which service it has granted 947 gold and
silver medals, besides pecuniary rewards to the
amount of £43,600. It is gratifying to know that,
notwithstanding the peril and exposure incurred by
the gallant crews, no lives have been lost from the
lifeboats during the year while engaged in their
perilous mission.

AN ANONYMOUS BENEFACTOR. —The Til7lC3 of
Monday says : •
"A partially inaccurate account of the benefactions of the
late Mr. Benjamin Attwood, of Cheshunt, to hospitals and
other charitable bodies in London havirig been made public,
his administrators and relations, though they did not, any
more than himself, desire to make his life and character
seem matters of concern to any beyond his private circle,
yet think that it may be as well that the notice may be
rendered more correct. his own private fortune, augmented
by that of the late Matthias Wolverley Attwood, M. P., which
had been bequeathed to him by will some years ago, was to
a large amount distributed by himself in his own lifetime,
partly by entirely anonymous benefactions to the extent of
upwards of £375,000 to the institutions above referred to,
and partly as gifts to a nearly similar amount to numerous
more or less distant relations by blood or otherwise, leaving
a still very large property to be distributed, in the absence
of a will, among those by law entitled to it.
THE Niw' Pond aNfays worth
careful examination, discloses to us that flounces
plaited a coup de rent" are now in vogue. "Clouds
have long ceased to be a novelty; but now we may be
on the look-out for ladies in "hurricanes," with
gentlemen in pilot-coats in close attendance.—Punch.
"BOSTON PAST AND PRESENT."—The account
of new American books in Low's Monthly Bulletin
states that one of the literary curiosities of the present
season is a ponderous mormcco-hound folio, entitled
"Boston Past and Present," being an outline of the
history of the city as exhibited in the lives of its pro-
minent citizens. Copies are offered to the public at
the modest price of .£25 each. Boston can boast of a
public library with above a quarter of a million of
volumes. The trustees report the use in the past year
of above half a million volumes, while the consulting
hall was visited by 72,313 visitors; as yet it is thought
the Sunday service has not proved a remarkable suc-
cess, but the trustees have no intention to discontinue
it, sufficient use having been made of it by those who
on other days are prevented to justify its continuance.
THE BOOKS OF 1874.—The Publisher's Cir-
cular states that in the year 1874 there were published
in Great Britain 3,351 new books, 961 new editions of
older books, and 291 importations from America,
making a total of 4,603, or 388 less than in the pre-
ceding year. This failing off may be accounted for by
the increase in the cost of production. There is a
• decline of nearly 150 in theological books, but an in-
crease in the number of scientific works and in the books
classed under the title "Essays,BellesLettres,&c." The
publications of the year are divided into 14 classes.
There are 664 theological works, 478 of them being new
books, and not merely new editions nor American impor-
tations ; of educational, classical, and philological works
the numbers are 365 in all, 301 being our new books ;
of juvenile works the two numbers are 229 and 207 ;
novels, 825 and 516; law 124 and 71; on politics and
trade, 133 and 101; arts, science, and illustrated
works, 623 and 421; traVels and geograhical research,
244 and 178; history, biography, &c., ;393 and 265;
poetry and the drama, 305 and 223; year books and
serials in volumes, 249 and 243; medicine, 135 and 95;
belles lettres, essays, monographs, &c. 211 and 159;
miscellaneous, including pamphlets, but not sermons,
103 and 93. Of our ovrn 3,351 new books, 133 were
published in January, 22ri in February, 310 in March,
204 in April, 370 in May, 238 in June, 234 in July,
207 in August, 186 in ',vtember, 284 in October, 369
in November, 591 in II e fiber,

A TILLBUT.E Tet, AmEmos—AND HER GALS.--
Two pretty but not " fast " Baltimore girls went out
rowing on the Lake of Lucerne last autumn, and when
the barge of the King of Holland came along, instead
of trailing oars and respectfully falling behind Royalty,
actually raced. The King was evidently amused at
this exhibition of American independence, and made a
sign to his oarsmen to let the young ladies go ahead.
Coming to the quay second, he told his coxswain to
moor the victors' boat, and said "He knew they were
Americans."

Fitom " PuNort's SYNONYMS."—Tho Limited
Male—a Husband.—Punch.

THE NOISE OF TOWNS.--It is probable that
there is no form of human suffering which meets with
less sympathy or regard from those who do not suffer
fnom it than the suffering caused by noise. The man
of hard, healthy, well-strung nerves can scarcely
imagine the real distress which men of sensitive nerves
endure from ill-regulated noise—how they literally
quiver and shiver under it. Now, of course, the larger
the town, the more varied and the more abundant is
the noise in it. Even the domestic noises are dreadful
to a man of acute nervous sensibility. In the City we
have done much to remove this evil. The asphalte
pavement has wrought wonders; the police have been
also efficacious in putting a stop to some of our roughest
and most discordant cries; and yet there is a volume
of noise, ever rising up and filling the air, which must
shorten many a life, and which must be a permanent
source of misery.-- City Press.

"BEST Rooms."— A parlour may contain
ever so much costly furniture and yet not look fur-
nished. "Best rooms" are apt to look cold and stiff.
One shivers involuntarily on entering them. They
are dark—for the sunshine is shut out lest it fade the
carpet; they are prim—for everything is laid att ri,ght
angles ; they are barren—for lack of a little taste. Let
in the sunlight, put some plants in the window, hang
some pictures on the walls, tuck a bracket or two in
the corners, and scatter a few books on the table.
Then if you will only stir up the stiff-backed chairs,
so that they will look as if somebody had sometime
sat in them, the whole aspect of the room will be
changed, and the most exact person in the world can-
not but pronounce it an improvement.
World.

NEW FACTORY ACT. —On Friday, the Ist inst.,
the act passed in the late session came into operation,
to improve the health of women, young persons, and
children employed in the manufactories, and the edu-
cation of such children. The period of employment is
to be from six to six or from seven to seven o'clock;
the employment not to be continuously longer than
four hours and a half without half an hour for a meal,
except on Saturdays, when the employment is not to
be beyond half-past one o'clock. Two hours each day,
save on Saturday, to be .allowed for meals, and one
hour before three o'clock'. There are provisions in the
new act as to education and school attendance. Em-
ployment during meal time is strictly prohibited.
A GOOD MARKET FOR OLD HATS.—It is Said
that the inhabitauts of the Nicobar Islands, group in
the Indian Ocean, about 150 miles south of the better-
known Andamans, have a universal passion for the
cast-off hats of civilisation. There is a regular trade
in old hats between Calcutta and the Nicobars. The
value of the article is measured in cocoanuts, the only
produce of the islands. The chimney-pot is the
favourite shape, the taller the better; and the con-
summation of Nicobarian desire is to have a "cab-
man's "—that is, a white hat with a black band round
it. Such a hat is worth from fifty to sixty-five cocoa-
nuts, and is the favourite attire of the noble savage
when he goes a-fishing, clad for the rest only in the
usual waist-cloth, which makes the slight difference
between him and a cabby.
WINTER IN THE PYRENEES.—The Pall Malt
Gazette says that General Nansonty, grandson of the
famous commander of Napoleon's heavy dragoons,
has had a narrow escape in the recent storms. He
had resolved to pass the month of December, with
two other gentlemen interested in meteorology, in
making observations on the Pic du Midi, in the
Pyrenees. But the hut they had built being partly
blown down in one of the late gales, when the tem-
perature was at 20 degrees below freezing point, the
three were driven from it and forced to make their
way down through a terrible snowstorm, arriving
utterly exhausted and partly frostbitten, sixteen howl(
afterwards at the village of Gripp.
METROPOLITAN MEAT AND POULTRY MARKET.
—Since the opening of the Metropolitan Meat and
Poultry Market at Smithfield in December, 1868, a
more accurate knowledge with regard to the supply of
meat, &c., has been obtained, and it will be interesting
to many readers to know the quantity of this
particular class of food brought to the principal
Metropolitan Market at Christmas. From the
accounts prepared for the collection of the market
toll, it would appear that during the six days im-
mediately preceding Christmas Day no less than 5,484
tons were brought to the market in the following
daily proportions :—Friday, December 18th, 882 tons;
Saturday, 19th, 784 tons; Monday, 21st,' 1,360 tons;
Tuesday, 22nd, 679 tons; Wednesday, 23rd 1,098 tons;
Thursday, 24th, 681 tons ; total, 5,484 tons. The
supplies in previous years for the like period of sit
days were :—la 1870, 3,917 tons; 1871, 3,869 tons ;
1872, 4,270 tons; 1873, 4,154 tons.—City Press.
CARD PLAYING. —The annual tax returns in-
dicate that cards shown no sign of going out'of favour.
The threepenny stamp duty on every pack of playing
cards was paid for 1,020,956 packs in the financial year
1873-74; seven years previously the number was onlY
743,350 packs. The imports from abroad declined
fr0m,2,282 dozen packs in 1867 to 731 dozen in 1874:
but the number imported is comparatively insignificant.
FATAL GUN ACCIDENT.—An inquest has been
held in London, at King's College Hospital, on the
body of Frederick Everson, aged fifty-three, coach-
man to the Hon. Mary Howard, of Ashted Park,
Surrey. Alfd Baker, a Kamekeepur in the saint,'
employ, said that on the 14th of December last he was
with the deceased in the park shooting rabbits. The
deceased had a double-barrelled gun, and had shot one
rabbit with the left•hand barrel. Witness, who was a
few yards distant from the, deceased, heard another
discharge from, his
„gun, and on looking round saw the
gun of the deceased. fail to the grounch and blo&b,fl.@-
ing•from his band. Be went to hi g assistance, add
found the right barrei had been discharged, and the
fingers of the right hand blown away. He at once,
with the aid of another gamekeeper, who was near the
• spot, bound up the hand, and conveyed him to the
house. Oct the way there deceased said the accident
had occurred through his own carelessness. He was
loading the left barrel of his gun, having his right
hand resting over the muzzle of the right barrel,
which was at full cock, when in moving the gun it
caught in a bramble bush and suddenly went off, blow-
ing away the fingers of his right hand. The deceased'
was seen by a medical man, at whose suggestion he
was brought up by train to King's College HeapitaL
He died on the 28th ult. from blood poisoning conse-
quent upon the injury to his hand. A verdict of
Accidental Death" was returned.

A LINK WITH THE PAST.—Allen's Indian
Mail says:—

An interesting relic of a bygone time has lately disappeared
from among us with the death, on Tuesday, the 22nd of
Deqember, of Lord Byron's valet, Felder', at the age of 78.
After the poet's death, in 1854, his friend Sir John liobhouse,
afterwards Lord Broughton, took Felder' into his emploY
as courier. Before long, however, the courier returned to
his former calling, and continued to serve as valet with Isaac
Disraeli, author of " The Curiosities of Literature," and
father to the present itime Minister, until his master's
death. In 1852 Lord Broughton got him a berth as messenger
at the Board of ControL After the political extinction of
the East India Company in 1858, Falcieri went over to
Leadenhall-street, and followed the India Office in their pil-
grimage westward to Victoria-street, and thence to their
present quarters by St. James's-park. Ile was a very plat-
sant, obliging person; and, as assistant to the head office-
keeper, the polite old Italian, with his broken English, was
often held in friendly chat by those who came across him 151
the way of business. A paralytic seizure crippled him not
long ago, and the late "seasonable weather" carried him off
through an attack of bronchitis.

PICTURE FRAUD PREVENTION. —A suggestion
for the adoption of a Government stamp of identifica-
tion, for the purpose of protecting the public and
artists against fraud, has been submitted for considera-
tion to the various nations interested in art. The plan
is for the artist on presenting his work for stamping to
give in title and description, and he to receive a oer-
tificate bearing stamp and number corresponding with
that affixed to the painting, which, being held by him
and subsequent owners, would serve as a perpetual
voucher.

THE MOST SUITABLE CHRISTMAS AND NEW
YEAR'S GAME.—That which is sent to the Hospitals.
—Paineh.
MODERN GARDENING.—The desire for mere
display has well nigh robbed the majority of modern
gardens of the capability of enjoyment. Their owners
hurry one here and there, exhibiting their different
points, until one gets thoroughly fatigued and wholly
worn out. The way to really enjoy a garden is quietlY
to saunter through it, either alone, or with a kindred
spirit, and allow Its beauties to unravel themselvee
gradually, slowly, and tentatively. Owners of bearetil
ful gardens not seldom rob themselves of all true sirs
restful enjoyment by being constantly on the rse!,'
realise some almost impossible mode of rurn;.4,in-g, or
to equal or excel their neighbours in all things hortk
cultural. Their gardening thus becomes a race, not a
rest, and begets as many worries, and is as fertile in
harassing anxieties, as risks in trade or speculative
ventures in commerce. All this is foreign to the true
design of horticulture, which, like devotion to VA
pursuits of the other fine arts by men and
women of leisure, should bring rest and peace, not
excitement and worry. Those who cannot puraus
horticulture without ending in these last had better
give it up. It should help us to bear cares, not to
originate new ones. And one of the best 'means of
making it subs.erve these ends, whether our garden he
large or small, is to look upon it as a fine art, insepar-
ably linked to literature, poetry, painting, sculpture,
all that is beautiful in colour,. thought, form, expres-
sion, contrast, harmony,imaginatioß, perception, and
feeling. Thus the smallest garden will become not
only a source of pleasure, but a means of culture and a
place of rest to its possessor.—Agricultural Economist.
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE NEW KING OP SPAIN.
—One of the correspondents of the New York Herald
has had an interview with, Don Alfonso, the newly-
proclaimed King of Spain, at the Hotel Basilowsky
Paris. The Prince was extremely frank in his state-
ments, and conveyed the impression of being very
truthful, straightforward, and intelligent. He was
ready and anxious to affor.d every information in• his
power. In the course of conversation he gave assUr-
ances that he will endeavour to settle the Cuban
difficulty, and that he is willing to negotiate in •
spect to Gibraltar. The Prince further
his intention to found his Government on
and constitutional basis, taking Eng] and
Belgium as models, and he is desirous to adopt a
peaceful and Conservative policy. It is furthermore
the wish of the Prince to inaugurate a Militiary
system upon the Prussian principle, with modific
tions to suit a people of Latin race. Be willexert
himself to obtain such financial reforms as arc deemed
necessary to satisfy the claims of bondholders at an early
date. The young King will devote his entire atten-
tion to the internal development of Spain, especially
in the encouragement of commerce and the facilities
of commuication by railwaY• He is personally dis-
posed to grant a general amnesty to political offenders.
The Prince will grant complete liberty of worship to
Protestants, and also the right of burial in consecrated
ground.