The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-05-01 00:00:00

Our fonhn CorttspoOtnt.

tWe deem it right to state that we do not at all times
identify ourselves with our Corresponde it's opinians.)

Holiday makers at this year's Easter were
favoured with magnificent weather, and for the
first time in 1886 the heat of the sun was almost
oppressive. It requires no elaborate effort to
demonstrate the difference which results to tens
of thousands of people in all parts of the country
when Easter is dry to that which results when
Easter is wet. Those who can take a holiday
when they please, and those to whom the loss of
a day's work is not the loss of a day's pay, can
scarcely realise the value of a public holiday to
their less favoured brethren. It is an event with
these latter which is looked forward to for weeks
and even in some cases for months, and if, after
• all the saving and preparation, the weather is
unfavourable, great is the disappointment.
Parents and children, perhaps, have been eagerly
anticipating this one day's outing; it has formed
the topic of conversation in the family circle at
a time when all other topics sounded
stale and flat; and if the weather prove
propitious,, it will form a memory pleasant to be
• recalled for a long while to come. Only those
)
- - -who can have but a little of any given good
' • . thing can, as a rule,-appreciate its worth to the
full; and when we are inclined to grumble, as
some of • us occasionally are, at the inconveni-
_ •encies to which bank holidays subject the corn-
• munity, we should do well to remember that they
bring a very great deal of enjoyment to tens of
thousands—a fact which far transcends the
• annoyance they may cause to a fastidious few.
The arrival in England of the first members
of the Australian team coincided with Easter,
' which by many is regarded as tha commence-
ment of the cricket season. It is not the
orthodox date, it is true, but in various parts of
the-country Easter has for long been the period
at which football and other winter games have
been dropped all of a sudden, and cricket begun.
This year, owing to the lateness of this particular
feast, its date and that of the official opening
of the cricket season come more nearly together
than has been the case for several years;
and it will not be long before our Colonial
cousins will have the opportunity of once more
wielding the willow upon English soil. The
occasion cannot fail to be of interest not only to
those who habitually follow the game with keen
attention, but to the general public; and as the
season goes on, the excitement which, at previous
biennial visits of the Australian team, has grown
as the months advanced, may be expected again
to be seen. By this time we have been almost
forced to the conclusion that it is practically im-
possible to tell whether English or Australians
are the best cricketers, conditions being even.
The balance at first seemed to hang heavily to
the side of the Australians, but the experience of
two years ago showed that they were far from
invincible, and that though, as was only natural,
a team accustomed to work together, and con-
taining the picked players of a continent, were
more than a match for one drawn from a single
English county, there was no such certainty of
suceess when its opponents were chosen from all
the best cricketers of the mother country. But
the glorious uncertainty of cricket is as great as
that traditionally attributed to law, and the
forthcoming matches will be anticipated as
eagerly as any of previous years.
But even apart from the visit of the Austra-
lians, the cricket season of 1886 will be full of
interest to lovers of the game. The long list
of promised matches which has been published
by official authority, has only to be glanced
through to furnish proof of this. Dwellers in
London will be able to satisfy their longings for
the sight of a well-contested game by various
'. visits to Lord's and the Oval; while their
friends in the country will have provided for
them some excellent county matches at the
chief provincial centres of the game. And it
shopld not be forgotten that these greater
rnatches far from exhaust the popular interest in
the pastime. The village which has its little con-
tests upon the green, the small town which finds it
the height of its ambition to defeat some neighbour
of equal size—these often furnish instances oi a
single-hearted devotion to cricket which much
more pretentious places might envy. There is
something so thoroughly English about these
struggles that one may be pardoned for admiring
them. An honourable strife in a pastime which
has all the virtues and few of the defects of
athleticism, is one to 5e encouraged by those who
wish to see the youth of our country strengthen ,
themselves by enjoyment of a noble game. Out-
door exercise is one of the best of medicines, and ,
it will be an evil day for England when our
young men grow too lazy or too lackadaisical to
- - take their fair share of it. And while cricket is
-popular that day can never come.
Those acquainted with Court etiquette have
drawn a very decided inference from the fact
that the State ceremony, which will attend the
Queen's opening of the Colonial and Indian
Exhibition' is more elaborate than has been used
at any similar function since the death of the
Prince Consort. And the inference that her
• Majesty has decided to resume the more active
and outward duties of the sovereignty which
• melancholy causes have so long compelled
, her almost to abandon, has been strengthened
•••• by the Queen's decision to open an exhibition at
„- Liverpool as well. Never since 1861, at the end
of which year the Prince Consort died, has her
Majesty taken part in so many public functions
in the same period as she has already done, or
, promised to do, this year; and her subjects will
have noted her increase of good spirits and her
improvement in health with the'utmost pleasure.
The Prince of Wales has done his best to fill his
. mother's place, and, aided by the Princess, has
• succeeded almost beyond anticipation; but no
deputy, however amiable, and however efficient,
can take the place in the public mind of the
Sovrreign herself, Even in these practical and
• unromantic days, there is a feeling of the
• " divinity that ;cloth hedge a King; and men
- of all ranks Will rejoice that they are promised a
e mole) frequent opportunity of displaying their
loyalty to the person of the Sovereign than they ,
havOhad 'for many years. - .
The revelations which have been published
within, the past few days concerning the doings
of the .dynamiters are in no way a surprise to
those who have had to follow the published
workings of this conspiracy; but they are suffi-
ciently startling to considerably disturb the ordi-
nary citizen. And yet there is the pleasing side
to theni that they tell a story in which, despite
the advantages of secret conspiracy, the police
• - • had ultimately the victory over the desperadoes
•svhose boast it was that they would lay England
in. ruins. The little table appended to the
article, telling in dry, official form the punish-
ments which have been awarded to the score and
over of miscreants who have been caught, is,
perhaps, the most dramatic part of the
narrative. It is striking to read of the
desperate plots, and to trace how some of
them partially succeeded and others ignominiously
failed; but it is even more striking to see the
sentence of penal servitude for life affixed against
name after name of those who were concerned
....a in these great crimes. Evidence is tines afforded
--I- that our detective organisation is not so ineffec-
tive as it suits hasty critics sometimes to state;
and that, cunning as these conspirators may be,
there are shrewd heads ever on the look-out for
criminals of their stamp. And when these latter
are detected, it is comforting to feel that their
punishment is certain and severe.
.yolunteers who participated in the Easter
manceuvres at Dover, Portsmouth,. in the
Eastern counties, or elsewhere, have come back
to their friends full of the "hairbreadth 'scapes
133/flood and field" to which they have been sub-
• jected while away from home. It is no child's play
• this participation in the Easter campaign. March-
ing and counter-marching by day and sleeping in
barns and outhouses by night may be exhilarating
toad instructive, but must be somewhat irksome
to those whose daily duties are of a sedentary
nature, and whose nightly repose is upon a
. feather-bed. But it is pleasanteto see that these
inconveniences—and those who do not believe
them to be inconveniences may fairly be recom-
mended to try them for themselves—do not
deter our volunteers from striving their utmost
to be perfect• in their profession. Since the
autumn manceuvres have been discontinued, the
auxiliary forces have not had the best opportu-
nity they both desired and deserved of improving
hefr drill and tactics by being set by the side
•Of masses of regulars. The Easter manoeuvre;
'to 'iota° extent, make up for this, and they
•deserve their popularity among both volunteers
• .and the public accordingly.
A story was told at the recent official inquiry
into the loss of the Cunard Line steamer Oregon
which deserves to be long remembered as a
tribute to feminine courage and presence of
mind. • After the collision—for that it was a
• teellision there is now no valid reason to doubt
when the terrified passengers were
rnsiiing.hit.6r and thither, and: confusion was
•ati,itaheighteretany of the men were hurrying to
getelateethe boats. A cry was raised by the
resire cenerage9us,of "'Women first 1 " and. there
.1(11 lie inStinCtive. drawing back on the.pert of
te men, in Order that those who were of what
dommonly considered the weaker sax should

have the Lest char.ce of being saved. But at
that poizit a woman stepped out from among
the crowd at .1 !aid that she was in no hurry.
The calm co•Adence of her speech was such
that it sharnar,d the men into a better apprecia-
tion of the situation, ond c3o taught them their
duty that it probably avQrted a panic. It, is
courage of this kind v.nich, whether displayed by
roan or woman, is always worthy of record as a
stimulant to imitation. A. F. R.