The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-08-20 00:00:00

QUALIFIFD APPRECIATION.—ScuIptor. "I delight
in modelling your face, Brown ! There's such
immense variety in it "—(Brown begins to smile
pleasantly)—" one side of the face is so utterly unlike
the other, you know."—[lrrown's smile extends to th
wrong side of his mouth.]—Punch.

THE IRISH MEMBERS AND THE LAND BILL.—
Numerous consultations took place last night between
Mr. Parnell and his followers with regard to the con-
cessions made by the Government on the Lords'
amendments in the Land Bill, and it was unanimously
held that the Bill had been seriously damaged. It is
now said that at least ten days or a fortnight will be
required by the Parnelite party to discuss adequately
the conduct of the Executive in Ireland and to exa-
mine the various items in the Constabulary vote.—
Tuesday's Times.
WHAT WAS THE CHARM.—The story is told of a
famous lady who once reigned in Paris society, that
she was so very homely that her mother said one day,
"My poor child, you are too ugly for any one ever to
fall in love with you." From this time Madame de
Circourt began to be very kind to the pauper children
of the village, the servants of the household, even the
birds that hopped about the garden walks. She was
always distressed if she happened to be unable to
render a service. This good-will toward everybody
made her the idol of the city. Though her complexion
was sallow, her grey eyes small and sunken, yet she
held in devotion to her the greatest men of her time.
Her unselfish interest in others made her, it ii said,
perfectly irresistible. Her life furnishes a valuable
lesson.

A FISHERIES EXHIBITION IN LONDON.—In the year
1883 London is promised an international exhibition
worthy of the series which has marked the latter half
of this century (says The Times in a leader). There
has been a fisheries exhibition at Norwich, and it has
been a great success. There is to be one next year at
Edinburgh, to which the promoters of the Lon-
don exhibition will give all the aid they can.
But nothing that can be done in the provinces—
nay, nothing that can be done in any European
capital can compete with London. It is the
centre of all the industries. It is th.) focus of all
enterprise ; it is the chief meeting point of supply
and demand; it is the place, the only place, where
everything is to be seen that can be moved from its
locality, and where everything fixed and absolutely
local is abundantly represented. If anything be possi-
ble, London is the place to give it a trial. If anything
wants to be seen or heard, London brings together the
greatest number of eyes and ears. It is proposed to
invite all the world to exhibit its unbounded variety
of fish, and almost equally unbounded variety of fish.
ing apparatus and tackle.

LOAN SOCIETIES.—A parliamentary return just
issued respecting loan societies states that returns of the
accounts for 1880 of 296 societies in England and Wales
have been received. The number of applications for
loans in 1880 was 97,873; the number to whom loans
were granted 89,935; the sums in borrowers' hands on
December 31, £319,871; the amount paid for interest
by borrowers or sureties, £25,669; the net profits of
the societies, after paying expenses of management,
£15,690; the loss during the year, £2,637; the number
of summonses issued, 7,087; the number of distress
warrants issued, 1,453; the amount for the recovery
of which summonses were issued, £16,731; and the
amount recovered, £13,171.
EPISCOPAL METHODISM.—On Wednesday, last week,
the Bishop of St. Alban's consecrated a new parish
church, replacing an old one, at Wesley, near Col-
chester. Oysters! Fancy a Bishop consecrating a
Wesleyan edifice !—Punch.
GREEN PEAS FOR LONDON.—The Citizen states "Green Peas.—As the green pea season may now be
considered over, the Great Eastern Railway Company
have returned 3,407 tons as the amourv, of traffic
between the 14th of June an t the 6th of August.
This, compared with the quantity during the same
period ot last year, exhibits a decrease of 2,480 tons,
arising from failures in the crops through the hot, dry
season. The heaviest weight on any one morning
this year was nearly 450 tons, on Saturday, the 9th of
July, when, under the arrangements of Mr. W.
Gardner, the goods manager, all was delivered at the
various markets before 8.30 a.m."

TuE POFULATION OF CALCUTTA.—It appears from
the recent census that of the total population of Cal-
cutta and its suburbs, amounting to 684)658 souls,
two-thitds are males, and that of these the great ma-
jority belong to the middle period of life. Mr. Bever-
ley, the special census officer, observes that the num-
ber of females in the city remains pretty constant,
while the young under 20 years of age have almost
invarf ably increased from census to census, showing
that the resident population is growing, and that the
decrease in the population (the numbers were in 1876
about 686,684) is more apparent than real. So far as
it is real, the causes suggested are the displacement of
the poorer classes by the improvements effected by the
municipality and the Part Commissioners, and the
prevalence of dropsical fever in the southern suburbs
in the beginning of last year.

A FOREBODING NOT REALLISED.—UntiI after he
had passed the age of 44, the age at which his father
died, President Garfield always cherished the belief
that he would not live longer than his father and
would die of violence (says an American paper). But
as the foreboding was refuted four or five years ago,
he discarded the notion which for a long time haunted
him. That feeling is not an uncommon one with those
who have lost their parents early and whose attention
has been called to the subjecr, of hereditary diseases.
But inasmuch as General Garfield's father did not die
from violence, the omen in the case is not at all serious..
Tim INNOCENT ON THE MOORS.—(And what he wante
to know, you know.)—Are not the grouse prospects
rather bad this year—for the grouse ?—lsn't a" day's
gunning on the moors" considered a superior kind of
Bang(k) Holiday?—" Are the best bags" made by the
swell West-end tailors I—Are the shooting boxes erected
in the Moorish style of architecture? and do the land-
lords of grouse preserves consider themselves Moorish
chiefs ?—lsn't a sportsman on the look-out for a good
"shooting" something like Oliver Twist—because he
"wants some moor" ?—Would it be correct to des-
cribe the war now being waged upon the birds as a.
kind of mor-tal combat ?—Funny Folks.

REWARDS FOR SAVING LIFE.-At the meeting of the
Local Marine Board of London, Mr. Thomas Scrutton,
the chairman, presented the following rewards to
certain members of the crew of the steamship Cairns-
nuir, on behalf of the Norwegian Government, for
services rendered to the shipwrecked crew of the
Anna, of Laurvig, namely—to Captain George L.
Castle, a gold chronometer watch; to Messrs. A. H.
Taylor and Felix Kilmannsegge, each a telescope; to
Martin Peterson, A. 8., the sum of £5; to James
Town, £3; and to Peter Carlton and William Grady
each £2. Mr. Alfred Kirsebom, the Acting Consul,
was present, and tendered the thanks of his Govern-
ment to Captain Castle and his brave crew for their
courage and humanity. The Norwegian Government
has this year granted rewards for saving life in this
country alone to the amount of £340.

VOLUNTEERS AT ALDERSHOT.--The largest assem-
blage of volunteers which has been witnessed in the
camp at Aldershot for many years, in association
with regular troops, came to a close last Saturday,
when over 8,000 officers, non•commissioned officers,
and men from various regiments in Cheshire, Derby-
shire, Dorsetshire, Essex, Middlesex, London, the
Isle of Man, Lancashire, and Wiltshire, who had
been attached to and brigaded with the infantry
brigades for eight days, returned homewards. The
weather all the week was very unfavourable for drill,
rain falling heavily during the greater part of the
time. During the intervals, however, no opportunity
was lost for imparting instruction.

EXCITING SCENE AT A FIRE.—In London, on Mon-
day morning, at half-past one, as Police-constable
Emerson was walking down his beat in Lower Chap-
man-street, St. George's-in-the-East, he noticed flames
and smoke in a lower room of a house. lie at once
sent for the engines, and proceeded to arouse the in-
mates, some of whom were soon seen standing on an
upper window calling for help. gmerson then forced
the door of the house, but found that access to the
staircase was cut off by the flames. He therefore
came outside and managed to scale a wall situated at
the rear of the premises, and thus managed to gain
the upstairs bedroom, where he found the landlord of
the house, his wife, and their three children all in a
state of great terror. Emerson caught hold of the
children and lowered first them and then their
parents through the window, when they were caught
by persons below, all of them escaping without injury,

NORTH WOODS BAIT.—" Boy, do you live around
here? "—" Yes, sir."—" Then you must know the
best fishing ground ? "—" No, sir. We never fish in
the ground up here."—" But do they catch any fish in
that lake over there ?"—" I never saw 'em catch any,"
"How is the creek ?" "I guess its purty
well," "Don't they fish for trout here ?"
" I never axed 'em what they was fishing
for P' "Is there any game In the woods ?" "I never
saw any, but I'm near-sighted." "Do many people
come here ?" "I guess so," " Any scenery around
here ? " "I guess so, but I forgot to look and see."
"Boy, what bait do you use here to fish with?"
" We 1, we've got four schoolma'ams from Grand
Rapids boarding at our house, and that other man over
on the hill has a deaf and dumb coon, a tame bear and
a part of a busted Uncle Tom's Cabin troupe. 1 guess
Its purty good bait; by the way, the old man is
putting up beds in the barn an' cussin' himself for not
plantin' more onions." —Detroit Free Prem.

MAXING A NEW FACE.—A man must experience a
strange sensation when, on looking at himself in a
mirror, he fails to recognise the face he has been accus-
tomed to see reflected there for years, and finds that
his nearest relations, on meeting him, show no signs
of remembering his features (says the Evening
Standard). This, however, is the case with a young
and wealthy Egyptian gentleman for whom medical
science has just been busily engaged in the making
of a new face, The unfortunate young man, says
the Nora German Gazette, met with a most fright-
ful accident some months ago from an explosion,
and though, after hovering for weeks between
life and death, physicians were ultimately able
to tell their patient he was out of danger, ha
remained so shockingly disfigured that he refused to
show himself in public, and was condemned to a
hermit's existenco, A consultation was held by the
doctors who had attended him during his illness, and
by their advice he was induced to go to Berlin to seek
the assistance of an eminent medical man, and learn
from his lips what hope there was, if any, of his
scarred and disfigured countenance recovering a pre-
sentable aspect. The doctor devoted himself to his
patient, from whose legs and arms he robbed a piece
of flesh here, another there, which, carefully sewn
together, were used te form the cheeks, the chin, the
nose—to make, in a word, the new face. But there
till remained the throat (the flesh of which was
entirely burnt away) to reconstitute, and the
doctor recognised that it was imnossible, without
injuring his client, to make a fresh call upon his
members. To make the new throat, therefore, it was
necessary to repair to the hospital, where a young
woman who had to undergo a surgical operation
furnished what was requisite. At the present time,
says the German paper which relates this remarkable
ca, the iigyptian gentleman is on the high road to
recovery, and will no longer have reason to shrink
from the gaze of his fellow-creatures; but the altera-
tion in hit face is so complete that none who knew
unn previously would acognize him since his visit to