The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-08-07 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

California consumes overlo,ooo,ooo oranges annually.
We (Nature) are glad to hear that both a zoological
and botanical collector will form part of the retinue of the
Prince of Wales, in his approaching visit to India.

In a single small county in Kentucky it is estimated
that there are no less than 4,300 dogs.
M. Rondet, a Parisian millionaire, who has already
gone round the world thirteen times, and is only aged fifty-
four, has just left Paris for another world-wide tour.
The Italian newspapers publish a letter from Gari-
baldi to Louis Blanc on the fraternity of nations.

A Michigan man who was struck by lightning, but
not killed and only temporarily paralyzed, says that on
opening his eyes the whole air and sky seemed to be in a
blaze, and that for an hour his lower limbs felt as though
they were on tire, so intense was the burning sensation.

The population of New York, now that the census
takers have nearly or quite completed their work, is shown
to be 1,000,00, and some who are among the best informed
claim that an accurate count would give a much larger
aggregate.
From a Parliamentary paper just printed it appears
that the Lord Chancellor's salary from the Court of Chancery
Is £6,000 a year. His Lordship has £4,000 in addition as
Speaker of the House of Lords.

Rose Brown, who waa sentenced to death at the
recent Derby Assizes for the murder of her husband, 'Wil-
liam Brown, received notice on Saturday of the commutation
of her sentence.

The Empress Eugenie is about to commence a suit
in her own name and as the guardian of her son, before the
Civil Tribunal of the Seine, for the recovery of various
objects of value, especially certain statues and jewels, de-
posited at Pierrefonds and Fontainbleau.
Among the legacies of a recent will in New York,
are a spy glass and class globes, "family relics forming part
of the spoils of the first prize, captured by an American man-
of-war.

Through the destruction by fire of the Broadwood
weaving factory at Belfast on Saturday, damage to the esti-
mated amount of more than £loo,ooo was suffered, and
several hundred persons have been thrown out of employ-
ment.

The Washington Star says :—" Some time since the
accounting clerks in the office of the Third Auditor of the
Treasury discovered a discrepancy in the accounts of an of-
ficer on the staff of General Butler during the war. Failing
by means of his former address to reach him, a letter was
written to tae "Statesman of Essex," asking whether he
could indicate his whereabouts. To this General Butler
replied :—" The officer in question has been dead ten years,
and I revently believe he is in heaven."

A car-load of sea lions, captured near San Francisco,
have been purchased for an aquarium in New York city.
They were loaded separately in the cars in well ventilated
boxes, and were watered occasionally on the journey, and
made the trip without food.

The rate of propagation of the recent inundation
waves in the south of France has been determined along the
banks of the Garonne. It was found to have been no more
than two miles an hour be a run of 140 miles in the district
where the principal calamities occurred. The consequence
is that an immense amount of property and life could have
been saved if a system of warnings had been adopted. Wise
as usual after the event, the authorities intend to establish
such a system as is already in operation at Lyons for the
RhOne, and at Paris for the Seine.—Nature.
The potato bug, we are told lay the Chicago news-
papers, is being followed in its journey eastward by another
potato scourge more voracious and destructive, if possible.
This new bus has been announced in northern Illinois, and
is described as long and thin in form, of a dove colour, and
as suddenly making its appearance in the potato fields in
swarms. The new destroyer is said to be making havoc of
the potato fields and only to be reached by the same treat-
ment and in much the same way as the Colerado bug.

In London last week 2,362 births and 1,422 deaths
were registered. The former exceeded by 106, whereas the
latter were 383 below, the average numbers in the cone-
sponding week of the last ben years. The annual death-rate
from all causes, which in the two preceding weeks had been
equal to 224 and 22'3 per 1,000, further declined to 215. The
deaths included one fum small-pox, 44 from measles, 87
from scarlet fever. six from diphtheria, 63 from whooping-
cough, 23 from different forms of fever, and 137 from
diarrheas..

Meteormical statistics show that the month of July
was unusually cold and wet. The mean temperature at the
Royal Observatory, Greenwich, was 59 deg. and 26 deg.
below the average July temperature In 103 years. The
amount of rain in the month was 5 3 inches, measured on
16 days, which exceeded the average rain-fall of July in 59
years by 2 8 inches. The rain-fall of the first seven months
of this year amounted to 181 inches, and was 1-8 inches
above the average.

The Rev. Henry N. Ellacoroe writes to The Times
from Bitton Vicarage, Bristol :--" Many of those who have
read your interesting account of the Rheea, or Boehneeria
nivea, may be glad to know that the plant is perfectly hardy,
and makes rather a handsome shrubbery plant. I have
grown it here for many years. It grows about six feet high,
but does not flower. It is not a new plant in English gardens,
as Miller grew it in 1739 under the name of Urtica nivea. It
can be seen at Kew or Regent's Park, and is figured in
hooker's 'Journal of Botany,' 1851."

The American papers -say that a cat was seen a few
days ago at Plymouth making tolerably good time through
a field towards a barn, evidently tussling with something
which impeded her progress. Inspection proved that the
cat had caught a black snake four-and-a half feet long, and
with her fangs set firmly in its body about midway of its
length. was dragging the " varmint " home, the snake all the
while fighting and strugglng, darting out its forked tongue
and trying to straighten out its length, doubled in two parts
from the bite. Finding herself the centre of a group of
interested observers, modest tabby retreated under the
barn, drawing her captive after her.
- -

Messrs. Moody and Sankey attended two meetings
in Liverpool on Tuesday, previous to their departure
for America. The Victoria Hall, specially built for their
services, was crowded In the course of a sh3rt address
Mr. Moody said that the watchword of those who.l.ad been
engaged in the revival services should be "Advance." It
was announced that the expenses connected with the visit
were about £7,000, of which £1,500 was still wanted.

The settlers in the valley of the Arkansas manages
to make a comfortable living notwithstanding the destruc-
tion of their crops, by gathering up buffalo bones on the
prairies and hauling them to the towns. Heads and ribs are
worth 5 dols. a ton, and are ground up into fertilizers;
shins and shoulder blades, which are used in the sugar re•
fineries, bring 30 doLs, a ton, awl horns 80 duls.
The Hippic Society of France, which instituted with
great success in 186 and 1867 horse competitions at Paris,
and later at Bordeaux and Nantes, has decided upon general-
ising that measure, capable of exercising an immense in-
fluence on the production of the equine race. It has divided
the country into six regions, each having for a centre a large
town, in which the competitions will be held alternately.
That project, prepared under the direction and with the
entire approval of the Minister of War, is to be carried into
'execution very shortly. The first of the shows will take place
at Lyons.
- - - - - - -

An effort is being made by an influential body of
rarway shareholders to induce the directors to do something
to remove a few of the horrors of the 'booking office." It
is urged that, with little trouble and few precautions, a free
trade in railway tickets might be established at two or three
score of shops all over London, and that no traveller he
forced to make use of his ticket upon the day of issue. For
excursionists, and especially Ins season like the present when
fine weather is so problematical, it is not only cruel to the
holiday-maker to bind him down to a fixed day, but it is abso-
lutely disadvantageous to the shareholders, by deterring
timid travellers from starting.