The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-11-19 00:00:00

BlSMARCK.—Bismarck, according to rumour, is
again threatening to resign, but probably he will think
better of his determination. Germany is quite as
necessary to Bismarck as Bismarck is to Germany. He
is like the late Duke of Wellington, an excellent fighting
Minister, but not so excellent on questions of
domestic ledslation. His resignation would pro-
bably be accepted with resignation. Germany wants
rest, and time to accumulate capital. Her effective
but costly military system has left her one of the
poorest nations in the world. If Bismarck studied the
rudiments of economic science, he would know that you
cannot send the pick of your industrial population into
the field, without losing all that population would have
produced during the term of campaigning, to say
nothing of the cost of clothing, feeding, &c. If you
send out a million of men, whose average individual
power of production is rqual to i:300 a year, this
gives you three hundred millions a year as the dead
weight of your army. No wonder the French in-
demnity failed to fill such a hole as this, or that the
Germans are somewhat discontented.—Punch.
"As THE TWIG IS BENT THE TREE IS INCLINED."
—Sir Samuel W. Baker, the famous sportsman,
author, and tourist, very truly remarks, in alluding
to the effect of fostering in youth the love of out-door
sports :—" I would always encourage the love of
sport in a lad; guided by its true spirit of fair
play, it is a feeling that will make him above doing
a mean thing in every station of life, and will give
him real feelings of humanity. I have had great
experience in the characters of thorough sportsmen,
and I can safc!y say that I never saw one that was
not a straight-forward honourable man who would
scorn to take a mean 'advantage of man or animal.
In fact, all real sportsmen that I have met have
been tender-hearted men—i.e., men who shun cruelty
to an animal, and are easily moved by a tale of
distress.

OCTOGENARIANS.—The list of deaths in The Times
of Friday, 11th inst., included those of ten persons—
six ladies and four gentlemen—whose united ages
amounted to 838 years, giving an average of 83 years
and upwards of nine months to each. The following
were their respective ages :-80, two at 81, 83, 84, 83,
and four at 86 years. The same list recorded the
deaths of nine septuagenarians, averaging 74 years and
upwards of five months each.
ON THE SAFE SIDE. A Michigander who was
riding along the highway near Charlestown, Va., a
few days ago, came across a negro who was grubbing
out a stumn near the meadow fence, and after a few
questions about farm products the Wolverine asked:
"What do you get for taking that stump out?
" Jist fifty cents," was the reply. "How long have
you been working at it ? " "Wall, nigh 'bout a week,
I reckon." And how much longer will it take ? "
"Wall, I spects I could finish it to-morrer, but I
reckon I won't do it afore Friday." "Why ?"Wall, heah
am de pint. If I finish it to-morrer an' git my money,
I'll be bound to drap down to Halltown an' bet on a
hoss-race an' lose it all. Et I wait till Friday, I kin

hab de means of gwine inter de circus at (Aarles-
town. I knows my weakness, boss, an' so I'ze gwine
to sot heah an' dig a leetle an' sleep a leetle an' chop
off de las' root when I heah de circus ho'ns blowin' on

top de red skule house hill."
AN INTERESTING RELIC.—The Scotsman draws at-
tention to an interresting relic of Abbotsford, being
the piano on which Sir Walter Scott's daughters, Anne
and Sophia, received their first instruction in music.
It is of the spinet form, with only thirty.six notes;
and its date probably goes back to the middle of last
century. It was given to an ancestor of its present
owner,by Scott himself as far back as 1817; and, after
having suffered the common vicissitudes of old
furniture, it will now be tr3asured as a relic:.
M. GAMBETTA AND FRANCE.—The MO says :
"M Gatnbetta has been the great power in reserve.
His day has now arrived, but what the service is to
be we do not yet know. M. Gambetta's peculiarity
is that he has the power of making a lasting
impression. For more than ten years his credit has
endured. It is now to be subjected to a more severe
trial than ever. Time has not been fatal to it, but will
it survive office? M. Gambetta may have grand and
dazzlinc, schemes in view, but in no way will he so
effectually prove himself a great statesman as by
maintaining his hold on the French mind without
having recourse to any f them. France has had
enough of policies of cla 3-trap and adventure. She
has tried almost every novelty except that of remain-
ing content under the steady, sober guidance of a
Ministry which she can resi ect and trust. The experi-
ment would be safe, at all events."

REGISTRATION OF NEWSPAPERS.—It is announced
that all the necessary forms and any information
required with regard to the registration of newspapers,
under the provisions of the Newspaper Libel and
Registration Act, 18S1, can now be obtained on appli-
cation to the Registrar of Joint-stock Companies,
Somerset House, London, or to the aEsistant Registrar
of Joint-stock Companies, Custom House, Dublin.
WEEK OF UNIVERSAL PRAYER.—The Council of the
Evangelical Alliance have issued theii programme for
the Week of Prayer, commencing January 1, 1882.
The invitation is signed by the representatives of
branches of the Alliance throughout the world. The
suggested topics for the several days cover a wide
range of subjects, including Thanksgiving, Confession,
Prayer for the Church universal, for the Young, for
the Nation, and for the Missions, Special reference
is also made to education, to intemperance, and to the
opium traffic. Papers containing fall particulars may
be obtained
.of the Secretaries of the Alliance, 7,
Adam-street, Strand, London.
THE LATE PRESIDENT GARFIELD.—The Times has
published the following letter :—" Will you be kind
enough to mention in The Times that Mrs. Garfield
has sent a note to the Legation, de,bing us to express
in this public way her heartie:t thanks for the re-olu-
tions, addresses, letters, and poems, which have been
transmitted to her from corporations, societies, and
individuals in Great Britain and Ireland, on the occa-
sion of the lamented death of her husband, and. also
to state her sincere reg,et that it is quite impossible
for her, on account of the very great number of these
communications, to make a separate acktowledgment
in each case ?—I am, Sir, your obedient servant, W.
J. Horn, Charge d'Affaires ad interim of the United
States. Legation of the United States, London,
Nov. 15."

COMING OF AGE—A DOMESTIC DRAMA.—My Lady.
"No, no, General! Don't talk to me of school and
college ! There's nothing like home influence for
boys! My precious darling has never left my side
since he was born—just twenty one years ago this very
day, General—and he has kept the heart of a child,
and never given me an hour's anxiety in all his
innocent life ! " The General. " Ah, he'll soon be
wanting to marry the lady's maid, or something of
that sort! See if he don't!" My Lady. "Good
heavens ! " (To footman, who enters.) "Adams,
where's Parker?" The Footman. "She just stepped
out for a minute this motnin', my Lady—to get some
'airpins, she said. . But they do say down-stairs as
Master George were waiting for her round the corner
with a four feiurwheel cab and a small porkmanteau.
Leastwise she never come home, nor Master
George hasn't neither. Lunch is waiting, my Lady ! "
—Punch.
THE ICEBERG FLEET.—Latest advices from New-
foundland record the appearance off St. Johns, at the
end of October, of the vanguard iceberg of the huge
Arctic armada now sailing- southwards along the
coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland," (says Colonies
and India). No less than 23 huge masses of glacial
drift ice are reported to have been seen during
October off the northern shores of the island, slowly
but surely drifting southwards across the track of
vessels plying between Europe and America. The
first berg sighted off St. Johns was estimated
to be not less than a quarter of a mile in '
length and 300 ft. in height above water. As 2ft.
of ice are under water for every one above, the
total height of this huge mass must have been
900 ft. Its form was that of a vast plateau rising not
more than a few feet from the surface of the sea, and
extending about 200 feet from the southern side, with
a high range of ice peaks suddenly rising out of the
plain. The rate at which this huge mass of ice drifted
to the southward against a head wind was estimated
at 2,i miles per hour. Commanders of vessels crossing
- the Atlantic will need to keep a good look-out for these
invaders from the Arctic regions. The powerful elec-
tric head-lights borne by most of the large passenger
steamers will render good service in enabling their
presence to be detected.
THE MYSTERIOUS PARCEL.—A paragraph recently
went the rounds of the pspers stating that a suspicious
looking parcel from America had been received by Mr.
Creyke' M.P., at Rawcliffe-hall, and, after being, in
the first instance, buried in the garden, was sent to
Woolwich Arsenal for examination. It was examined
on Friday by an experienced officer of the Explosives
Department and found to contain—guano!
ARTIFICIAL RAIN. Not satisfied with sending
acroSs the Atlantic storms which all could do very
well without, the Americans are about to bend nature
i
to their will n the go-ahead fashion customary with
our fransatlantic brethren—at all events they are to
attempt the feat. It is announced that the New
Jersey millowners who are short of water are pro-
posing to resort to an old scheme for inducing artificial
rain. It has long been observed that a great battle, or
even the customary and universal salutes during the
Fourth of July celebrations, are generally followed by
a storm, and so the New Jerseyites are thinking of ex-
pending £lOO worth of blank cartridges, which are to
be fired from a height near the river which they are
anxious to replenish. It was proposed to put this
idea into practice In France during the last century,
by means of cannonading-stations for the benefit of
parched-up agriculturists; but as it was found that
the various farmers rarely wanted rain at the same
time, the suggestion was not carried out. Whether
New Jersey farmers, who possibly may not need so
much moisture as is desired by the millowners, will
tacitly submit to their rain-making proceedings, is
rather doubtful.
WHITE Ii.ORSES.—The horse has always been one of
the most sacred animals among peoples of the Aryan
race, Even in the old Hindu poems the sacrifice of
a horse constitutes the most important ceremony in
the primitive Aryan religion. The Cornhill re-
minds us that the Germans of the time of Tacitus
kept white horses in their temple enclosures at the
public expense, and took auguries from their snortings
and neighings. The horse was buried by the dead
warrior's side, and in military funerals still acc ,m-
-panics his master's body to the grave. But it was
among the Low Dutch and early English tribes near
the old mouths of the Rhine and Elbe that this animal
was held especially sacred. A white horse rampant
is still the cognizance of Hanover and Bruns-
wick. When the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes in-
vaded England they brought with them their emblem
of the white horse, which subsequently became
the ensign of Kent, the first of the Anglo-Saxon
kingdoms. The leaders of this first contingent of in-
vaders, whether real or mythical, were Hengest, that
is, stallion, and Ilona, that is, mare. Hence, too, the
frequent occurrence of the word horse in places asso-
ciated with the Anglo-Saxon conquest, as in the case
of Horsham, Uorsley, ,Horstead, Horstead Keynes,
while the progress inland of the West Saxons would
seem to be marked by the white horse cut in the chalk
downs of Wantage and Westbury. The final victory
of Egbert over the West Welsh or Cornish was gained
at Hengestesdun, that is, Horsdown—now Hingston—
in Cornwall. When, too, the missionaries first arrived
in the island, the eating of horseflesh was made the
test of adherence to English heathendom, while even
i
in these matter-of-fact days a horse-shoe s by many
regarded as a lucky object.—Land and Water.