The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-05-05 00:00:00

LONDON CORRESPONDENCE.

We deem it right to state we do not at all times identify
•urselves with our Correspondent's opinions. i

The month of May has, throughout the history
of English poetry, been one of which poets have
delighted to sing. In the pastoral verses which
used to give so much joy, but which in these
days have sadly gone out of fashion, May was
always ushered in by the songs of amorous
shepherds and the sweet tunes of the birds,
while verdant fields and flowery meads abounded
on every hand. Whether it is that the climate
has changed or that in these times we take a
more prosaic view of existence, the fact remains
that May has lost its old character. A hundred
years ago Cowper, when writing to a friend,
expressed some wonderment as to whither the old
May of the poets had fled, and we can now echo
his question. For the easterly winds, which haunt
an English April like spectres, have an unhappy
knack of troubling May as well, and invitations
to skip in the fields, and there, in playing 'upon
oaken reeds, to sing about our loves, would be
scorned in the present day, even if any poet were
sufficiently insane as to give them. The May of
imagination, in fact, has to yield place to the
May of ordinary life, and there is as much differ-
ence between the two as between many fanciful
traditions and the realities of existence.
Dwellers in London at least have various com-
pensations for this difference between the real
and the ideal May, which must largely compen-
sate them for the distinction between poetry and
prose. For it is in May that life in the metro-
polis—that is, in the fashionable end of it—
begins to be at really full swing. Of course,
what is known as "the season," has commenced
several weeks previously, some even dating it
from the opening of Parliament, though
Easter would perhaps be the better date;
but it is May which shows London
in some of its aspects at the best. Rotten-row
resumes its summer appearance by being filled
with the lovers of witching 'horsemanship, the
parks begin to be crowded, the higher-priced
portions of the places of amusement are nightly
filled, and balls, evening parties, receptions, and
"at homes" are almost innumerable. In addi-
tion, the great picture galleries are all open, and
those who love art, or even those who care only
to gather material for society small-talk, can
wander from the Academy to the Grosvenor,
from "the New" to the British Artists,
from the Royal Institute of Painters in
Water Colours to the Royal Society of
votaries to the same medium to say nothing of
the score of lesser shows which flourish in the
congenial atmosphere of Bond-street and Pall
Mall. And when, added to all these, it is re-
membered that whatever special exhibitions are
to be opened, May is usually the month fixed for
the ceremony, it will be seen that Londoners
have reason to welcome the advent of a month
which brings them so much increased enjoyment.
The enthusiastic greeting which our Queen
recently received on her necessarily brief visit to
Berlin fwas the one bright spot in the gloomy
news ;v6 have been getting of late from the
German capital. Owing to the outcry. of certain
of the Prussian journals, which had allowed what
they were pleased to consider their patriotism to
run away with their prudence, it had been feared
in some quarters that the Queen would be coldly
greeted, or even positively insulted, if she entered
Berlin. The bare supposition, though in some
degree justifiable, was a slight upon a great
people, and it is pleasing to know that events
proved that there was not the slightest justifi-
cation for it. All recent German history has been
tinged with the shadow of tragedy, and this marked
the sad meeting of the Queen with her daughter's
husband, the stricken Emperor. It was not twelve
months since they had parted, for, after the
jubilee ceremonies, in which the then Crown
Prince played so distinguished a part, his
Imperial Highness remained in England for some
time in the vain hope of recovering his health.
But the many things which had happened in tho
interval must have crowded upon the minds of
both as they met, and a sadder greeting can
scarcely have been recorded in history, though
It is good to remember that even to this cloud
there was the silver lining of the enthusiastic
greeting of the people of Berlin.
There are some dangerous practices in which,
despite every warning, people will persist in in-
dulging, though life and limb, and property, may
be risked by the indulgence. One need not refer
to the criminal idiots who recklessly present
guns at other person's heads, only to find, when
too late, that the guns are loaded and the ether
persons dead; or to the scarcely less censurable
folk who,carry revolvers in their pockets, and are
continually putting their own or. somebody else's
life in danger, for there are other stupid prac-
tices which merit condemnation; one of them is
smoking in bed, a habit which, from every point
of view, is as unpleasant as it is perilous,
and another is reading in bed by the
aid of a candle or lamp. It is only
a few days ago that a young girl in a London
suburb was writing a letter in bed, when a
paraffin lamp, which she had placed on her pillow,
upset and exploded. The unhappy girl was at
once enveloped in flames, and, rushing out of the
room in her burning nightdress, received such
injuries as to cause her death a few hours later.
It is sad to think that so many people refuse to
be guided by the experience of others, for if they
would allow themselves so to profit, casualties of
this kind would very seldom occur.
"Nothing," writes one of the most popular
novelists of the present day, "more tends to
promote good feeling of one to another than
gardening." This is a sentiment which is pecu-
liarly appropriate to the present season, when
people interested in horticulture are eagerly
watching for the results of the efforts they made
during the winter and early spring. They have
dug, and sowed, and watered, and potted, and
transplanted, and done a score of other things
dear to the gardener's heart, and now they wish
to see whether their carrots and their onions,
their roses and their lilies, their apples and their
plums—according as they give themselves to the
cultivation of vegetables, flowers, or fruit—are
likely to answer all their expectations. Of
course, with a great number of people
these are simply business calculations, a matter
of pounds, shillings, and pence, of profit or loss.
But to many it is an amusement which they
consider to be as health-giving as it is full of
pleasure, and amateur gardeners at this season
of the year are to be sympathised with rather
than blamed if, in their anxiety about their
prospective crops, they are apt to become some-
thing in the nature of bores to their friends.

It seems that we are likely to have this summer
a repetition of the excitement which filled all
yachting circles last year because of an inter-
national yacht race, for intelligence has just
come to hand of the building at St. John's, New
Brunswick, of a centre-board yacht, to be called
by the unromantic appellation of Blue Rose,
and which will compete for the America Cup.
She is stated to have more length and beam, as
well as greater draught and sail than the Volun-
teer, so that a good race should be expected,
Yachting, from the very nature of it, can
never be a popular pastime, for it is too
costly for any but the richest to indulge in.
The amount of money which it involves
would seem to the uninitiated almost fabulous,
and as, in addition the sport is a highly technical
one, it can little be : wondered at that it is only
on the occasion of international competitions
that the outside public take very much interest
in it. The interest then is only that of the old
sentiment which commands people to stand up
for their Country "right or wrong," but that is a
sentiment which continues to have a very strong
hold in every nation, and it will account for much
of the excitement, which would otherwise appear
perfectly unaccountable, which attends upon in-
ternational contests in pastimes with which the
generality of human beings have very little
concern.

Ins country so deeply divided upon public
questions as ours, it is always pleasant. to find
some subject upon which all our leading poli-
ticians practically agree. One such is that of
technical education, and the recent debate upon
this matter in the House of Commons, wherein
the leaders of the Conservative, the Gladstonian
Liberal, and the Liberal Unionist parties
alike spoke in support of the idea, ought to do
good by forcing the matter forward. Everybody
practically admits that, in the future race for
the commercial supremacy of the world, the
prize will fall to that nation which is best-
trained, and no one is likely to suggest that
at this moment that character can be given
to England. In some departments of industry,
France and Germany, especially the latter, are
pressing us very hard, and :those are the very
countries which have paid. most heed to
technical education. It is evidently high time,
therefore, that England should be up and doing,
and although a cut-and-dried plan cannot be
laid before Parliament at a moment's notice, full
discussion of the question as a necessary pre-
liminary to a plan, is essential. A. F. 11.

A HARD ease—A font of Greek type.'
THERE is nothing else in this wide world in which
there is so much room for improvement as a leq Of
told mutton,