The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-05-01 00:00:00

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the Academy of Sciences, M. Tissandier estimated the ex-
had • .
yards.
Cardinal Manning, in reply to an address of bon.. Y!
gratulation presented to him by forty-eight Catholic mem-
hers of I'arliament, expressed his satisfaction at the prosp, ro us
condition and favourable prospects of Ireland, and his confi-
lence that religious liberty hi this country would be secured
by the Legislature. •
A curious suggestion is made by Dr. Otto Oesterlen,
in a treatise on the human hair lately published in Germany,
to the effect that some poisons, such as arsenic, for example,
may be detected in the hair o persons to whom they have
been long administered as medicines or otherwise.
A Company has been formed for the purpose of
supplying the Freemasons residing in and visiting London
with all the usual club accommodation in addition to special
accommodation for Masonic • purposes Suitable premises '
are to be secured in a central part of the City of London.
From the let to the 24th instant the Treasury
receipts amounted to £5,678,597, al compared with
£5,070,514, in the corresponding •period of last year. The
expenditure has been £8,291,296, of which nearly five millions
and a quarter were for interest on the National Debt.
Thb twentieth annual meeting of the Band of Hope
Union was held in London on Taesday evening at Exeter
Hall Mr. Samuel Morley, .M.P., in the chair. The report
showed that the society had made satisfactory progress, but
funds are urgently needed in order to extend its influence.
A farmer in Mulmur, Ontarit, in order to reach tie
publie highway from his place of residence, during the
rezent snow-storm, had to tunnel a monster drift that
crossed his path. The bore of the tunnel was large enough
to admit a team, and its length 40 feet. The task com-
pleted, the farmer drove triumphantly through, and gained
the niore open road.
One of those remarkable changes of temperature
which often accompany spring weather in this climate is
referred to in the weekly return of the Registrar-General.
On Tuesday and Wednesday in last week the mean tempera-
ture was 53 degrees, and six degrees above the average for
the corresponding days in 60 years, whereas on Thursday,
Friday, and Saturday the mean temperature was only 40 de-
grees, and seven degrees below the same average. The mean
temperature on Tuesday and Wednesday was equal to the •
average for the 20th of May, while that of the three following
days corresponded with the average for the beginning of
March.
From a return to the House of Commons it appears
that between the Ist of July, 1873, and the 30th of June last,
of coal-laden vessels bound from the United Kingdom to
ports abroad there were seven burnt and 25 missing, making
; the tonnage was 17,435; the number of lives lost was
In Baltimore something like 20,000 persons are em-
ployed in the oyster trade. Whole streets are devoted to
the business of packing the bivalves. One single establish-
ment in that city packs 50,000 cans a day in the season. As
a natural result, the manufacture of tin cans has become a
flourishing business of Baltimore.
A curious legacy has, says the Jewish World, been left to
the poor Jews of Kalisch by a doctor of the Christian faith.
The deceased gentleman has bequeathed them 30,000 florins,
subject to the condition that the sum be not touched for 120
years, at the end of which time he calculated that the sum
would reach the amount of three million florins.
The oldest English chestnut is that at Tortworth, in
Gloucestershire. It measures 19 yards in circumference. It
was remarkable for its magnitude in the reign of King
Stephen (1135), and was even then called the great chestnut.
tree of Tortworth, from which it may reasonably be pre-
sumed to have been standing before the Conquest (1066). The
age oi the chestnut varies from 360 to 626 years, so that at
the age when the oak is of most value as timber the chestnut
is utterly worthless.
So frightened are the Germans of the Colorado
beetle, that it has been suggested to hang up descriptions of
the beetle on all ships, with a request that any specimens
met with may be at once destroyed.
Some one recently gave Prince Bismarck a recipe
against sleeplessness; we believe it was onions. This much
is, however, certain, whatever good quality there may be in
onions, sleepless people should court the sun. The very
worst soporific is laudanum, and the very best sunshine.
Therefore it is very plain that poor sleepers should pass as
many hours in the sunshine, and as few as possible in the
shade. Many women are martyrs, and yet do not know it.
They shut the sunshine out of their houses and hearts, they
wear veils, they carry parasols, and they do all possible
things to keep off the subtlest and yet most potent influence
which is to give them strength and beauty and cheerful-
nesse--Court Journal.
A Parliamentary paper was issued last week, con-
taining the Government Balance-Sheet for the year ended
the 31st ult. The total income was £74,928,039 13s. 3d., of
which £6,166 19s. 2d. was excess of total expenditure over
income in the year ended as stated. The total ordinary ex-
penditure was £74,328,639 13s. 3d., and the remaining
£OOO,OOO was raised by annuities for fortifications and the
localization of military forces. On the Ist of April, 1874, the
balances in the Exchequer were £7,442 854 2s. 10d. ; and on
the 30th of March last, £6,265,332 Is. 10e.
The destruction of the forests in Central Europe is
said to have lowered all the large rivers of Germany, so that
according to M. G. Wer, of the Vienna Geographical Society,
the Rhine is more than two feet lower than it was fifty years
ago, while the Danube has fallen more than four and a half
feet within the same period. It should he remembered,
however, that even if the fact of the decrease be established
beyond doubt, the cause assigned for it may not be the cor-
rect one. The opinions of scientific men are by no means
unanimous as to the effects of forest denudation.
At a late ball in Paris a very stout gentleman, pro-
prietor of a bad catarrh and a very charming wife, insisted,
very inconveniently, at the close of a waltz, that madame
should return to the bosom of her family. "Never mind," she
said to her partner • "ask me to dance in the next quadrille
all the same; I will find a way to stay for it." Slipping out
while the sets were forming, she went into the gentlemen's
dressing-room, found her husband's hat, and threw it out of
the window. Then, returning, and requesting her spouse
first to find his hat and call a carriage, she accepted partners
for the next six dances, quite sure of two hours before the
hat could be found.