The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-10-02 00:00:00

EIA_TURDAY, OCT. 2, 1886.

As an elderly gin-tie-man named Portman was walking
along Oxford-terrace, Bayswater, on Saturday after-
noon, he was attacked by a man and robbed of a goli
watch, valued at £3O. Mr. Simpson, a magistrate of
Windsor, witnessed the occurrence, and gave chase,
the thief being captured.
Whilst digging on the farm of a gentleman at
Kilfinane, near Mitchelstown, on Saturday, sonic
labourers came on an iron case containing a human
skeleton, and several handsome gold and silver coins of
a very ancient date.
Churches in the United States are estimated to use
60,000 gallons of wine every year for sacramental
purposes.
Mr. F. G: Hodder, barrister, formerly a legal
Assistant Commissioner under the Land Act, has been
appointed secretary to the Commission to inquire into
the operation of the Irish Land Act, 1881, and tte
Purchasing Land Act, 1885.
A new high-level reservoir, which forms part of the
scheme for au improved water supply and other
sanitary improvements, arising out of a typhoid. epiJ
demic at Kidderminster, was formally opened on
Monday. The scheme is estimated to cost about
£25,000.
During the last few days several locusts have been
found in Canterbury. They are supposed to have coma
over to this country in consignments of foreign fruit.
In consequence of the lowness of the tide at Chathsra
on Monday, the bolts fastening the floating lauding'
stage gave way, and the structure slipped forward in
the river. Several people were upon it at the time, but
it is believed that all escaped.
At the annual meeting, on Monday, of the Civil
Service Writers' Association, satisfaction was expres,on
at what the Government has promised in respect to
them; and their claim was renewed to the advantages
of establishment, of a graduated scale of remuneration,
and of promotion by merit.
Another revolutionary rising on a small scale has
taken place in Spain, e
this time among the mount:n
i s
of Gerona. The 30 insurgents were pursued by vie
troops, and such of them as escaped into France w esti
there apprehended by the French authorities.
The clerical party in Naples made an attack Cu
Sunday upon a demonstration of Liberals who were pro-
testing against any interference by the priests in the
administration of municipal affairs. A hand-to-han I
fight ensued; the assailants were defeated, and mrsoY
arrests wt re made.
A fire broke out in the Cathedral of Ajacsio, which
was filled by some two thousand people. A rush was
made for the door, and a great many persons were
injured. One old man died shortly afterwards, aid a
girl was not expected to recover.
News has reached Sydney that a third French military
lost has been formed at Vila Harbour, one of the Neat
Hebrides Islands, and that it was apparently intended
to establish a township at Vila.
The Duke of Cambridge and his staff visited Alder-
shot on Monday, and in the Long Valley inspecttd
between eight and nine thousand of the troops sta-
tioned there. After the march past some field move-
ments occupied an ;hour, and the operations Coll.
eluded about two o'clock. The greater ptrt of the
men were under arms over seven hours. _ _

- _
An influential meeting of merchants and leading
citizens was held at the Mansion House on Monday,
uhich the Lord Mayor had called to consider the
letter recently received from the Prince of 'Wales
relative to the proposed Imperial Institute to com-
memorate the Queen's Jubilee. It was unanimously
resolved, on the motion of the Governor of the Bank
of England, that the Lord Mayor should be requested
to nominate a small consultative committee, to con-
sider the best steps to be taken to raise the necessary
fund.
A gas explosion, caused through seeking for an
escape of gas with a light, occurred on Saturday after-
noon, at 11, Lambert•road, Brixton, at the private
house of Mr. W. D. Street. The force of the explosion
partially wrecked the front part of the ground floor,
and a fire followed, which was, however, speedily
subdued.

The cholera in Pesth continues with great intensity. •
One of the most remarkable features is the death of A
London merchant, who, coming direct from London
via Brussels and Vienna, immediately upon arriving at
his brother's villa in Pesth fell ill, and died three hours
later. The number of oases in the barracks has
increased.
The tobacco year now drawing to a close, observes
the "American," of Baltimore, has been the greatest
in point of receipts in the history of Lynchburg. To
the present time 34,000.000 pounds have been sold, and
by October Ist, when the fiscal year ends, the sales will
have reached about 38,000,000 pounds. Low prices
have prevailed during the greater part of the year,
and some of the small dealers have been well nigh
ruined.
A second mitre has just been presented to the Bishop
of Lincoln, composed of cloth of gold richly dispersed
with gold thread. The orphreys are of plain cloth of
gold munificently enriched with amethysts, pearls,
topazes, and chrysolites in silver settings. The mitre
has, like those of the fourteenth century, crockets, and
is intended by the donor to pass to successive Bishops
of Lincoln. _ _

—ii.-"Kt7Efire occurred on Monday afternoon in the
dwelling.house of Mr. Israel Sugarman, tailor, Strange-
ways, Manchester. His daughter, a girl about seven
years of age, took a light into the cellar and acci-
dentally set fire to some shavings and rags. and her
'father, alarmed by the smoke, rushed into the cellar
and found his little girl lying helpless in the flames.
He snatched her up and she was at once taken to the
Infirmary, but died on the way. Mr. Sugarman was
also burnt about the hands and face.
The passenger train which left Ashford for Hastings
at 6.15 on Monday evening was approaching Snailshaal
when a heavy shock was experienced. The night being
dark and stormy the passengers were lunch alarmed.
The train was pulled up and backed about a mile, when
the guard and engine-driver alighted, and on search•
log along the line found the mangled remains of three
heifers upon the track, while three cows were roaming
about the line, evidently in search of shelter from the
storm. The train arrived at Hastings about half an
hour late
A youth, named William March, was charged on
Monday at the Bolton County Police-court with at-
tempting to upset an express train between Bolton and
Manchester, by placing blocks of wood upon the main
line. The evidence showed that the prisoner was seen
on the line near the spot where the obstruction was
found before the express was due by the guard of a
luggage train coming in the opposite way. The prit
soner, who is well-known to the police, was committed
for trial
The Barnsley magistrates, on Monday, amidst great
excitement, announced that they dismissed the sum-
menses obtained by Mr. Dan Rylands against 86 bottle-
makers, who were charged with absenting themselves
from wet without notice, on the ground that he did
not give them a week's notice of his intention to work
three instead of two shifts. A case for a higher Court
was granted. The action has excited an unusual
amount of interest, and the hearing lasted two days.
At Sedgley, on Monday, ten young men, all residing
at Wolverhampton and Ettingshall, were charged watt
damaging the grass at Park Hall Farm. The defen-
dants were found by Constable Leadbetter gambling in
a field on Sunday; but, as the place was not near a
public highway. he could not prosecute them for
gambling, and obtained sanction of the owner of the
farm to prosecute them for wilful damage. They were
each fined is. and costs.
The inquiry respecting the deaths of ten men killed
in the explosion at the Dean Lane Colliery, Bristol,
terminated on Monday, when the jury found that the
ventilation of the pit was adequate, and that the explo•
sion resulted from the sudden eruption of gas coming
through an archway at the bottom of the incline. The
jury approved the manager's resolve to use safety lamps
more extensively. A verdict of "Accidental death"
was returned.