The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-09-03 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN,

The total Customs receipts of the Dominion- of
Canada for the past fiscal year amounted to 18,500,000 dols.
A Montreal despatch states that proposals have
been made by a French company for the construction of a
railway tunnel under the St. Lawrence.
At Odenwald the blackberry is much valued, and a
large quantity of claret is manufactured from its Juice.
The yield this season in some districts is valued at from
20,000 to 30,000 marks.

A Geneva Correspondent telegraphs that a lake has
been created in Switzerland by a landslip, which has blocked
up an effluent of the Rhine, and converted the valley into a
sheet of water.

Sharks have invaded the waters round New York,
and bathers at the neighbouring watering-places on the
coast are in a great state of alarm.

A sale of various articles belonging to Napoleon I.
has recently taken place at Compiegne. Amongst them was
k camp bedstead.

The Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales
have been pleased to accept copies of "A Voice in the
Wilderness," being a volume of sermons preached in the
ancient" Forest of Dartmoor and Royal Manor of Lydford, '
by the Rev. 3lorrls Fuller, formerly rector of Lydford-cum-
Princetown, of which living the Prince of Wales is the
patron.
According to a census recently taken it appears
that the population of Alsace and Lorraine is increasing
under German rule. The number of inhabitants is now re-
turned at 1,566,670, as against 1,531,801 five years ago, thus
showing an augmentation of 34,866 persons.
In the Cathedral of Ulm a fresco covering an entire
wall has been newly discovered. It is a represestation of
the last Judgment.

The whole of the bodies have been recovered from
the Maudlin seam, New Seaham Colliery. Fourteen were
found on Saturday floating among the water which had
accumulated in the pit. The colliery is again at work, draw-
ing coal from Nos. 1 and 2 pits.
Shire-bred horses are finding favour in America.
A valuable shipment has just been made from Liverpool, and
the prices paid were satisfactory to the breeders.

- -
As a number of children were playing on Saturday
on the steps at the Temple , Pier, London, a little boy,
apparently about eight years of age, fell into the river and
was drowned.

The Queen was not present at Crathie Church on
Sunday, but several members of the Court attended. Mr.
Campbell, minister of the parish, preached. Her Majesty
drove out in the afternoon.

The wcrk of tabulating the result of the Indian
Census held last February is now proceeding rapidly, and
the figures for the whole country will soon be published. It
is believed they will show a population of a little over 250
millions.

Mr. James Arthington, of Leeds, has made a pro-
posal to the directors of the Wesleyan Foreign Missionary
Society that he will give £2,000 as a nucleus for a fund for
establishing Wesleyan missions in Central Africa along the
line of the territories visited by Dr. Livingstone and Mr.
Stanley.

On Tuesday morning, during a strong gale, the
schooner Zipporah, at anchor in Whitby Bay, hoisted a
signal of distress, in response to which the Margaret and
Edward, lifeboat of the National Lifeboat Institution, was
hunched, and brought the crew safely to shore. The life-
boat afterwards proceeded to the aid of a Straithes fishiug
boat, which was in a position of much danger, and brought
her to a place of safety.
On the Tweed, owing to the flooded state of the
river, fishing was suspended, last week, except at one or two
of
.the upper stations. At these fish were extremely scarce,
and on Saturday there was not a fish to be had in Berwick.
Prices on Friday were :—Salmon and grilse, Is. ld. ; trout,
Is. per lb.
An agitation is springing up amongst the railway
servants for a nine hours' movement, and a meeting in
furtherance of the object was held on Sunday night at Shef-
field. mt clings are to be held in other parts of the
country.

Carrier pigeons will probably prove of considerapie
use to the Indian army in the future. The military
authorities propose to train pigeons in all large British can-
tonments, so that the birds may be available as messengers
in cases of emergency whe:e the telegraph has been de-
stroyed.
The opening of the sporting season, which in France
depends on the state of the harvest, has taken place a week
earlier this year than last. For the last few days hundreds
of devotees of he chaste, with a formidable armature of guns,
dogs, and game bags, have left Paris for various spots in the
Departments of the Seine, and of the North, where game is
reported to be plentiful. The number of sporting licenses
issued at the Prefecture of the Police this season is seven
thousand five hundred..

The Royal Zoological Society of Amsterdam has
just published a catalogue of its library, containing 4,361
works in Dutch, Latin, and various other languages.

The misanthropic pike -keeper to whom Mr. Weller,
senior, more than once refers seems to be doomed ere long
to complete extinction. In 1864 there were in England and
Wales 1,043 trusts, representing 20,58 g miles of road ; on the
Ist of January of the present year these appear, from
official returns, to have dwindled to 129 trusts, representing
3,689 miles. Fifty-six of the latter will expire before the
end of 1885. The year 1893 seems to be the date at which
" pikes " in England and North Wales will have entirely dis-
appeared.—Daily Armee.

- - -
Thirty-six deaths from small-pox were registered in
London last week; ZS were recorded in the Metropolitan
Asylum Hospitals, one in the Highgate Small-pox Hospital,
and 7 in private dwelling-houses.'
-

A prominent Chicago dealer estimates the American
cotton crop at five million bales.
- -

-
American grain shipments to Europe for the past
week include 395,0u0 quarters wheat, 315,000 being forwarded
to the United Kingdom, and 80,000 to the Continent. Of
113,000 quarters maize shipped, 88,000 were sent to this
country and 25,000 to other parts of Europe, 72,500 bags flour
being added.

By a decree of the President of the French Repuolic,
just published, a new department for Chaldean, Assyrian,
Persian, Phomician, Hebrew, and Carthaginian antiquities
has been instituted at the Louvre. M. Leon lieuzey is
appointed curator. The old department of antiquities will
for the future, be devoted to Greek and Roman remains
only.

In Paris a serious fire t'ook place early on Tuesday
morning at the docks of La Villette. It broke out in a large
storehouse full of sugar, wine, and spirits. The steam
pumps were soon on the spot, and water being at hand the
flames were xot under in a couple of hours, and the fear that
the whole docks would be destroyed was happily dispelled.
The damage is estimated at twenty-four thousand pounds
sterling. ihe cause of the outbreak was unknown.

The Antwerp Museum has lately added to its collec-
tion another picture by Rubens—a Venus—bought froul an
Antwerp family for 100,000 fr

In London, last week, 2,393 births and 1,342 deaths
were registered. Allowing for increase of population, the
births were 132 and the deaths 190 below the average num-
bers in the corresponding week of the last ten years. The
annual death-rate from alit causes, which had steadily de-
clined in the four preceding weeks from 272 to 2 01. per
1,000, further fell to 183 and was lower than in any week
since the beginning of June.
'

-
The Prince of Wales, a Vice Patron of the Ship-
wrecked Fishermen and Mariners' Society, has just contri-
buted a donation of twenty-five guineas to this Society, with,
in addition a special donation of £l5 in aid of the Shetland
Relief Fund, recently inaugurated by the Society on behalf
of the Local Relief Committee in the Shetlands.
The Cunard steamer Bothnia, which called at
Queenstown on Sunday, took on board 335 first class
passengers, the largest number of cabin passengers that has
ever embarked for America in one vessel.

A telegram from Athens, dated August 27, says :
The heat during the last five days has been excessive, a hot
wind blowing day and night, as if from the Libyan desert.
The deaths in Athens from typhoid fever average about ten
daily. A large number of families have left the city for the
country and the islands.

The Marquis of Lorne and party left Fort Ellice
f3r Quappello on the 14th inst. After journeying eight
miles they encamped, owing to the bad weather. The party
made forty miles on the 16th inst , and reached Quappelle
on the 17th His Excellency received an address at the
Indian Mission station, and gave audience to a thousand
Indians, composed of t•ioux, alleaux, and Crees, who
danced before him for sew. ral hours. The party left on the
10th intl. for the Toucliwoott Hills.

Experimehts are being made in Paris with s,
view to running, couvtyances by cit (Aridly upon the tram-
way line extending to the Place de be !Cation, better known
under its former name, the Place du Trane. A successful
run of two kilometres has been made. The engines are saia
to be quite distinct from those known as the Siemens. The
cars carry their own electric motor, and the ordinary iron
rails are employed. • ' -

A collisit;n -occurred on Saturday night on the East
of France line, near Jussey, bet west the express train from
Belfort, Ikhich reaches Paris at 6 12 as , and a goods train.
One perton was killed and four were injured, one of thesis
severely. Among, the injured is an English lady, .Nliss Penn
Father (probably PennyfathPr), residing at the Hotel
Meuriee.

A coffee ccontest was one of the amusements of the
Brussels Kermess° last week, amongst other curious and
ranch specimens Flemish rejoicings in the older quarters
of the town. The lucky woman who can drink the largest
number of cups of coffee, and can swallow the beverage hot-
test. will be awarded a new dress.
The New York Herald calla the Brooklyn Seaside
Home for poor children at Coney Jsiand " the most impor-
tant life-saving station on the coast.''

- - -
In Vienna, on Monday, there was opened the Inter-
national Corn and Seed Fair. It is estimated that the sur-
plus available for exportation from Austria will be 1,500,000
quintals of wheat, 2,000,000 of rye, the same of barley, and
750,000 of oats. The attendance was not large, and business
in wheat was dull in consequence of the high prices
demanded.

A telegram from Kirkwall says it is feared that a
large ship has been burnt off the Orkney Islands, as at
several places large quantities of wreckage have come on
shore, the logs and planks being charred. The lower fore-
topsail yard of a vessel has been picked up at Papa, Westray,
and another yard at North Ronaldshay.
The telephone is to be popularise in Berlin by-the
establishment of a largo telephone office, where the general
public may communicate with such private houses as possess
apparatus of their own, and are duly connected with the
office. On payment of 6d. any one will be enabled to Con-
verse for five minutes.
Two of the seven or eight men who were injured
in the accident that occurred on Wednesday in last week
on the line between Didcot and Newbury, are still lying
in a critical state at the Navvies' llosintal in Newbury.
The accident was a somewhat singular one. A number of
men were riding on a ballast truck, when the engine left
the metals, and fell on its side, dragging with it the trfick,
and throwing out the men, who were frightfully scalded
by the boiling water that escaped from the engine. S'lnith,
the ganger, fell under the engine, and had his thigh injured,
besides substaining othe: injuries. le was attended by Dr.
Watson, but he is so severely scaled that tile broken limb
cannot be set at present. A man named Itirb had a had
scalp wound, and both thighs tcrribly sc.ahtd.• the caus.e
of the evglue leaving the metals has not been explained:

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The Noroe Vreinya states that several cases of.
cattle plague have lately occurred in St. Petersburg itself,
but that measures have been taken to prevent it spreading.
The arrivals of live stock and fresh meat in Liver-
pool last week from the United States and Canada were of
live cattle a slight decrease, of sheep an increase, and with
regard to fresh meat the arrivals also showed an increttie on
the preceding week. The totals were 5,436 quarters of beef,
696 carcases of mutton, 1,618 cattle, and 2,912 sheep.
Under the head of "Conscience Money" the Chan,
cellor of the Exchequer acknowledges in the Times the re-
ceipt of £1.6 from "C. W. J." on account of tucome-tax.
A member of the Browning Society estimates the
total number of lines written by Mr. Browni.eg, at about
97,000, something like a fourth lest than Shakespeare is cal-
culated to hate written.
The American small,hoat Little TVestan (a Ireuter'
telegram states) arrived at Cape .Breton on the 28th inst.
from London, after a passage of seventy•tive days. ,She
exTerienced heavy weather throughout, and sustained souie
damage.
Telegrams received in Dundee from St. John, New-
foundland, report that the Davis &mitt whale fishing has
been a failure this season. The total catch of the twelve
Dundee vessels engaged to the 13th of A,lgust is 448 tons,
against 1,077 toes last year.
The King of the Sandwich Tslands and suite
arrived in Dover on Wednesday morning by We ordinary
English mail packet. Ills Majesty and suite left for London
by the mail express.
A telegram from Lloyd's agent at Savannah etates
that a hurricane has passed over that town, doing eons:der-
aole damage to property.

- -
A Blue-book just issued contains a return to thet
House of Commons, obtained by Mr. Ashley, of the
mart-
snuni rates of charges which the railway companies of the
United Kingdom are authorized to make for the conveyance
of passengers, animals, goods, on railways.
In Steinerne Meer, near Koenigsee, two tourists,
who probably undertook the ascent without a guide and
lost their way, have been found dead.
A large firm in Indianopolis has just bought an
orange crop, in three groves near that place, at the cost of 16.
dols. per thousand of the fruit, which is remarkably flue.
The crops are expected to yield from 000,000 to 700,000
oranges.
The number of chess-clubs in Germany •amounts to
ninety-three, with 2,329 members.
A statue of Joan of Arc has been unveiled at the
little town of Crotoy. There were great rejoicings on the
occasion, and many political notabilities were present.
John Morden a Canadian farmer's boy, self taught
in the art of taxidermy, has a collection of 1,800 birds stuffed
and mounted by himself.
A single ticket broker in New York is said to sell
1,000,000 dole. worth of tickets a year.
It is announced that her Majesty has been pleased
to confer the title of a Baron of the United Kingdom upon
the Marquis of Tweeddale, the Earl of Howth, Lord Bean
Sir Harcourt Johnstone, Bart., Sir Dudley Coutts Marion--
banks, Bart., M.P , and Sir Henry Tufton.
A boat containing five young men suddenly capsized
on Tuesday evening in the River Tees. The occupants were
thrown into the water, and one named Benjamin Dawson,
aged 15, drowned. The other four were rescued with dia. .
culty. The body of Dawson was recovered.

The parade of German Guards at Berlin on . Tues-
day was a most magnificent spectacle, and strengthened,
says a German correspondent, the high opinion which is
generally entertained of these troops as being' the eitte of
the German army. The Emperor, who looked hale and
hearty, remained en horseback for three hours uninter-
ruptedly.
- - -

- -
On Wednesday a maiden Assize was held at
Dundee, when Lord Moncrieff, the presiding judge, wax
presented by the provostwith a pair of white gloves. This
Is the first occasion of a maiden assize that has ever been
held since the establishment of the Circuit Court in Dundee.
In accepting the gift his lordship said the state of matters
showed the fruit of increased effort on behalf of the reli-
gious, social, and intellectual condition of the people.

Preparations are already being made for the
proposed visit of Mr. Gladstone to Leeds on October 7 and 8.
The yard of the Coloured Cloth Hall, if it can be obtained,
will be chosen for a public demonstration. It will acCom-
modate 40,000 people, and it is intended to roof it over. A
public banquet will also form part of the proceedings.
On Saturday afternoon deputations from Sir
Stafford Northcote's tenantry in various districts of Devon
attended at Upton Pyne Rectory to present the Rev. John
Stafford Northcote with two wedding gifts—a large carved
oak table and a very handsome china service. After the
ceremony the Rev and Mrs. Northcote entertained the
deputations at luncheon. Sir Stafford and Lady Northcote
were present throughout the proceedings.
A series of interesting experiments will take place
early next month at the Crystal ealace to determine the best
means for the recovery of shipwrecked vessels and their
cargoes, • A large tank is being fitted up for the purpose of
the experiments, and some new and novel apparatus is in
course of construction to practically illustrate, on a some-
what large scale, the modus operandi by which tile recovery
of wrecks may be effected.

•
At Walton-on-Thames, on Friday in last IYeek, a
jack weighing over 241 b., and measuring three feet eight
inches, was taken ; a short time previously one i•hich
weighed aver 181 b. was caught at the Mille place; and ser,:ral
smaller jack have lately been taken.

A fisherman named Peter Nicholson, while accom-
panying his brother in a small boat to a vessel anchored in
Lerwick Harbour, was drowned by the upsetting of the boat.
The other occupant saved his life by clinging to the mooring
chain of a vessel in harbour. Deceased, whose body was
subsequently recovered, leaves a widow and two children
Tuesday night's London Gazette contains an order
in Council approving several new denominations of standard
gauges in accordance with the provisions of the Weights and
Measures Act, 1873.
Last week's receipts of cotton at all United State::
ports have been 35,000 bales, and since Ist Septcne,
5,797,300 bales. Exports to Great Britain, 20,000 bales, and
to the Continent and Channel, 5,000 bales total since Ist
September, 4,512,100 bales. St,ock at all ports, 223,000 bales.

According to a New York telegram the visible
supply of wheat on Aug. 26 was 17,500,000 bushels; ditto,
Indian corn, 17,400,000 bushels. Export clearances of wheat
for Europe during the past week, 2,560,000 bushels; export
clearances of Indian corn for Europe during the past week
1,580,000 bushels.
The diocesan synod of New South Wales have passed
a resolution that the Revised Version of the New Testament
be not used until sanctioned by the bishop; but several of
the clergy have already adopted its use on thei own
responsibility.
Believers in Free Trade are waking up to the neces-
sity of a counter.agitation to the propagando of the advo-
cates of "Fair Tn.& " and Reciprocity, and there is some
talk of employing lecturers to spread the knowledge of "the
true economic faith."
The Melbourne Argus says Tawhiao' the Maori
King, with a number of Chiefs, visited Alexandra on
July 10, quite unsolicited, and as a peace offering laid 80
guns at the feet of the Representative of the New Zealand
Government.
The report of the Commissioners of Patents for
Inventions for the year 1880 has just been issued. The
number of applicati,,ns for letters patent during 1880 was
5,517, being 179 more than in the preceding year.

A shocking fatal accident occurred at the Great
Western Railway goods station at Newbury on Monday
afternoon. While a labourer named Tagg was engaged cart-
ing near some goods trucks, which were being shunted, the
horse he was leading became restive, and, in his endeavour
to retain control of the horse and steer clear of the trucks,
he was thrown under the wheels of his own cart, and was so
much injured that he expired immediately. A verdict of
"Accidental death" has been returned.

There were 35 British and foreign wrecks, of which
25 were British, three being steamers, reported during the
past week, making a total of 1,105 for the present year, or an
increase of 205 as compared with the corresponding period of
last year. The approximate value of property lost was
£5,000,000, including Brit,sh, £3,600,000.
The Paris papers express their satisfaction at the
announcement, first officially made in the Queen's Speech,
that the negotiations between France and England for the
renewal of the Commercial Treaty are about to be resumed.

In London, on Sunday evening, a special service was.
held under the auspices of the Lord's Day Rest Association,
for railway servants, omnibus men, cabmen, and others, in
Shoreditch parish church. There was a large congregation,
the sermon being preached by the vicar, the Rev. Septimus
Buss, LL.D., who urged that Sunday travelling should be
restricted, so that those for whom that service was specially
intended could keep the Lord's Day.

The report of the Government chinchona plantations
in Southern India shows that there are now more than
4,500,000 trees planted. The bark produced not only supplies
the medical depots in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, but
gives a surplus of about 3,0001 b. for sale to the public. Tne
report evidences the great progress made by chinchona in
Southern India since it was first introduced twenty years
ago.

The President of the American and Foreign Bible
Society, a Baptist organisation, has made arrangements for
a revised version of the Old Testament. Dr. Conant has
been entrusted with the task, for which he is to receive •
25,000 dollars. The work is not intended as an independent
translation, but only a revision of the common version, and
the phraseology of the King • James's version will be pre-
served as-much as possible.

Successful experiments were made the other night
in illuminating the Palais de l'lndustrie, Paris, with the
electric light. Both inside and outside the building the
effect was very striking. Se eral of Edison's lamps are lit
in the ExhibLion, and are sa to be as manageabie as any
gas apparatus.