The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-08-02 00:00:00

Plc ..s.total)ribge 045ertier.

sATURDAY, AUOUST 2, 1873.

CURRENT TOPICS.

It would seem from the performances of a " party"
of ironworkers from West Bromwich, on Saturday
last, that the favourite idea of a " spree " with some
the denizens of the Black Country, is to go out in
it v.:hie!, to seineadjacent locality, and there imbibe
sufficient intoxicating drink to make thew quarrel-
somely drunk, and then to kick up a row. And, if
an unfortunate policeman should come in their way,
whom they may have the chance of kicking and
otherwise maltreating, then the very acme of human
felicity is reached. No doubt this is all very proper,
anti if the stern myrmidon' of the law" should
happen to get hurt from their playful exhibition of
anima/ spirits, he can have no one but himself to
blame for crossing their path. Unfortunately, the
Magistrates (short-sighted individuals) are itpt to
look upon their conduct in a very different light. At
least, it was so in a case that came before Messrs. B.
Littiewood au! W. C. Firmstone, at this Police
Court, on Monday last. From the egglence given
(which appears in another column) it seems that the
officer in this instance was knocked down and brutally
illtreated, by no less than 40 or 50 persons. This
happened at Clent, where there are at the present
season hundreds of persons visiting daily, and from
the smallness of the place it is evident that a gangof
lawless ruffians like those referred to, would excite
considerable terror amongst the peaceful inhabitants.
Considering that Audi numbers of rough characters
are cou,tantly visiting the place at the present time,
we think it absolutely necessary that there should be
more police stationed there, both for the safety of the
inhabitants, and for the mutual protectioitlif the
officers themselves, whose lives are imperibfed by
such ruffianly conduct.

At the West Bromwich Police Court, on Monday
last, a case was heard that should serve as a caution
to over-officious guardians of the peace. A young
woman named Phcebe Felvus, of Horseley Heath,
Tipton, was charged before Mr. Isaac Spooner, Sti-
pendiary, with "being disorderly, and refusing to
leave the street when requested." Police-constable
Ward was the complainant in the case, and he stated
that shortly after midnight on Saturday, he found the
defendant making a great noise, and that she refused
to leave the street when he ordered her to do so.
Upon hearing this, the following colloquy took place
between the officer and the magistrate :

The Stipendiary : What Act of Parliament makes that
an offence?

Officer: I don't know, sir, I am sure ; she was making
• gnat noise.
Stipendiary : Was she snaking use of bad or indecent
language
Officer: No, sir ; she was calling acme one out of a
house.

Stipendiary (to officer): Why, :dr, then she ought to
bring an action again 4 you.
Officer: I thought she was breaking the law, sir.
Stipendiary (to accused): Bring an action in the
County Court against this policeman for taking you into
ctutudy.
The girl then left the court.

Our contemporary, The Figaro, of Wednesday last,
has a scathing article on a case which was tried at
Brierley Hill a few weeks back, in which Mr. Pres-
ton, of the Fountain Inn, was charged with exhibit-
ing indecent photographs in his house to young girls
and boys. After giving a statement of the facts of
the case, it calls attention to that portion of Mr.
Young's speech for the defence, in which the learned
counsel, after admitting that the photographs were
indecent, said " he did not believe the defendant dis-
played them with any prurient feelings, but rather
under a mistaken notion that it was not illegal."
After stating that '• We (The Figaro) never heard
of a weaker defence, or more arrant impertinence on
the part of counsel," the article calls attention to the
fact that Mr. Young actually directed the Magistrate
as to what course he should adopt, and that the latter
did as he was directed. It then goes on to point out
that the Magistrate who tried the case was not one
of the "great unpaid," but a stipendiary named Mr.
Isaac Spooner; and further states that Mr. Spooner,
instead of rebuking the counsel for his impudence,
actually "bore it like a sheep." We must certainly
any on behalf of the learned Stipendiary, that it is
not often that he allows lawyers—whether they are
barristers or solicitors—to dictate to him. And,
with reference to his leniency, we know for a fact
that the magistrate who has earned for himself
throughout the district in which he hears cases, the
cognomen of " Cruel Isaac," seldom errs on the side
of soft-heartedness. We quite agree with our Lon-
don contemporary., that if " The offender had been a
poor man he would have been sent to prison for three
months." There is no doubt that the law which
enables a rich man to escape punishment by paying a
tine which it would be impossible for the poor man to
pay, is a gross injustice. We see it exemplified every
day, at our local police courts. But, until that law
is repealed, and one is substituted leaving no option
to magistrates in the matter, there are sure to be
instances in which much more flagrant miscarriages
of justice than the above will take place. We are
aware of the fact that if, as Mr. Spooner himself
remarked, he had convicted, he would have had no
option but to send the defendant to prison for three
mouths as 11 rogue and vagabond; lad we do not
think he was deterred from doing this by any base or
Unworthy motives. Mr. Spooner has, by the general
impartiality of his judgments, and the stern nnwav-
ering severity with which he metes out justice to
wife beaters and other oppressors of the weak won
for himself a high reputation throughout the district
over which he presides. We cannot, therefore, coin-
cide with The Figaro when it strives to make him a
scapegoat, by calling Mr. Bruce's (the Secretary of
State) attention to his conduct in this matter, and
asking for an immediate inquiry into the case. There
Iri no doubt in our mind that he was entrapped into
giving tnis decision by the idea that if he sent the
man to prison no one would be benefitted by it;
whereas, if the ..£5O was given, the Guest Hospital,
which, to use Mr. Spooner's own words, " supplies ft
great boon in this neighbourhood, much good would
accrue to a charitable institution, which wiss doing a
really good work amongst the poor in that district.

In a brief speech which the Hon. C. G. Lyytelton
made at the Hagley Flower Show the other
day, on the occasion of distributing the prizes to the
cottagers, he made some remarks with reference to
the value of diffusing more generally among the
poorer classes, a taste for floriculture. With this
view he drew attention to the operations of a Loudon
society, which has for its object the promotion of a
taste for wh is known as 'window gardening,"
amongst the working classes in the metropolis; and
suggested that it would be desirable for the society
connected with the Halesowen and Hagley Horticul-
tural Exhibitions to offer prizes for a like object.
We are thoroughly at one with Mr. Lyttelton, in his
desire to see th.• love for flowers more generally de-
veloped amongst the working classes than it is at
present; but we certainly mumot see the necessity
for restricting that taste to " window gardening" in
flit. district. The latter may do for London very
well, where, with the poorer classes, all other
kinds of floriculture is completely out of the ques-
tion ; but in this district, whore even those homes
which come under the desiguatioa "squalid, have
their little patches of ground—dignified into gardens
—attached to them, we think the offering prizes for
window gardening only, would be a strange anomaly.
Why not make a working inane class—which should
be something between the present class for amateurs
and that for cottage's—in which plants, flowers,
fruits, and vegetables could be exhibited without any
reference as to Wilt tier the first of these were grown
in wiudO,va or not. We venture to predict that if
something of this kind were done it would soon be-
e en, recess, an Ido much towards popularising
not only floriculture amongst working people, but,
also, to making these annual exhibitions a greater
saseess even than they now are. There are Lundrede
of working 'nen in the district at the present time
h., nee nut qualified to exhibit as cottagera, and who
i 1 theinsolves at a considerable disadvantage
i.:. the c,a:s for amateurs from a lack of time and
maims to give to such a " hobby," who would wel-
eo,4- gladly the colvent of an innovation like this.
We Si "10st Is holc, therefore, that the committee will
to, • till: ni,tt T ioto their consiberation, as we are
coollent that if e ri .1 into efd.et it would 111. bene-
tlh, soei-ty. 1y arousing new in-
and to the working men, by
iJtiimg alina i a nu, •dti...• to spend more time ill
. .
IM11.•-, of their leisure in
nal, a pur..a:ts.

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1: •

With refered,7_, t t!t.• r .505.,1 of Light-aoil, the
Commi.siouor. 1., v.: de.j Ito ee the tender of
Mr. li,,rAley, farmer, of the h ...a, hoe engaged
to remote all night—oil withM t:•',tip, for two
years, for th.. Boni of ROW. ' e lion now
arises so to how the Commi, to raise the
n-eessary fends to meet tl.“ . We are
ttithully of opiaioa that tie fei f see facing this
will be hy inemn; of u ger, ti r't •, a t matter is
one that ettim,rns the whole u t., r.s-Lients in the
tawitshi:,, ii it, consequeutly,.th harden should fall
111,ou all alike.

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