The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-12-10 00:00:00

THE ZULUS AND SIR EVELYN WOOD.

The Bishop of Natal has sent to this country a re-
port of the interview of the Zulu deputation with Sir
Evelyn Wood, Governor of Natal, on October 29. The
Zulus in question, who wer,e staying at Bishopstowe,
went on that day to Pietermaritzburg, and were taken
by Mr. John Shepstone, Secretary for Native Affairs,
to Government House, where they saw Sir Evelyn
Wood, four other persons being present. On return-
ing to Bishopstowe they informed the Bishop that, in
answer to the Governor's question, "What have you
come about?" they said, 'We have come on the same
business' as before when we were sent with Mfunzi
and his party to thank you for the return of Mkosana,
because he was the skin if' which the child Cebewayo
had been wrapped, and therefore the chiefs who
sent us say, Pour on, sirs, and fill up for us the
same. Is a child struck on the head, or on the Loins
only ? ' "

I3y these figurative expressions the Zulus sought to
convey the idea that the return of Alkoss.na (a Zulu
who had shared Cetewayo'd captivity) having satisfied
them that the ex-king was living, they prayed that he
might be returned to hid country.

In answer to further questions they explained by
whom they had been sent, stating that they had come
from Mnyamana, Maduna, Ziwedu, and from eight of
the appointed chiefs. With regard to their proposed
journey to Capetown they were asked, "and for how
long do you suppose that you would stay at Cape-
town ? " They answered "We would stay for five
years, or for any length of time." "And since Cete.-
wayo is going to be taken to England, whieh is very
much farther off, what will you do?" Their reply
was, "We are quite ready; we only want to go to
him, wherever he may be; but if we can go to Eng-
land with him so much the better.

MORE APPROPRIATE.--021 Wednesday last week, as
per announcement, the Fe.tival of the Patron of Scot-
land, St. Andrew, was celebrated at Eton College
"with the annual loot-ball matches." It ought to
have been Hop•Scotch,—Punch.

"CLOTHING THE MINISTRY."—The ancient custom
of making a present of fine cloth to certain high
officers of State and gentlemen of her Majesty's
Household has just been observed by a committee of
the Court of Aldermen of the City of London (says
the City Press). The custom seems to have originated
in a desire to encourage competition in the ancient
woollen cloth work of the City by sending specimens
of its finest produce to thotse best qualified to judge
of its excellence. Blackwell Hall, the head-quarters
of the trade in former days, covered the spot where
the City Library now stands. The official order for
the distribution provides that pieces of cloth of four
and a half yards each shall be sent to the first
Secretary of State, the Lord Chancellor, the
Chamberlain of the Household, the Vice-Chamber-
lain of the Household, the Lord Steward, the Comp-
troller, the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas,
the Chief Baron of the Exchequer, the Master of the
Rolls, the Recorder of London, the Attorney-General,
the Solicitor-General, and the Common Serjeant.
The order further states that six yards of black cloth
and six yards of green cloth shall be given to the
Town Clerk, four yards of black and two yards of
green cloth to the chief clerk in the Town Clerk's
office, four yards to the Attorney in the Exchequer,
four yards to the Attorney in Chancery, four yards to
the Recorder's clerk, and four yards to the usher of
the Court of Aldermen. The distribution is carried
out by the Hallkeeper.
THE WEATHER IN THE ISLE OF WIGFIT.—The
spring-like, almost summer-like, weather in the Isle of
Wight is the subject of general conversation in the
island, as no such mild winter has been known even
in the "Garden Isle" for many years past, forming
as it does a wonderful contrast to the state of things
which prevailed here last winter. In some parts of I
the Undercliff fine ripe raspberries have been gathered
in the open during the past few days. Strawberries
are to be found in comparative abundance, and at
Shanklin peas are to be seen in bloom and in pod.
The valleys are lined with spring flowers. On Saturday
a lark's nest was taken on St. Bonif ace Down with
three newly-laid eggs in it.
PNEUMATIC CLOCKS IN PARIS.—A paper on the
"Distribution of Time by a system of Pneumatic
Clocks" was read before the Society of Arts last week
by Mr. J. A. Berly. The system advocated—the
Popp Resch system—is in use in Paris, where twenty
miles of main pneumatic tubes, and 137 of branches,
are laid in the sewers and communicate with 720
houses for the regulation of the clocks by means of
compressed air forced through the tubes by steam
power. The Compagnie Gkeral4 des Horologes
Pneumatiques supply suitable clocks with all the
apparatus and communication necessary for main-
ing automatically uniform and correct time in all the
clocks in large establishments, the public clocks of
towns, churches, and so forth, The municipality of
Paris have entered into a contract with the company
for fifty years to distribute time through the public
clocks of that city. The cost in private houses is from
a farthing, to a halfpenny per clock per day. Twenty
clocks were fixed on the walls of the lecture hall,
fitted with pneumatic tubing served by a forcing-
Pump, and during the two hours of the meeting the
pointers of the whole twenty maintained absolute uni-
formity. The hall was well lighted with electric
lamps, and a photograph of the assembly was taken in
that light
A MELANCHOLY SUICIDE.—in London, on Mon-
day, Mr. William Carter, Coroner for the Eastern
Division of Surrey, held an inquest in Lambeth re-
lative to the death of Mr. W. W. Martin, aged 26.
Police-constable Lawrence stated that at half-past ten
o'clock on Thursday night, while he was on duty on
Westminster Bridge, he noticed the man walking
hurriedly on the south-west side. Immediately after
he took off his overcoat, and before witness, could
reach him he placed his hands on the iron balustrade
and vaulted into the Thames. The moon was shining
briglltly, and witness saw the man rise to the surface
and then swim strongly towards the steps leading to
the Albert Embankment, but before he could reach
the Embankment wall he seemed to lose strength
and was drowned. Witness ran across the bridge
and obtained a boat and drags. He and a water-
man dragged for some time, but failed to recover
the body, which was, however, subsequently
found.—Miss Alice Martin, sister of the deceased,
said that he was employed in the registered letter de-
partment of the General Post Office. He had medical
advice from the establishment, and the doctor told
him that he was in a very bad state of health, which
caused her brother to be much depressed in spirits,
and he said he had no desire to live. He, however,
had purchased a house, and was.engaged to be married
next March.—A young lady said that'she saw the de-
ceased (to whom she was engaged to be married on
the 23rd of March next) on Wednesday in last week.
He spoke about their approaching marriage, and
parted on the best of terms. Witness had ne idea
that he would commit suicide. For some time past
she had noticed a strange look in his eyes.—The jury
returned a verdict that the deceased committed
suicide whilst suffering from temporary insanity, and
they added a rider commending the conduct of the
constable Lawrence.
SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.--At the Liverpool School
lioard's last meeting, it was reported that the number
of children on the rolls of the public elementary
schools in the city last year was 78,294, and this year
80,476. The average attendance had increased from
58,178 to 60,386. The accommodation had been in-
creased during the year by 5,019 school places. If
the present rate of increase in school attendance is
maintained, it will be necessary to build one new
school every year capable of accommodating 1,000 or
1,100 children. The number of children on the rolls
of private adventure schools is 2,169, and the average
attendance is 1,630.
PLAGUE OF SQUIRRELS.—The rapidity with which
animal and vegetable life increases and multiplies in
America has its dark side, and is apt to become a
serious nuisance. The dwellers in Winnipeg are
peculiarTunfortunate. Not long ago they were over-
run with frogs, but these visitms were only very un-
pleasant, they did no positive harm. Far more mis-
chievous is the plague of squirrels from which they
mote recently suffered. A correspondent of the Globe
writes, that early last July it was noticed by sports-
men that squirrels were unusually numerous—their
bushy tails and bright black eyes were to be seen on
almost every branch. Warnings were given and dis-
regarded. In the autumn, the time when the cotton
and corn seeds were ripening and maturing, myriads
of squirrels left the woods and attacked the cotton
and comfields • they tore open the balls-of the cotton
plants, ate all the seed, and scattered the cotton on
the ground; they devoured the kernels of the corn
and then scampered off to Mississippi and Tennessee,
wh3re they met with a warm reception and were shot
down by hundreds.
INTERESTING TO RAILWAY PASSENGERS.—III London,
on Saturday, a case came before Mr. F. E.
Bacon, Q.C., judge to the Bloomsbury County Court,
which involved an important point of railway law.
Mr. M'Cullagh sued the London and North Western
Railway Company for 4s. Bd., the amount charged
as "excess luggage" for the carriage of a case contain-
ing one gallon of whisky from the North Wall,
Dublin to Euston, and which the plaintiff claimed to
carry free as personal luggage, the entire weight of
the luggage being admittedly under the weight
allowed to first-class passengers viz., 1201 b. It was
contended on the part of thefl plaintiff ti at a decision
in favour of the defendant company would exclude
the carriage by railway passengers for the f-ature of
such articles as game, books, and Christmas hampers.
The Judge, however, held that, without determining
any question as to other articles or quantities, a gallon
of whisky could not be considered a fair risk for a
railway company to be compelled to carry without
extra payment.
GROWTH OF CULTIVATED LAND IN ENGLAND.—A
striking commentary upon the increase in the area of
cultivated land in England in less than two centuries
is afforded by some figures which were tabulated at
the end of the seventeenth century (says Land). In
1698, Gregory King estimated the production from
English soil of wheat, rye, barley, oats, peas, beans,
and vetches, at 79 million bushels, and the total value
at a little over nine million pounds. The bushel of
wheat was then selling for 3s. 6d., whilst rye and
barley fotched respectively 2s. 6d. and 2s. ; oats,
Is. Gd. ; peas and beans, 2s. Gd., and vetches 28.—the
sarre price as barley. In 1812-114 years later—the
produce of wheat, barley, oats, rye, beans' and peas
was put down at 35,000,000 quarters, and the value at
£73,000,,M Wheat was then £3 10s. Gd. per quarter;
barley, a 17s. 9d. ; rye, £2 ss. 10d.; and oats, £1 9s.
The rapidity with which the land has been covered
with houses in little more than a century is indicated
by the fact that, in 1764 when the population was
just under 6,000,000, the number of houses in England
was estimated at 986,482.

AN IMPORTANT QUESTION.—The Pall Mall Gazette
remarks :—A question of considerable interest both
to medical men
,and the public at large has just been
decided at Liverpool. The Corporation of Liverpool
proposed to seek parliamentary powers to compel every
doctor in the city to report all cases of infectious
disease that came under his knowledge to the medi
officer of health. The doctors strucls against this
proposal and declared point blank that they would
not act as sanitary police. They would neither he
tempted by the registration fee nor cowed by the
threatened penalty. • lAs at Nottingham a similar
medical strike reduced similar clauses in a local Act
to a dead letter, the Health Committee of the
Corporation deemed it wiser to Postpone to a more
convenient season the proposal to increase the duties
of the profession by Act of Parliament. The clauses
have been dropped, and the doctors are masters of
the field.

THE POPE A NEWSPAPER READER. Pope Leo
XIII. is an indefatigable newspaper reader, both of
home and foreign journals. Several officials in the
Papal Secretary's office daily scan the chief Conti-
nental newspapers, and mark such paragraphs as they
consider interesting to His Holiness, but the Pope
frequently reads the unmarked articles to make sure
that they have not passed over anything of import-
ance. Indeed the Holy Father's suite do not have a
very easy life, as the Pope wcrks from fourteen to
sixteen hours daily, and two secretaries are always
kept in waiting in a small chapel just above the Pope's
study ready to answer his call at any hour.
SHOCKING DEATH OF A CAMBRIDGE UNDERGRA-
DUATE.—Mr. Harry Kerstewan Crocker, an under-
graduate of Trinity Hall at Cambridge, has met his
death under exceedingly melancholy circumstances.
•Ihe deceased gentleman, who was a son of the Rev.
William Foord Crocker, rector of Brandon Ferry,
Suffolk, left home on Tuesday night in last week, and
proceeded to Cambridge, where he should have pre-
sented himself on Wednesday at the Special Theolo-
gical Examination, to pass which he was a candidate.
He did not arrive, and his name was crossed out. It
is certain that he was in Cambridge on Wednesday, as
he posted a letter there on Wednesday night. It is
believed that he left Cambridge On Thursday evening,
and proceeded to Brandon, but instead of going home
he wandered about the railway line, as his body, sadly
mutilated, was found on the line on Friday morning.
It is thought that the deceased gentleman was suffer-
ing from aberration of mind from a fear of not passing
the examination and that he committed suicide by
throwing himself under a passing train. He was
about twenty-two years of age.
THE LAND LAWS OF VICTORIA.—The Melbourne
Argus of the 26th of October says :—A Bill to amend
the Land Act has been circulated. It enables selectors
to take up land to the extant of 640 acres instead of
320, as at present. Pastoral leases are to be sold by,
auction, and the area of runs is limited to blocks suffi-
cient to carry 4,000 sheep or 1,000 cattle. Special
clauses have been framed for disposing of the mallee
country.
WAR PANORAMAS.—The Evening Standard remarks:
—"The opening of a new war panorama in Paris has
revived the discussion whether it is well or patriotic
in French military painters to perpetuate or. their
canvas the stirring episodes of a struggle which ended
in the defeat and invasion of France, and thus hand
down to posterity souventrs that are pregnant with
humiliation for their country and with glory for
Prussia. For the last ten years on the walls of the
annual French Salon have been hung battle pieces,
signed by the greatest artists in France, depicting
admirably the various combats and engagements in
which the arms of their country were worsted, and
no one seems to have recognised the want of tact
shown in the selection of subjects. There has been
the panorama of the siege of Paris ; there is now
another of considerable artistic merit, it appears,
representing the battle of Frceichweiller, which
the French public throng to see and admire,
whilst the stirring hymn, the " Marseillaise," is being
played. Pictures and panoramas, it is urged, are sold
or exhibited abroad; they find their way to Berlin or
elsewhere, they are seen and purchased hy-the victori-
ous enemy of eleven years ago, and will be found in
the houses of the grandchildren of the Prussians of to-
day, who, thanks to the French artists, will be pro-
vided with a history on canvas of the humiliating
defeat of France and the victories gained by Prussia.
, One has heard the same complaint. and the Caine
' remarks made by sensitive Frenchmen on several
occasions since 1870; the matter has been discussed in
the press ; and artists have been taken to task for the
persistent par.,iality shown by them for painting
German uniforms and commemorating German
triumphs, of which each yearly Salon bears evidence.
The struggle between France and Germany affords
painters a wide field for the exorcise of their talents,"
A CHINESE FUNERAL IN PARIS.—The Paris corres-
pondent of.the Daily New writing on Tuesday, said—
The funeral of Madame Tchen .wife of the Chinese
diplomatist who is First Secretary of the Embassy
here, took place to-day. The deceased lady was sister
of the Marquis Tseng. She died of consumption.
At the Chinese Embassy the room in which her
remains lay coffined was surrounded with white
silk curtains, on which virtuous maxims selected
from the works of Confucius and the. sayings of
I3onddha wcre embroidered. M. Tchen slept beside
the coffin at night and prayed there in the daytime.
It was ccvered with black velvet and enclosed in a
leaden one. The funeral was in the usual first-class
style, but the hearse was preceded by a squadron cf
policemen to keep off sightseers. The Marquis Tseng
and the widowed M. Tchen were the chief mourners.
The Chinese secretaries and attaches rode in mourning
coaches to Aubevilliers, whither the body, with various
Chinese rites and amid the reciting of many prayers.
was taken and deposited in a vault laslenging to the
funeral company, in which it will remain until M.
Tchen can go with it to China. The vault's mouth is
closed with a heavy iron door. Many tapers are to
be kept burning in it night and day so long as it is
tenanted by the corpse of the deceased lady.

THE CAUSE or HER TERROR.—A lady in Bath, Me.
was lately much alarmed by dreaming that someone
was holding her wrist. Vainly endeavouring to
scream for assistance, she succeeded at length in
whispering, just loud enough to awaken herself.
After a few minutes' relief at being no longer
under the influence of the dream, she became con.
scions that someone was really holding her left wrist,
and all her strength was inadequate to release it.
Whether to call her hostess or not was easily de-
cided, for her terror rendered her as speechless as she
had been before awakening. It could not be that
any of her friends had seized her wrist in sport; it
I was too rigid a clasp, and had been continued some
' time, for her left hand was cold and numbed. But
I just as she should be able to speak in a moment she
found the relentless grasp was that of her own right
hand, and not easy to withdraw from its twin cora-
panion, so desperate had become its hold.
THE YEOMEN or BUCKS.—A new poem by Lord
Beaconsfield has just been disinterred— a song written
forty years ago (says the Court Journal). It loudly
vaunts the virtues of the yeomen of Bucks. T,hey
are declared to be as proud as peers, as stout as
cavaliers, firm to foes and true to friends, and ready
to always follow the Marquis of Chandos. One of
the verses runs thus :
1a5,4
"And if the dark cloud that now over us low'rs
Bring revolt to the State and bring gloom to our boweii,
We know a brave band that right soon will be seen _
Astir in their saddles to guard their young Queen—
The Yeomen of Bucks."
•4 est
SALMON DISEASE.—The fungoid diseasW.6-
tended so much among the salmon of the Tweed that a
few days ago in a single pool no less than 75 dead
salmon trout and grilse were counted, the heads,
backs, and bellies of which were affected with the
fungus. During the past few weeks anglers on the
river have landed and also detected large numbers of
sea trout similarly affected. It is considered that
fully one-half of the fish are diseased, and many are
lying dead about the river. Some have been taken
out with parts of the nose eaten away, and when
cut up thay emit a most offensive smell. The fish
appear to have come into the river with the fungus
upon them, as new rusi fish have been taken in Et
diseased condition, and many ef them are so enfeebled
by it as to be unable to ascend the weirs, and conse-
quently congregate in pools and die. It is feared
that, in addition to the incalculable havoc which the
Norwegian trout commit in the river in the devouring
of fresh-water trout, they have also infected the latter
with the disease.

A CURE FOR "FRACTIOUSNESS" IN CHILDREN.—
Respecting the supposed efficacy of hares' brains, a
correspondent of Notes and Queries writes :—This
superstition is very common in Dorsetshire. My cook
was asktd for the head of a hare, that its brains
might cure a fractious child, within this last week ;
and she tells me that it is equally common in Devon-
shire, of which county she is a native; and she re-
members that her father, who was a gamekeeper, waa
often asked for the head of a hare for the same pur-
pose. She also said that if a hare's head could not be
procured, a bit of flesh beneath the lobe of the ear of
a sucking pig, such as was fit for roasting, was often
used instead. On asking for an explanation, she said
she did not know, but that when a baby would not
take its natural food it became fractious, and, lolling
out its tongue, often made its lips and chin sore, and
thereby " showed that it wanted something; and I
find that the notion is that this fractiousness is owing
to the mother, "who has longed for something she
could not have before the child's birth," which long-
ing l indicated by these symptoms. As to any reason
why this particular food Was needed or beneficial,
"this deponent sa,yeth not," neither do I, only I
know its efficacy is fully believed in.
RAISING THE WlND.—B.)reas is evidently qui4.a
literary wind. He is a Norther (an Author), don't
you you see !—Punch's Almanaek.
:e.•;
FUGITIVE FLOWERS. The Gardensr.i' elerettick
says : —There can be little doubt but that all those
spring flowers which just now are so freely blooming
in gardens are somewhat out of season and ineregard
to their unwonted appearance may well be described
as fugitives. In reality they are the products of an
altogether abnormal season, one that has last*
turned things topsy-turvy, and now at its near termi-
nation finds many plants throwing up their flowers in
a sort of blank. amaze at their forwardness at a time
when not sisminer but winter is advancing. The long
heat and drought of summer sent plants to rest weeks
before their usual time, arid indeed many were unable
fully to complete their customary growth ere they were
under the exhausting influences of great heat fairlr
lulled to sleep, only to receive a rude awakening in
Auguet by the long-continued rains that brought slum-
baringyegetation into active life. This early arres4seV
early excitement have been productive of strong eibias
and precocious bloom that could not be held in check
except through the instrumentality of great cold,: but
that hair not come. So far from that being the easel
the late autumn has been one of unusual mildness,
and though not without fierce storms they have not
been so much marked by wintry features as bylstufk.
ness and a temperature at thaws quite summerish.
In all directions spring flowers are unusually abun-
dant, and everywhere the local press teems with finral
instances of the mildness of the season. We have
heard many persons in past winters bewail the fact that
their Christmas roses would not bloom till long after-
the festive season was passed; now they are in broom,
a month before it is due, The earliest forget-me-not
is not to be behind, and in its thousand stars of ccern-
lean blue fuyniehes lovely adjuncts to the whiteness of
the hellebore. Rich coloured primroses, radiant in
hue as the loveliest rose, peep forth from their leafy
beds in sweet companionship with the delicately
odorous violet. Anemones burst up out of wealth of
elegant leafage; pansiss bloom finely and freely ;.
wallflowers, pot marigolds, Lothian stock, polyan-
thuses, aubrietias, indeed scores of hardy plants, are.
becoming prettily, almost leading to the belief that it
is March.