The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-04-03 00:00:00

A ROYAL COURTSHIP.

The Daily Telegraph says :—Several of the leading
Continental journals report that the Archduke Rudolph
" proposed " in person to Princess Ste,phanie of Belgium
at an evening party given in his honour at the Chilteau
de Laeken on the 7th instant. Among the amusements
provided for their Majesties' guests were conjuring
performances. by the celebrated prestidigitator, Pro- I
fessor Herrmann, and a concert in the magnificent con-
servatory attached to the Castle. Matters had been so
arranged that, when the company were conducted from
the saloon in which Herrmand had held his s6ance to the
Winter Garden, the Arckluke and the Princess were
left together tete-4-t6te for a few minutes. As soon
as they were alone, the future Emperor-King
avproached her Royal Highness with a low and
formal obeisance, saying, "Madam, will you take me
for a husband?" to which plain question the Princess
simply replied, curtesying deeply, "Yes, your Im-
perial Highness." " Irour Royal Highness's answer
makes me supremely happy," observed the Archduke.
"And I," rejoined Princess St6phanie, "promise that
I will do my duty towards you under all circum-
stances." No more was said; but the youthful pair,
arm-in-arm, joined the Royal circle in the Winter
Garden, and the Archduke, leading his fair companion
up to her father, addressed King Leopold as follows:
"Sire, I have with your Majesty's permission begged
the Princess St6phanie to bestow her .band upon me.
It is my happy privilege to inform you that my peti-
tion has been granted." "I rejoice, Monseigneur,"
replied the King, "to greet you as my son-in-law."
The Princess embraced her mother; and immediately
afterwards the Imperial-Royal betrothal was an-
nounced to the assembled company.

5
BUSINESS ATTENTION.—The scene as in Portland,
characters, a rising youn merchant and a pretty
woman. He had an affection for her, she a liking for
him, so they were betro.thed. It did not come off, the
parents objected. While his eyes were full of gather-
ng tears, he bade his faltering farewells, then closed
the door upon his hopes. A moment later he opened
it, stepped back into the room, and with tears in his
voice, brokenly murmured—" I hope this will make
no difference about your coming to our house of busi-
ness: and thac your mother will continue to trade with
us. r shall be happY,tb give'the ugual discount. Our
stock is large and varild, o‘ir aim to please." And the
door shut finally, leaving him alone with his grief,

INTERESTING INFORMATION ABOUT
EARTHQUAKES.
The Times has published the following interesting parti-
culars (sent by its Geneva Correspondent) respecting earth-
quakes
The frequent occurrence of earthquake shocks in
Switzerland during the last twelve months has sug-
gested to the Helvetic Society of Natural Sciences the
formation of a permanent commission for the observa-
tion and study of these phenomena' and at their in-
stance Professor Hein, of Zurich, has published a
pamphlet which gives in a compendious shape much
interesting information on the subject, especially as
touching the character and consequences of earth-
quakes in Europe in times ancient as well as modern.
The most notable and disastrous earthquakes on
record are those of Italy (526) when 120,000 persons
are said to have perished, and of Sicily (1693), in
which 60,000 inhabitants of the island lost their lives.
The great earthquake of Lisbon occurred in 1755,
and the most fatal of Calabrian earthquakes were
those of 1783, 1854, and 1870.
Between 1850 and 1857 the number of earthquakes
observed in every Part of the globe reached a total of
4,620, not a few of which consisted of many distinct
shocks. Of this total 1,005, extending over 582 days,
occurred in the western Alps, and 81, on 69 days in the
eastern Alps.
In the spring of 1764, 20 shocks were felt in Glarus
in one month, the greater pait of which were not per-
ceptible in the' neighbouring cantons. In the year
1870, although no extraordinary catastrophe happened
2,225 houses in Italy were destroyed or greatly
damaged by earthquakes, 98 people killed, and 223
wounded. Taking one day with another, Professor
Hein tells us, two earthquakes occur on the globe
every 24 hours. Sometimes these comprise one
shock, sometimes several. They may be confined to
one locality, or embrace within their limits entire con-
tinents.
On November 16, 1827, all the country between
Bogota and Popayan, a distance of 1,500 kilometres,
was visited at the same instant by an earthquake of
exceptional violence.
The shock of the Lisbon earthquake extended over
an area four times as great as the whole of Europe;
and in 1856 a single shock made itself felt along the
entire littoral of the Mediterranean, from Syria to
Corsica. On the other hand, the shock that in .March,
1879, threw the people of Linthal (Glarius) out of their
beds was felt neither in the north of the canton nor in
the valley of the Upper Rhine.
It would seem that 'it is sometimes valleys, some-
times mountains, that mark the limits of a shock,
albeit earthquakes are often felt simultaneously on
both sides of the Alps. The same earthquake, con-
siders Professor Hein, may continue intermittently
for months, and even for years. Thus the one which
begun at Viege, in the Valais, in July, 1855, did not
finally cease until 1857. At Honduras, in 1856, 108
shocks were counted in one week; at Hawaii, in 1868,
2,000 occurred in one month. The strongest shock is
rarely the first of the series, and never the last, while
the most destructive often endures only two or three
seconds.
Earthquakes are divided into three categories, dis-
guished from each other by the impression they make
on the senses and their mechanical effects. 1. A con-
cussion having a vertical motion and straightforward
shock; 2, a concussion with a horizontal motion and a
lateral shock; 3, an undulatory movement, during
which the ground oscillates with a wave-like action.
In the same earthquake a central concussion
occasionally coincides with an undulatory move-
ment at the extremities of the affected region.
The professor gives examples of the effects of
these various movements. In Calabria, in 1783,
houses were shot upwards as if they had been
blown up by gunpowder, and paving stones traversed
the air like cannon balls. At Rio Bamba, in 1797,
corpses were projected from their graves and several
hundred persons lifted bodily across a river. In
Calabria on one occasion the approach of the wave
could be perceived before it was felt by the tossing of
the trees, and at Caracas, in 1812, the earth was agi-
tated like a liquid in a state of ebullition. Besides the
earthquakes perceptible to the senses the movements
of the ground, which can be detected by the use of
suitable instruments, are innumerable and almost in-
cessant. So far, indeed, is our globe from being the
solid thing we are apt to consider it, that it is almost
always in a state of agitation and unrest. On the other
hand, the most careful observation has hitherto failed
to confirm the theory of a regular rotatory movement.
That of the coincidence of earthquakes with atmospheric
phenomena is better supported by facts, for they are
occasionally preceded or accompanied by thick and
wide-spread fogs at seasons when fogs are not frequent;
by sudden falls of the barometer and equally sudden
changes of temperature; their occurrerice, however, in
the majority of cases coincides with normal meteorolo-
gical conditions. Earthquakes are more frequent after
sunset than in the daytime, in autumn and winter,
than in spring. The influence of the moon is insignifi-
cant. As for the supposed connexion between earth-
quakes and volcanoes, although the existence of volca-
noes in the centre of earthquake zones cannot be
questioned, it is equally indisputable that many earth-
quake regions are destitute of volcanoes, and in the
Sandwich Islands there are often eruptionswithout earth-
quakes and earthquakes without eruptions. The Alps.
which constitute an earthquake zone of considerable
extent and activity, show no trace whatever of vol-
canic action, and in the grettter number of instances
there is no apparent oonnexion between volcanic erup-
tions and disturbance of the earth's surface. The
earthquake zones of Europe are the Iberian Peninsula,
Italy, and the Alps, in only one of which are there
active volcanoes, and the general conclusion of Herr
Hein appears to be that the theory of earthquakes and
volcanoes having a common origin, or of the latter
haying any influence on the former, has little, if any,
foundation in fact.
The professor makes no mention of the most
calamitous earthquake that ever befell in Switzerland
—perhaps because it is so well-known to his readers—
the terrible one by which the city of Basle was de-
vastated on the Day of St. Lucas (October 18), 1356.
The cathedral, all the other churches, and many
houses were -either destroyed or seriously damaged,
and hundreds of people buried in their ruins; and, as
often happens in such cases, a fire broke out
directly afterwards and completed the work of
destruction. It is significant of the impression made
by earthquakes on the imagination that, although
upwards of 500 years have elapsed since the catastrophe
of St. Lucas's Day, and Basle has suffered since that
time even more cruel afflictions—such, for instance, as
the 'Black Death,' which carried off almost an entire
generation—all save this have sunk into oblivion, and
until very lately its anniversary was kept as a solemn
fast and commemorated by religious services. Even
now, while slight earthquake shocks are regarded in
most parts of Switzerland merely as interesting natural
phenomena their occurrence causes real terror in the
canton of Basle."