The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-06-19 00:00:00

lUcUanenn 4ntelliffente,
HOME, FOREICR, AND COLONIAL.

THE PROPOSED SUBWAY UNDER THE MERSEY.—On
Tuesday the House of Lords' Committee passed the
preamble of the Bill for the construction of a subway
available for all kinds of traffic, ehicular and pas-
senger, under the Mersey, so as to connect the towns
of_Liverpool and Birkenhead. The total length will
be 1 mile 6 furlongs, 6-.11 chains, and the estimated
capital required £500,000, the taking up of which is
guaranteed by the Corporations of Liverpool and Bir-
kenhead, the Mersey Dock Board and the Great
Western Railway, each of whom are prepared to give
security for one quarter the cost of construction.

ETONIANS IN PARLIAMENT. - The Eton College
Chronicle gives a list of all the "old Etonians " who
hold seats in the present Parliament. They form a
total of 126, including Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen,
who has since been raised to the peerage, and amount
to between a fourth and a fifth of the entire House
of Commons. It is curious to remark that,
although there is in the House so large a Liberal ma-
jority, the reverse is the case with that part of the
House which is "Etonian," for the list includes only
51 Liberals and a single Home Ruler against 74 Con-
servatives.

THE DELIGHT OF AMERICAN CHILDREN. Chewing
gum is a delight of American children which is little
known to British juveniles (says the Graphic). It is
a refined product of petroleum, being in its rough
state a dirty, brownish-yellow, unpleasant-smelling
wax, the sediment of the coal oil when undergoing one
of its straining processes. Melted, bleached, and re-
fined the wax appears in blocks of 1001bs., resembling
clouded ice, tasteless and inodorous ' • the candy manu-
facturer then again melts the blocks down, adds 301bs.
of sugar to 2001bs. of wax, flavours and colours the
mixture, and turns it out in appetising pieces. Youth-
ful epicures sometimes prefer the balsam of tolu made
from the resin of a South American tree—the Af yras-
pernuni toluferurn—and boiled till it can be run through
rollers, coming out in a thin stick. "Snapping gum"
is manufactured from the resin of the Central
American " chicie " tree, which in its original con-
dition exudes from the tree in masses of two or three
pounds.
SOMETHING LIKE A PHENOMENON.—(In an obscure
part of the country.) Trainer (in the gig) : Seen a
bicycle pass this way, Ma'am? Old lady: A icicle!
What, in June! No; but I've seen somethin' a'most as
strange—which it were a cart wheel as was a-runnin
away with somebody on it !—Funny Folks.
THE PROCESS OF GAPING. —Writing to Notes and
Queries, "11. K." says :—Of course I was taught,
like others, in my childhood to cover my mouth with
the hand when I was attacked by a fit of the gapes."
I had always considered it as a mere point of good
manners, to save my neighbours of the moment from
the view of an open cavern with jagged rocks of
teeth, or possibly from the mephitic exhalations of
such a breath as Rosalind would have "defied." But
it seems there is something more in it. One of the
extracts which Southey had made with the intention
of working up his Doctor was this :—" Should a
Moslem, when praying, feel himself disposed to gape,
he is ordered to suppress the sensation as the work of
the devil, and to close his mouth, lest the Father of
Iniquity should enter and take possession of his
person. It is curious that this opinion prevails also
among the Hindoos, who twirl their fingers close
before their mouths when gaping to prevent an evil
spirit from getting in that way.—Griffiths.—The
Doctor, one vol., ed., p. 638.

MORE MATRIMONY.—" Pa, dear," said the youthful
Miss Penhecker, "what articles of apparel do hus-
band and wife sometimes represent ! ' Mr. Pen-
hecker "gave it up." "Well, pa, dear," said the
youthful Miss P., "a muff and a comforter; the
husband, you know, is the muff, the wife the com-
forter." Mr. Penhecker "thought it out" seriously.
—Judy.

THE ALBERT MEDAL. —The Council of the Society
of Arts attended on Monday at Marlborough House,
when the Prince of Wales, as president of the society,
presented to Sir William Thomson the Albert Medal,
awarded to him in 1879, "on account of the signal
services rendered to arts, manufactures, and
commerce
by his electrical researches, especially with reference
to the transmission of telegraphic messages over ocean
cables;" and to Dr. James Prescott Joule, the Albert
h, the
true for the present year, awarded to him " for
having established, after most laborious research,
true relation between heat, electricaimuare d
work, thus affording the engineer ia_•S guide in the
rGoluilbunrsmuitßs.;:er has
application of science andoi,ndthues
—The Sydney Mail of
THE AUSTRALIAN VINTAGE.
no doubt, to much
April 17 says the vintage 1 '
%week. It has been
week..
now been finished about
ripening. e
Th
dull weather while the 6
later this year than ustTrapoews
s been remarkably good, parts of
yield throughout
bads yielding from 1,200 to 1,500
some of the vineYar • that the •
, showing . e vines have re-
gallons per a.c,r! injury they received from the severe
covered from. tne
0. the pa,st four or five years. The
drought durinbexcellent th ; with only e taus one excep-
quality of
he highest percentage attained in this
tion it isAe principal wine grapes, such as the
district. Burgundy Madeira,p. , ineau. and
Hermitage'
us other kinds, registered by the sacCharo-
numerorem
f 26 to 31 per cent, of saccharine. So that,
meter
taking n
ito consideration the superior quality of the
must and the immense quantity, it is without a doubt
the bast vintage that the vignerons of the Goulburn
Elver have ever known.

THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY.-.Sir A. T. Galt,
the Canadian Minister in England, has informed the
owners of the Allan Line of steamers that he has
received a dispatch from the Department of Agri-
culture authorising advances to a number of navvies
to pay their fares from Quebec to Manitoba, on con-
dition of their signing an agreement to repay such
advances from wages earned while in employ of Messrs.
Manning, M'Donald, -Mlaren, and Co., contractors
for censtructing a section of the Canadian Pacific
Railway. The firm undertake to find employment
this season for about 3,000 labourers good handy men
without families, and accustomed to railway and
similar work. The rate of wages is 2A dollars per day
for foremen, and the lowest rate for oiainary labourers
is 11 dollars per day, some receiving more for speiial
labour. The work will last about three years, giving
et9AdY traPiclipagut inAtmig PO Win*,