The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-09-11 00:00:00

DOMESTIC SERVICE FOR GENTLE-

WOMEN.

The Daily Telegraph has published the following letter on
the subject of domestic service for gentlewomen :
The exigencies of travelling have hitherto pre-
vented my having the pleasure of saying how deeply
indebted I feel to you for such kindly sentiments as
are expressed in your leader of Sept 1. Will you per-
mit me to observe that you err in saying "Mrs. Craw-
shay would persuade educated and refined women to
become domestic drudges, to sweep the doorstep, scour
the pots and pans, clean the knives, and blacklead
the grates." I have earnestly deprecated this work
,
for them in my pamphlet on Domestic Service for
Gentlewomen,' of which I beg to enclose a copy.
I thoroughly agree with you in appreciating the
services of a • little maid " kept to fetch and
carry and be scolded by everybody: or those of a
strong-armed woman periodically called in to per-
form the more Titanic feats of scrubbing ; " and that
scrubbing "is really slavish toil, and fosters rheu-
matism. May the time soon come when machinery,
or differently constituted floors, may remove the
necessity for such human drudgery!
There is an important point in your leader on which,
I differ from you. The words are these: "Nor
Can we think it likely that a 'born gentlewoman' will
willingly adopt a means of livelihood which is repu-
diated more and more every year by the daughters of
mechanics and labourers, by girls who prefer to
work in factories or tend sewing machines rather
than surrender that which they term their liberty'
by going into ' service.' " I believe the born gentle-
woman would duly estimate the shelter of a home
and the protection of her employers while the liberty
of factory girls to run about at night could have no
charms for her.
Ido not fancy that householders who might adopt
the plan of lady helps would find any great annoyance
in allowing them to receive their visitors in their, own
sitting room on Sunday afternoons, to take tea with
them, and accompany them to evening church or for a
walk, parting at the entrance on return. If the en-
trance used by the helps were separate to that used by
the family, there would be little gene to either party,
and the employer would feel this plan a good substitute
for the surreptitious " follower " oi kitchen notoriety.
It is curious that I should have already anticipated
your excellent counsel to ladies of small means'at once
to betake themselves to the National Training School
for Cookery at South Kensington, by advancing part
of the fees for a few ladies who are now in training.
It is a severe tax on one wcman's pin-money" to
carry the matter out, and I shall be glad when
opinion shall have ripened sufficiently to induce
other ladies and gentlemen to give me help, either
by forming a society, or by sending contributions
to assist in paying the fees for more of these
poor ladies than I single-handed can help. I
should suggest advancing part of the fees, with the
understanding that ladies, on obtaining good situa-
tions, would gradually repay the loan, and that the
lender should have the first right to the recipient's
services should the lender wish for them. As you have
referred to Lord Aberdare's speech, will you allow me,
while thanking his lordship for the great courtesy of
his remark towards myself, yet to meet some of his
objections?
In reference to the Factory Acts alluded to by him
with great complacency, many people by no means ap-
prove of women being all their lives treated as minors.
Women ask for justice as human beings, and to be
emancipated from grandfatherly legislation imposed on
them merely for an unfortunate accident of sex. They
implore leave to get their bread in any honest profes-
sion ; and that they should be no longer forced into
dishonest courses by the laws of England, which limit
paying work to men. Women only ask a fair field and
no favour, and when this is granted the health of Eng-
land will improve. There are nine hundred thousand
superfluous women in Great Britain—this means
nine hundred thousand women struggling for bread.
Is it a moment in which to quarrel whether we will
give it them in the kitchen or in the " parlour ? " All
the objections made by my adversaries to the present
style of men-servants in the same households with
lady-helps I entirely endorse ; but surely the Gov
dia.n knot may be cut by abolishing men-servants in-
doors. The Russian style of dinner has done away
with the necessity for the strong masculine arm to
place the piece de resistance on the table, and enables
us, if we like, to employ again the much-vaunted neat-
handed Phyllis of bygone times.—With sincere thanks,
! I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
ROBE MARY CRAWSRAY.

r, Sept. 4.

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

A statue to Chateaubris,nd was unveiled on Sunday
att. Maio, in presence of a large crowd, including many

literary men.
Ne-arl?2,ooo.pe- 9.ple visitsd the Shakers' settlement
dii NeW Forest on gandaY, Mrs. Glrling preached.
The amount produced by Stamp Duty on the regis-
tration "ardeeds was in the year ended the Mst of March

£13,980123..11d.
It is asserted on medical authority that the madness
ef a large proportion of the patients received into Bethlehem
flospital is traced directly or indirectly to overwork.
'The Golosi states that the ()leers of the Russian
ary number now 25,823, which is 5,000 more than only a

Year aft%
A:. society is about to be founded in Paris for the ex-
'elusive study of the Japanese language and institutions. A.
Japanese library, and the publication of a Japanese news-
paper form part of the society's programme.
In America they are preparing to make war upon
the beavers, which have, since the discovery of silk hats by
an ingenious Frenchman, reappeared in the waters of the
Appomattox.
Whistles- instead of bugles are to be used in the
French Army by captains commanding infantry and officers
of cavalry regiments.
A question before the Californian Courts is,
"Whether a woman is to be considered a widow because her
husband is Wile State prison for life."
Among, the young Ladies who are attending the
course of lectitrea ia the St. Petersburg Academy of Medicine
this year, are tuc, 11ahommedan women who have completed
their prelimiirai studies in a school at Odessa.
Over £2,000 has been collected in London for the
relief of the 4,000 II c,laudere who have suffered from the
recent volcanic erup,'ons, and the committee have resolved
to purchase a quantity of rye and oats, to be despatched as
soon as possible.
The first tit icir of the new National Opera-house on
the Thames Embankment was laid on Tuesday by Aldlle.
Tietjens. The construction of the building will now rapidly
proceed, as the foundations have been almost completed.
Mr. Mapleson, in replyinglto the toast of his health at a
lunch which followed the ceremony, said the Opera would,
he believed, be opened to the public next season.
The Royal Commission engaged in investigating the
operation of the Factories and Workshops Acts met at
Clasgovr, under the presidency of Sir'James Ferguson, on
Tuesday, when a deputation presented a memorial from the
Drapers' Early Closing Association, representing the
necessity of • legislative enactments to meet the evils of
bad sanitary arrangements in workrooms, and late hours of
labour, especially for women and boys.
Captain Webb again visited Dover on Saturday, and.
was cordially received by large crowds. In the evening.he.
entertained the captain and crew of the lugger Ann, who
had accompanied him in his swim across the ChanneL
An important fact for the Anti-Tobaccco Associa-
tion appears in a blue-book just issued. It is that, during
the last year, the customs duties on tobacco and snuff
, amounted to the enormous sum of seven and a half millions
of money, being an increase of £185,(00 since the previous

year.
Not a single competitor came forward this year at
Berlin for the prize of 3,000 thalers (about (£440) bequeathed
by Meyerbeer for a composition, which sum is to cover the
outlay for two years' travelling.
During the first quarter of the current year the
Indian salt revenue amounted to £1,513,235, as compared
with £1,425,634 during the corresponding period of last

year.
A terrible landslip has just occurred in the coal pits
of Commentry, in the department of Allier. Four miners
were killed, and their bodies found carbonised the following
day. The accident was probably caused by the action of a
large fire which is always kept burning in the pit, and which
gradually loosened the earth above.
A tragical story comes from Dig, in Bhurtpore, of
an infuriated elephant belonging to the Maharaj th, which,
having broken loose from its keepers, killed four persons,
and wonnsled several others, besides destroying a number
of houses, and up rooting fifty or sixty trees. A whole
battalion of sepoys had at last to be called out to capture
the animal, which they did after severely wounding it.
At the banquet given by the town of Nijni-Novgorod
1 in honour of the Duke of Edinburgh, General Ganetsky said,
in giving the toast of the British army, "The old accounts
of the Crimea between Russia and England have long been
settled and forgotten; but what is not forgotten is the
glorious time of the confraternity of the arms of England
and Russia in our war of independence."
The returns of foot-and mouth disease for the week
ending Saturday, for East Sussex, show a slight decrease in
the number of cattle and sheep attacked, the numbers being
2,282 cattle, 8,111 sheep, and 22 swine.
At Dundee, on Monday, while a young lad, about
eighteen, son of the Rev. Mr. Inglis, was employed at a jute
warehouse, a bale weighing 3 cwt. fell upon him, and killed
him on the spot.
Quite recently a shoit-sighted husband saw a large
bouquet of flowers on a chair, and, wishing to preserve them
from fading, placed them in a basin of water. When his
wife saw the "bouquet" half an hour afterwards, she gave a
scream, and fainted on the spot. Her defective-visioned hus-
band had mistaken her new summer bonnet, with its abun-
dance of flowers, for a freshly-culled bouquet.—Court Jour-
At Libourne there is a "living wonder," in the
shape of a boy four years old whose limbs are as strongly
developed as those of a young man. This wondrous child is
already adorned with the first hairs of a beard, and can lift
one and two hundredweight. His father and mother are
ordinary beings, and rather weakly constituted than other-

wise.
The centenary of Dr. John Leyden was celebrated
on Saturday (4th) In Dunholm, his native village under the
auspices of the Border Counties Association. At two o'clock
some thousands of persons assembled in the streets, which
were gaily decorated, as was the house in which Leyden was
born. A banquet was held, at which the Hon. Lord Neaves
presided, and addresses were delivered by various gentlemen
from Glasgow, Edinburgh, &e. In the evening the village
was illuminated.
An inquest has been held at Lancaster, on the body
of Ellen Kirby, an old woman, 7r years of age, who pulled a
lamp off the table on Saturday, and was so dreadfully
burned in trying to extinguish the flames that she died on
Monday. A verdict of accidental death was returned.
An inquest was held on Tuesday, at St. Bartholo-
mew's Hospital, London, upon the body of James Richard
Sewell, twelve years of age, who died from hydrophobia,
which supervened the bi, e of a cat, which he had seized
with a view to drown it at the request of his neighbours.
The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the Medical
evidence.
Tuesday's Maidstone Journal says :—For many
years past there has not been such a crop known. Apples
and plums are a " drug " in the market, and many will be
left to rot on the trees. The markets in London have been
swamped, and many bushels have been givea away to clear
the market. Nutuare cheap, about 40a. per cwt.
The first conference of English working men belong-
ing to the Peace Society was opened in Paris on Monday,
when M. Desmoulins, formerly an exile in England, was
elected president. A resolution approving of the principle
of international arbitration was first passed unanimously,
but a second resolution, solemnly protesting against the pre-
sent condition of European armaments, was adjourned for
further discussion. The English delegates, who are very
well received, state that they represent 200,000 persons.
It is stated in a telegram from Shanghai that the
Yunnan outrage has been settled on the following basis :
Chins sends a special ambassador to England, and under-
takes to punish the guilty parties ; Yunnan to give on indem-
nity to Mr. Margary's family; a trade route between Yunnan
and Burmah to be opened, and the levy of Pekin taxes to be
regulated.
The Empress and Prince Louis Napoleon have
stood sponsors at Arenenberg to the infant daughter of M.
Anatole Bartholomy, formerly Deputy for Haute Savoie. A
great many friends of the ex-Imperial family were present,
Including the Prince of Orange, the Princess Mathilde,
Prince and Princess Joachim Murat, Comte Benedetti, the
Due de Feltre, Due and Duchesse de Mouchy, and the Baron
and Baroness de Bourgoing.
The hull of the wrecked schooner Mistletoe, together
with the standing and running gear, sets of sails, chronometer,
barometer, cabin furniture, &c., was sold on Monday by
auction by Messrs. King and King, of Portsea. After
spirited competition, they were eventually knocked down
Mr. Varney, of Portsea, for the sum of £l3O.
The old game of "racket" is now being revived in
New York, which appears likely to become more fashionable
than heretofore. A large number of the old players have
reunited and formed a club, and negotiations are now pending
to erect a magnificent six-story building, with handsomely
furnished club-rooms attached; also a gymnasium, fencing
and sparring rooms, bowling-alleys, bath-rooms, &c.' and on
the top floor a running track will be laid. It is to be com-
pleted about November Ist.
The French papers report the drowning of an Eng-
lish lady, described as a religieuse Protestante, near Mont
St. Michel. Accompanied by a younger lady, she started on
foot, and without a guide, for Tombelaine, the rock about
two miles distant from the Mount The tide was due in an
hour, and they had hardly reached the rock when it began
to rise. The elder lady, aged 35, considering herself a good
swimmer, left her companian in order that a bat might be
sent off to rescue her. Some inhabitants of the isle, seeing
her surrounded by the waves, raised an alarm, and two
fishermen went to her assistance, but before they could,
reach her she sank, and the body has not yet been re-
covered. Her companion was rescued by a boat.
Application is about to be given throughout France
to the new law on the labour of children in factories. The
clauses of this law provide that children under 16 shall not
be employed for night-work, that no children under 15 shall
be made to work more than six hours per day, and that no
cnilelren under 12 shall beat all employed, unless they also
spend some hours at school at the same time.
Great preparations are being made to celebrate the
jubilee in connection with the establishment of railways.
There is to be a banquet at Darlington on the 27th inst., to
which a thousand guests are to be invited. Leading railway
officials and engineers from all parts of the world are ex-
pected to be present, and the members of the present and
the late Government are to be invited. Free passes are to
be given to all the shareholders of the North-Eastern system
who desire to visit Darlington on that day, when the statue
of the late Mr. Joseph Pease will be unveiled.
An inquest was held in London, on Saturday, on the
body of air :Henry Brooks, of York-street, Lambeth, who was
run over and killed by a train which was entering the Alex-
andra Palace Station on Tuesday, the day of the Police Fete.
The servants of the Great Northern Railway stated twit the
deceased was thrown on the line by a carriage door while he
was attempting to enter a train in motion; his brother-in-
law, who was with him, declared that he was pushed off the
platform by the crowd behind in the struggle for places, and
did not attempt to enter a carriage. The jury returned a
verdict of " accidental death."
The whole of the men employed in the outdoor pas-
senger departments of the Midland Railway Company are
agitating tor an aleration in their hours of duty. They ask,
principally, that they shall only be required to work six
days per week instead of seven, as at present, or that if they
are called upon to work on the Sunday, that they shall be
paid extra in the•same way as the engine drivers, shunter's,
guards, and other men in the goods department. They
have embodied their sentiments in a memorial to the
Board ot Directors, which was signed by the men in these
departments at the whole of the stations on the system
during last week, and has been sent in to the Board of
Directors
While a train was travelling at full speed on Satur-
day between Forres and Elgin a boy of four years, who had
been leaning against the door, overbalanced himself and fell
out. The parents could not communicate with the guard,
and at the next ordinary stoppage they got out and walked
back. The child was found in the arms of a surfaceman •he
had fallen on a pile of soft rubbish, and escaped with a slight
bruise on the forehead.
The deceased Prince Charles of Bavaria has dis-
played truly Royal munificence to all those who were
dependent upon him during his life. It was his wish that
these bonds should not be loosened by death, and by the pro-
visions of his will all the persons attached to his household
are to continue without a single exception, to receive their
full salaries. A sum of two million florins has been invested
for the benefit of the numerous recipients of his bounty, who
will receive their full allowances as heretofore. Nor have
his dumb friends been forgotten, for four hundred flarins
have been set apex:, for the support of the birds and
squirrels in Tegernesee Park during the winter, and of their
descendants ior ever.
A public auction, which excites the interest of the
fair sex in the North of Europe, is to take place at Copen-
hagen, being that of the diamonds and jewels left by the
Countess Dauner, who died the morganatic widow of King
Ferdinand VII. They consist of rings, bracelets, necklaces,
a quaw ity of admirable ancient jewellery, engraved stones,
brilliants, &e. His Majesty was an antiquary of the first
rank, and it was he who formed the great museum at Copen-
hagen. one of the finest in Europe. On the 7th of August,
1850, King Frederick, who had been twice divorced, married,
in the chapel of the palace of Frederiksborg, the Countess
Danner, ennobled for the occasion. Her real name was
Louise Christine Radraussen, and she belonged to a trades-
man's family in the Danish capital. - She was born in 1816.

Lbers

It is stated that arrangements are. being made for a
conference of leading traders, manufactures'!, and members
of Parliament for the purpose of considering a scheme for the
taxation of trade marks.
Barnet Fair was held on Saturday, and was attended
by a large number of persons Between 3,000 and 4,000 head
of cattle were exposed for sale, and a good business was done.
Captain Boyton, according to Galignani, will not be
allowed by the authorities to experiment in the Seine from
Sevres to Saint Cloud with his life-saving dres from an
apprehension of accidents.
A fight has occurred between blacks and whites at
a Republican meeting at Clinton, MississippL It is reported
that four whites and twelve negroes were killed.
The Cologne Gazette states that a new vine disease
has excited much uneasiness in Rheinthal, Frickthal, and
Thurgau, The symptoms have no resemblance to these of
phylloxera.
The total number of adult baptism in India by the
different missions during last year was 5,029. By far the
largest numbers were amongst the Santhals and in Chota
Nagpore.
The Bishop of Strasbourg has arrived in Paris and
presented the authorities with the sum of 40,0 f 0 francs,
which he has collected in his diocese for the victims of the
floods.
An association has just been formed for the pur.
pose of petitioning Her 31ajesty to compel railway companies
to have compartments attached to all trains which ladies
travelling without male companions shall be obliged to use.
—Court Journal.
Would it not pay farmers to devole more attention
to horse-breeding and the growth of forage? The Midland
Railway Company alone has to expend in the purchase and
maintenance of its horse stock £50,000 a-year more thanla
formerly paid out under this head.
,New kinds of tents, knapsacks, cans, cartridge.
boxes, and other accessories of military life are to be-expert.
mented upon during the manceuvres of the French Army.
All these improvements are principally based upon render-
ing the soldiers' accoutrement lighter than it is at present.
A large and valuable herd of shorthorn cattle, which
belonged to the late Mr. William Torr, has been sold by
auction at Aylesby Manor, near Grimsby. There were 84
lots-71 cows and heifers and 13 bulls—and these produced
a total of nearly £43,000, or an average of more than £5l),
several of the animals fetching prices as high as from 1,000
to 2,160 guineas.
A shocking occurrence, says the Times of India, is
reported from Tinnevelly. A crowd of pilgrims, encamped
near the bed of a river in the district, were overtaken by a
freshet on the lit inst., and 203 are reported lost.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer acknowledges in
The Times (as "Conscience Money ") the receipt of 4s. id,,
in stamps, from "Gin" for arrears of Income-tax.
A Parliamentary paper recently issued shows con-
siderable business in the Divorce Court by the fact that the
stamp fees in the late fiaancial year amounted to £4,140 13s.
- The humourous Folkets Nisse, of Copenhagen, pub-
lishes a woodcut under the beading of "Russia and the ris-
ingln Herzegovina," in which an armed cavalryman (allud-
ing ta the recent extensive armament of that branch of the
service by Russia), leaning against a frontier post, is made to
say, "I will now and ever preserve a passive and unarmed
neutrality."
A singular and painful discovery has been made in
Neuchatel at a farm in the Commune de Grand Combo. The
body of a young man, whose death evidently. resulted from
foul play, was found in the basin of a fountain. It was not
recognised by any of the neighbouring inhabitants on either
side of the frontier. It is supposed that he was a Swiss, and
as there were no traces of the crime near the spot where he
was found, that he was murdered at a little distance. Death
had been caused by strangulation, so far back, it was
sup-
posed, as the 23rd or 24th of August.
Mr. Roebuck, M.P., was present on Monday night
at the dinner given to celebrate the opening of a new publics
library and museum which have been provided for Sheffield
at a cost of thirty thousand pounds. He pointed out the
Importance of such places in an educational point of view,
and remarked that he did not wish working men to desire to
be lifted out of their sphere: he would rather that they made
themselves happy and worthy in it, lie expressed regret
that the museum was not to be opened on Sundays, but ad-
mitted that public opinion was not in favour of it.
M. Paul Cottin, a Republican deputy for Ain
(France), has announced his intention of giving one franc
per day to all the families in the department whose sup-
porters have been called away to take part in the autumn
manoeuvres. If all French Democrats were to give such a
practical application to their Liberal doctrines, they would
probably succed in securing public admiration for the form
of government they patronise,
The Field-Marshal Commanding in Chief, in a
general order respecting good-conduct medals and gratuities,
points out how essential it is that every soldier who has
gained this honourable recognition of his services should
always feel it to be the reward of a long course of irreproach-
able conduct, and urges upon commanding officers to bear in
mind that the best way of perpetuating this sense of the
value of the distinction is to confer it only on those whose
character is of the highest order.
A gentleman who has returned in the Valorous,
which accompanied the Arctic Expedition, says: "On the
passage out all the men and officers were tried by means of
the pendulum and otherwise to ascertain the exact strength
of each man. Lieutenant May Was found to be the strongest
man in the expedition. The engineers, who go in for photo-
graphy, took several Esquimau, which I believe were very
good' The Esquimaux were very clean considering, and
agreeable, and we had several dances with the ladies, who,
by the way, all wear trousers. The great objection to them
lathe fearful smell of blubber, and when you think of two
or three families living together in one hut—about sixteen
people—you can pretty well imagine what it is like,"