The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-09-26 00:00:00

r)TOLTRIMIDGE.

SATURDAY, SFTT. 9C, its',4.

take it to the grandmothers—that was his mother's.
She went to her husbana's mother's, but found no one
in. She and her sister went then to her own house,
and her husband was then taking the child to bed.
He did not see her, though she saw him, and she
heard him speaking kindly to the child, asking if she
would have .• a piece" (presumably a piece of bread
When she reached home in the morning, she burst
the door open in a passion. Went upstairs, and
asked him where the child VAL Ile said, "Don't be
silly; you have fetched it." She answered that she
had not, and, on going down stairs, she found the
child with its head in the " sink-hole," It was dead
and the body was quite cold. The " hole." or" well,'
was about IS inches square. and the depth was about
the same measurement. Her husband ran down
stairs and lifted the child, and she ran with it to her
mother's On retaruing home in about half-an-hour.
she was told her husband had fainted twice. The
well was by the door leading from the kitchen to the
pantry, and the doo.t was open. She believed the
child had fallen, as she was in the habit of coming
down stairs on missing, her (the mother). This the
childifrequeutly did in the dark. She had two other
children, one older and the other younger than the
deceased. On Monday night last they were both at
her mother's—indeed the eldest lived there regularly.
The child had no clothing on when she discovered it
except what it wore when she put it to bed. There
was no covering to the well, and the child smmed to
have fallen in head foremost Her husband was 24
or 25 years old. He got drunk pretty often. When I
he worked he earned 4s. or ss. a day, and if he was
not drinking he gave her the money to the last half-
penny, but when he did drink it was all the other
way.
William Taylor, a fish-dealer, sald he saw tne father
going home with the child in his anus, at 25 minutes
past twelve on Monday night.
Dr. R. L. Bayley saw the child's body on Tuesday
fore-noon. It had been dead some hours, lie des-
cribed some superficial wounds on the arms and leg of
the deceased, some of which were the remit of burns
and others might have been caused by blows or by
falling; but he could not state positively the cause of
death.
The Colouer thought that upon this evrdettce they
must have a post-mortem examination. It was pos-
sible that the child had strayed downstairs, but other
things also were possible.
The father entered the room, and said he wished to
be examined if the Coroner thought proper.
The Coroner said they most first ascemain the
cause of death.
A. Juror remarked that he thought it was the opin-
ion of the jury that " Death was eaused IT accident,
which was attributable to the eareleasuess of the
child's father."
Another Juror considered that it would be more
satisfactory to the neighbours if the enquiry were
carried further.
The Coroner said it would not do shut up the case
without a very minute investigation. He did not for
a moment suggest that the child's father had com-
mitted a MUM ' • but it was due alike to him and the
public that a full enquiry should be made.
Mr. Bayley was then instructed to make a post-
mortem examination, and the inquiry stands adjourned
until Thursday next.

on
preached by the Rev. Arthur
G. (4. (112-tone and was taken fr mithe 15th chap;
of St. Luke' 23rd verse: "Let us eat and be merry.
The preacher, in '
his sermon, drew the attention oj
rdailnegsstoonset-as.
Mtahiek.
The sermon was prt
12th chapter of the Gospel
hisse-
c'6o.orur Savour in the beautifnl parable of the Prodical
son, to show the jos which the parent felt at the
restoration to his arms of his long-lost son. There
hueyndwereree-h uiseedh the
was also reference in the some chapter to two other
weeircreutmissedta.ncels'
dhse
of etrhsetotet.hte
things that were lost and found—the lost sheep,
and the lost coin. Ile showed that in like manner
the seed which is put into the ground is for the
time lost, but is
afterwards restored to us a hun-
dredfold in harvest, He then dictated upon the
many losings and findings there were in this world.
A mother often loses her child by sending it to
school in the hope that she will reap the harvest
which the learning he will acquire there will afford
him in the time to come. But the greatest of all
losses was the lost soul, which was not only lost in
I this world, but was deprived of the joys of heaven
lin the next. He also referred to the hospitality
spoken of in the text, and said there were occa-
sions, suck as the present, when the church should
join in rejoicings together with the laity, to return
thanks to God for the bounties he had showered
upon mankind.
The church was, tastefully decorated for the oe-
casion by the Hon. Mrs. Lyttelton, the Rector's
wife, and other ladies of the parish.
After the service (which was full choral) the
procession was re-formed and marched to the
Lyttelton Arms Hotel, where a substantial dinner
was served up in a large tent on the green adjoin-
ing. About 180 sat down. Lord Lyttelton pre.
shied, and there were also present :—'ihe Hon. and
Rev. W. H. Lyttelton, the Hon. Spencer Lyttel-
ton, the Hon. A. Lyttelton, the Hon. E. Lyttelton,
the Rev. A. G. Girdlestone, the Rev. R. H. Sneyd,
Mr. B. Wooldridge, Mr. J. C. Cooper, &c., &c.
After dinner, Lord Lyttelton addressed those
present, and said the subject of harvest, as they
were well aware, was a very old one, and it would
be difficult for him to say anything new upon the
subject. Therefore, in the remaiks which he was
expected to make he would rather speak to them
of the things which had happened since they were
there last year, He was himself an ignoramus in
such matters, but he was told that it was up to the
present time an unusually good harvest He
thought it was nothing but what was requisite for
them to give that day a peculiar character in this
respect that they set it apart to give thanks to
Providence for what was a blessing from Pron.
clence to all mankind. But it was to the labour-
ing classes especially a great blessing, as, likewise,
a bad harvest/was the:greatest curse that could
befall them, as it was the greatest cause of suffer-
ing, and more out of the reach of a human remedy
than any evils of a natural kind of which they
could speak. Therefore, all of them ought to offer
up special thanks for the great harvest of this year.
And when he looked back upon what had occuned
since he was there last ,ear, it was a matter of
special satisfaction to them that their own harvest
had been so good, especially when it was contrasted
with the suffering that had taken place in other
countries from an opposite cause. On an occasion
like the present it was impossible not le call to
mind for a moment the famine which had occurred
in India, since they were here last year. Though
this had not been characterised by the:same am-
ount of suffering and fatalities as had formerly
been the case, still there had been suffering which
they in this country had cause to rejoice they had
been free from. David had said, "Let me fall into
the hands of God, and not into the hands of man,"
and so when they thought of the blessings which
they received from the hand of God it was best to
think of those which they received direct from the
hands of Providence, and not through the inter-
vention of man. The gifts of harvest were the
most direct which were given to them of all the
gifts of Provii ence. As they had heard that day
in the church, the seed was put into the ground
and the plant
the
up they knew not how. But,
nevertheless, the hand of man had much to do in
bringing the seed to perfection in this country.
To illustrate this, he pointed to the failure of the
crop in India, and said how much better we get
over such a calamity than they do. When the
rice crop failed in India, the people had nothing to
fall back upon, just as when the potato crop fella
in Ireland, the people had no other resources, as
they each depended entirely for subsistene2 on the
crop that had failed. In India, in former days,
when the rice crop failed it was followed by dire
famine, and he believed it was due to the great ex-
ertions of the officials of our Government in India
they had succeeded now in staving off the horrors
which aecompauied the famine of a few years
back. In India at the present time therehad been
a great amount of suffering, but there were very
few deaths from the famine and those were mostly
amongst children. This hiLl been averted by the
most unusual exertions on the part of the Govern-
ment of India. The people of India had, so to
speak, been carried by the Government of India as
a child was carried in the arms of its nurse. It
was different with ourselves. We do not rely on
one crop only; and when our crop failed we had
other corn-producing countries to fall back upon
cwv which
vihchehisa.nurmcdhleyprevented
realisep r
deplorable
lhdee
India
e failureunhsuaeslu
bfnlrecoeensn.
exertions e
vel ilneedg
for our supplies, and a large system of commerce,
attendedluivitherefore,ohn toe
make to save the people of their country from star-
vation. That was one of the great advantages
which we, in this country possessed over others.
It was a subject of thankfulness that we were so
far out of the reach of absolute famine, and that
was one result of civilization—namely, immunity
from absolute famine, and they must be thankful
that their rejoicing had not been mixed up with
woe for any extraordinarily severe suffering in
India. He had been asked to speak to them re-
garding ,the regulations of the meeting that day.
He was not going to preach to them a sermon, as
that had been already very eloquently done by hiB
friend the Rev. Arthur Girdlestone ; but the latter
gentleman had alluded to one subject in his ser-
mon, on which his (Lord Lyttelton'e) brother, the
Rector, wished him to say a few words. He con-
fessed he should speak of them with reluctance.
They were the two subjects of drinking and thin-
cing ; and he was sorry indeed that those two an-
cient customs of mankind, ancient from time
immemorial, should be so much abused. Good and
innocent in themselves, they had been so abased
that many men regarded them as but bad and per-
nicious, and positively forbade those pursuits.
Drinking, which, as some of us say of tea, should
"cheer but not inebriate," had been frightfully
abused amongst us. There hail never been a na-
tion or a time in the world in which there were not
records of the peopledrinking and dancing. There
was nothing that was more specially and frequently
alluded to in Scripture than both of them. But
there was no nation :in the world beside our own
that was so given over to the vice of drunkenness
and this although many good men amongst us had
done everything in their power, both by precept
and example to dissuade men from it. Surely
it
ambeti.n.g" wine
Thetyhhatadinbaekeentlitogildad.inthteheliesaermrt oofii
" Wine that maketh glad the heart of man," must
be altered in its nature, when it can cause persons
mthat
an,
there had been a movement going on in that pa,
to commit the dreadful crimes and diabolical actions
which are wrought under its influence. Instead of
nk ge 1 an
nned sTemperance
Hecoa•Soote i
take
e, whichny p
a had
d fnm
odfri Lin
it must be of the same nature as that given to the
Celebrated Assyrian--" wine that turneth men into
u uteaa. in
:e
any
called of the world for some time past, call the Church
object the uniting of moderators and total abstain.
era for the purpose of arresting the progress
of
association which questions the right of an indi-
vidual to drink in moderation. lie was only going
to call their attention to what was about to be done
in that place. That was to hold up a Bert of flag
arid make a resolution that they were going to do'
what they could to put down excessive drinking.
On the subject of dancing they did not propose to
condemn what they believed to be perfectly harm-
less, when it is carried out in a proper manner, but
he referred to what had been told him as to what
had resulted there at their annual harvest homed
, The people were so thoughtless and so inconsiderate
that the result of the dancing at those meetings
had been to give scandal and offence. They had
even been told by a clergyman that the dancing
had led to harm, They now proposed to limit the
hours for dancing. They proposed this year to
confine that recreation to the hours of day light,
so that the young persons should not be out at late
hours, and if it should turn out satisfactory they
should continue the practice yearly. He was not
aware that these • irregularities with regard to
drinking and dancing had occurred amongst their
own people, but rather amongst strangers who had
come to those merry-makings. But they must not
only think of their own people; they must think
of others as well as themselves. He did not think
he had anything more to say, except to congratu-
late them on the very fine day that had been
granted them—(applause)
The Hon. and Rev. W. H. Lyttelton then ad-
dressed those present at some length on the subject
of drinking, and then gave the "Health of the
Preacher," which was the only toast proposed.
The Rev. A. G. Girdlestone responded., and the
party adjourned to an adjoining field, where •
number of athletic sports were engaged in, and a
pleasant day was spent.
During the afternoon, a number of the labourers'
wives and other females were regaled with tea, &c.

Priutea and Published by the Bole Proprietor. 81NaOH
Fth LI.), at hi. olti,urs. 92, High-street, Stourbrvige, In
the County 03 Worcester: to which place all lettets awl
otlitr C 0..,. m111.18%1011, tenet be addressed.
Sate:cloy, September 26,1874.