The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-09-17 00:00:00

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A Reuter's telegram from New York states that five
persons have been killed by a boiler explosion in Jersey
City.

"Mrs. Ramsbotham says she is sorry she can't
attend the Economical Methodist Conference, as she could
give them several hints on Economy and Method."—Punch.
A visitor to Washington Irving's grave writes to the
New York Evening Post that vandalism has defaced the
tombstone so that all the corners have been utterly dis-
figured.
"Col. Grayson, of lowa, ,who passed through
eighteen battles in the late war, was killed the other day by
sucking a bean down his windpipe. Fate Won't permit
men to die like heroes.—Detroit Free Press.

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An accident has occurred to a train in Kentucky.
While passing over a bridge it was thrown off the rails
()fang to coming in contact with a cow. The bridge gave
way, and the train was precipitated a distance of 30 feet.
Seven persons were killed and many injured.
Fourteen deaths from sunstroke are reported to
have occurred in New York and two in Jersey city on Friday
In last week.

The supply of live stock and fresh meat landed at
Liverpool last week from the United States and Canada was
—of live cattle an increase, of sheep a decrease, and of
fresh meat also a decrease in comparison with the previous
week. The totals were 2,220 cattle. 2,059 sheep, 5,837 quarters
of beef, and 890 carcases of mutton.
Among the minor achievements of electricity is its
application for purposes of ignition in lieu of the Inciter
match.
_

The original number of recruits intended for the
Russian army and navy in 1881, namely 235,000, has by an
Imperial ukase been reduced by 23,000 men.
The Citizen states that twelve Royal bucks
have been forwarded from the Great Park, Windsor, to the
City of London Remembrancer's Office, being the customary
presents of venison fromsher Majesty to the Chief Magis-
trate, the Sheriffs, and high officers of the Corporation.
A New York telegram says that the visible supply
of wheat on Sept. 9, was 19,500,000 bushels; Ditto, Indian
corn, 22,700,000 bushels. Expott clearances of wheat for
Europe during the past week, 2,120,000 bushels; export,
clearances of Indian corn for Europe during the past week,
640,000 bushels.
A valuable fresco has recently been discovered in
the cloisters of the Cathedral of Pelplin on the occasion of
the removal of an oil painting that had hung upon the walls.
Connoisseurs think it must date from the fourteenth century
It is in good preservation, consists of two compartments,
and represents various Biblical subjects.
The statue of Sauvage, the inventor of the screw
propeller, was unveiled on Monday in his native city of
Boulogne. The town was gaily decorated, French and
English flags blending in friendly rivalry; the streets were
thronged, and the weather being moderately fine, the Jae
was highly:successful.
A body of Russian nobles, to the number of 300,
are said to have organized themselves under tio name of
"The Sacred Legion" as a counter-assodation to Nihilistic
attempts upon the life of the Czar. They dispose of large
funds, and employ a complete system of secret organization
in Me pursuance of their objects.
Two of the vessels prosecuting the leeland cod
fishery have arrived at Shetland with the result of the
first trip of the season and report the fishery very satis-
factory. The smack John Chapman has a cargo consist-
ing or twenty thousand cod and the Lily of the Valley, a
large vessel, has twenty-seven thousand cod.

According to the religious census of Calcutta, the
capital of India is inhabited by 30,400 Christians of all
nationalities. Of these the adherents of the Church of
Rome number 11,095; members of the Church of England,
8,768; Presbyterians, 1,869; Methodists, 692; and the re-
mainder is split up among various other dissenting bodies.
Major General Feilden, M.P., laid the foundation
of a new school church at Blackburn on Saturday, and said
he believed the Church of England was now more firmly
established, than she had ever been before. If Churchmen
and Nonconformists, he added, stood side by aide,lll=
be able to stem the tide of infidelity and latitudinarianism
which was now washing our shores, and which, if allowed
to attain a high point, would uproot our time-honoured in-
stitutions, inflict a deadly, if not a fatal, stab upon our
religion, and eventuate in the destruction of the Empire.
Last week's receipts of cotton at all the United States
ports have been 71,000 bales, and since Ist September, 1881,
118,000 bales. Exports to Great Britain, 33,000 bales,
and to the Continent and Channel, 2,000 bales; total since
Ist September, 1881, 70,000 bales. Stock at all ports,
251,000 bales.

The Court Journal says that although France no
longer possesses a splendid and luxurious court, there is
probably as much splendour, luxury, elegance, and taste in
the highest Parisian-society at the present time as ever there
was in the palmiest days of the Second Empire.
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A sad case of drowning occurred at Bristol on
Saturday night. Mr. and Mrs. Lockley and their only son,
22 years of age, stopped at Cumberland Basin to see an Irish
steainer discharge. Mr. and Mrs. Lockley heard a cry of
"Man overboard," and to escape the scene they went to-
wards home. Failing to overtake their son they returned
and then found that the hat which had been picked up be
longed to their son. His body was afterwards recovered
How he got into the water is not known. He was partner
with his father in an extensive brewery.

The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh
went deer-stalking on SAturd.‘y afternoon in the woods of
Abergeldie. Eight stags fell to the rifles of the Royal
sportsmen. At ten o'clock in the evening the Prince of
Wales gave a stag dance, which was numerously attended.
The stags were placed at the front of the castle, and dancing
by torchlight went on for some time. On Sunday morning
the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge
occupied the Abergeldie pew in Crathie Church. Dr.
Macleod preached.
The Queen has sent to the executors of the late
Lord Beaconsfield the silk banner and badges of knighthood
and of the Garter recently taken down from his lordship's
stall in St. George hapel, Windsor, in order that they may
be laid in the chancel of Hughenden Church.
"We are 'a Nation of Shopkeepers,' the French
used to say. Would they like to see us a nation of shop-
keepers without any customers? But when we've tempor-
arily retired from shopkeeping, they've found us 'rum cus-
tomers' to deal with.—Punch.

A shocking accident occurred on Monday at the
Darlington Cattle Market. A young horse took fright and
galloped down the centre of the sheep market through a very
large concourse of people. A farmer sprang forward to stop
him and was dragged for some distance, and ultimately
crushed against a corner of one of the cattle pens. He was
injured so much that amputation of the leg was necessary,
and he lies in a precarious state.

Electric lights have created a plague of flies at the
hotels in a Transatlantic southern watering-place. The heat
of the gas keeps insects away, but the cool glare of electricity
attracts the flies and moths in such numbers that they swarm
in thick masses round the lights, to the great annoyance of
the visitors.

The attempt to stock the rivers of Victoria with
salmon, appears to be succeeding, for a salmon, weighing
71bs., and containing a large quantity of highly developed
ova, has been caught in a tributary of the Yarra, near.l4lel-
bourne. This fish is doubtless one of those introduced with
so much care by Mr. (now Sir Samuel) Wilson.
An inquest has been held at Brighton on the a.. a y
of Walter Casstine, late an assistant to Messrs. Chippe ield
and Butler, drapers, of the Western-road, who was seized
with an epileptic fit in his bath and drowned before he was
discovered. A verdict of "Accidental death" was re-
turned.
A monument has been erected in Haslar Cemetery,
Gosport, to the memory of those lost by the capsizing of the
Eurydice off the Isle of Wight in March, 1878. The
memorial is ten feet high and twenty three by seventeen at
the base. It is of novel design, representing a rough roek
with seaweed thereon, and the sea pouring over it; whilst
the original anchor and chain of the ill-fated ship surmount
the whole. The stonework is of polished granite and Port-
land stone.
On Tuesday morning in last week, Cannes, in the
south of France, was visited by a severe thunderstorm. The
electric fluid struck the belfry of Holy Trinity Church,
destroying the large stone cross and the massive arch con-
taining the bell. The broken fragments of stone falling on
the roof of the church have much injured it. A villa flask
was also struck and greatly injured.
The schooner Courier, bound from St. Pierre for
Martinique with a cargo of fish, foundered at sea on August
20. The crew took to their boat, and after having been *frog
In her for five days, during which time she sailed 276 miles,
they were fallen in with during a fog by the ship Golden Sea.
The master of this vessel took them aboard and brought
them to Falmouth, where they were landed on Sunday
evening.
On Monday afterpoon some consternation waa,caused
at the Soldiers' Daughters' Home, Hampstead, by a kitchen
boiler explosion, whereby the whole of the large cooking
range was shattered into fragments, the greater portion of
the brickwork at the sides and back blown out, the ceiling of
the kitchen damaged, the glass of the kitchen window
smashed, and the contents of the room more or less
destroyed. The disaster is supposed to have been caused by
the supply pipes of the boiler having become corroded, and
therefore giving a deficient and irregular supply of water to
the boiler. Major-General Boileau, the chairman, and
other members of the committee, were sitting in a room up-
stairs at the time. Fortunately no persccial injury occurred.