The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-09-24 00:00:00

COMMENTS ON CURRENT NEWS.

ON Wednesday morning there were close
on fourteen hundred scarlet fever patients in
the London hospitals, and the epidemic is
becoming so widespread and extensive that
considerable alarm is being felt, not only in
the metropolis, bat elsewhere in the country.
The worst of it is that statistics of previous
visitations of similar contagion go to lead us
to expect that October and November will
not be likely to diminish the severity of the
disease, but that we may look for an in-
creased number of deaths during the murky
weather of these two months. Every pre-
caution is being taken by medical and sani-
tary authorities to isolate the eases hs they
occur; but, doubtless, many more families
will suffer affliction ere the epidemic has run
its course. Strange to say, with all this
fever, London's death-rate last week, 15.7
per thousand, was the lowest of any week
(hiring the year. There were, however, as
many as fifty-seven fatal cases of scarlet
fever. Dwellers in all populous places can-
not at this period of the year take too much
pains to keep their houses clean and clear of
decaying refuse, so as to prevent the "breed-
ing" oCfever.

WHAT a visitation of death by violence we
are having! There was the yachting fatality
at Ilfracombe, and we had scarce recovered
from the shock its intelligence gave before
news of the appalling calamity at Exeter
came. Even while the coroner was still
sitting in the Devonshire city, another ter-
rible accident to a party of pleasure-seekers
occurred, this time in the North, between
twenty and thirty excursionists being
mangled to death in a railway collisima. How
one train came to dash on to another in day-
light with such sad result in this age of
signalling appliances is matter for investiga-
tion; but whatever explanation may be
forthcoming, and however handsomely the
railway managers may behave to the friends
of the bereaved, nothing can now bring
back the poor victims to life. It is little
comfort for their widows and orphans to be
told, either, that it man might travel with-
oat ceasing for over seven hundred years by
rail before the average time for a fatality
would reach him; the fact remains that all
these Yorkshire men, women, and children
have been done to death unnecessarily,
because sameone had blundered. Later still
a lamentable explosion has occurred on board
a mail steamer in the Solent, scalding and
killing nine poor fellows right off, besides
injuring others. Truly " horrors on Horror's
head accumulate."

MONDAY night's scene at Lillie-bridge was
indeed a disgraceful one. Thousands of folk
were gathered there to see a big foot-race
between two men of renown as sprint-
runners. Betting ran unusually high; and
most of those present had an excited antici-
patory interest in the contest. As the
moment for the start drew near some vague
rumours got about as to the competitors not
intending to "run straight," and the wager-
fng began to be wild. Ultimately it was
announced that the match was abandoned,
when the crowd became infuriated, and de-
manded a restitution of "gate money."
Then came a scene of mad riot. The pay
box was destroyed, the refreshment bar was
pillaged, the grand stand and other erections
were set on fire, and there was free fighting
with fists, sticks, boots, and bottles. Mach
damage was done, and much personal injury
sustained, and the whole affair was of a
scandalous character. The crowd swarmed
on to the permanent way of the adjoining
railroad, and the officials had to telegraph
in all directions to stop approaching trains;
and. but for these precautions many lives
would, doubtless, have been sacrificed. As
it was, the death record only contained one
name, that of a respected railway inspector,
who expired suddenly from heart disease
induced by excitement while endeavouring
to keep back the maddened mob. Had it
not been for the curse of gambling this dis-
graceful riot would never have occurred.
Ihe athletes would have run their race, and
all things would have passed off peaceably.
Betting is unmistakeably sapping the moral
life out of many of our manly sports, and
sullies almost every one of them more or less
now, excepting cricket, which is, happily,
still unaffected by the devotees of the ring.
Such a thoroughgoing lover of sport for
sport's sake as Colonel Gunter, M.P. a
" charge of the Light Brigade " man, by the
way who is principal proprietor of the
Lillie-bridge Grounds, must be disgusted
I eyond measure by the fiendish conduct of
Ihe roughs who wrecked the place, and we
do rot wonder that it is announced that
I illie-bridge is to be closed. True sportsmen,
°Use and purge the turf, the grassy field,
the cinder-track, and the river course from
the gambling taint w Ilia is fast making them
hateful! ,

TRADE is happily improving, as many
things show; but the words of Lord Hart.
ington anent our industries the other day
were not unwarranted. He urged that as a
peo,ple we must avail ourselves of all the
advantages we possess, not only in scientific
knowledge—though that is of immense im-
portance—but in vicrour and natural energy
;Aso. That is, we consider, the keynote of
the situation. Industry and application
must keep at the head of the commercial
world. It is of no use boasting of our
physical or intellectual superiority be it
real or fanciei f NC3 let despised contin-
ental competitors beat us out of all markets
by plodding and incessant toil. If the Ger-
man and the Belgian will labour a dozen or
fl)urteen hours daily for less than what the
B itis:i workman considers a fair day's pay,
it is time for our a.rtizanto consider whether
hots not doing unwisely in stipulating for
sort hours and frequent holiday interrup-
tions. Eight or nine hours' daily labour,
with Saturday half-holidays, besides the
fixed national play days, may be pleasant
and healthy, and even more desirable,
ethically, than the lengthier diurnal servi-
tude of foreign industrials, but the hard
facts of their produce have to be recl.,,ned
with ; and the time !els assuredly arriv 1 for
the IfAnglishman to 'tow that, to qu,-, the
words of Mr. GI .Istone the oth r day,
t‘ taken all r'lrtn'aile.::, is better than t:.o G2r-
man," Science will help labour as much
h..?re if not more than elsewhere; but it re-
mn4 with British labour to say whether it
wi I idly by stipulating for an ideal
in I,ls lid state, while t!le stolid and plodding
foeeigner wins the prize of commercial
.prosperity by dint of patient staying povrer.