The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-01-04 00:00:00

AMERICAN ITEMS.

A pearl, valued at ninety -five dollars, has been found
In an order at Alexandria, Va.

There is said to be a breed of cats in Plainville,
Coon_ that are born without tutiw

'The Memphis Arshinche says there are twenty
thottssn4 starving nevus, in that city.

- - -
A widower in Lowell, Muionichneette, with thirty-
one children, has me i tied his third wife.

'ren out of thirty oil wells in Athens county, Ohio,
flow an aggregate of thirty-five thousand barrels a year.
In California female servants get from twenty to
thirty dole, a month, and labourers from fifty to 125 dolt
per month.

Two children have died in Mobile, Ala., from eating
candles which had been coloured with poisonous substances.
rresident Lincoln's steinnother still Uses near Far-
mington, ill. She is nearly eighty years old.
•

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Savoy, Massachusetts, is said to be so salubrious
that the only doctor in the town cannot support himself by
his practice, and lately received a 100 doll. donation from
the townspeople.

Rec •ni statistic,' show that there are 3 ROO Romanist
churches In the United States, and 54,000 Protestant.
Florida, once entirely Romanist, has now I.ut one church of
that denomination to every eighteen Protestant.

An Augunta (Maine) gentleman Mu; recently in.
rented a machine for dressing and blacking boots, which in
operated by foot-power. It is stated that this machine can
do the work of ten men, and will save nonli labour in boot
and slide factories. Attached to it sure an ornery wheel nod
grindstone.

Two-thirds of the teachers in the United States are
Women.

A female medical college is about to be established
In Cleveland, Ohio.

It is calculated that the perishable articles froz,n
Up on laaril the hosts In the New York canals, principally
potatoes and apples, amount to some millions 01 dollars'
worth.

Elias Howe, inn., the inventor of the mewing
machine, hne left an estate of 614,000 I lots. according to an
Inventory filsd in the Probate Court of Fairfield county,
Coins.

Barnum and Van Ambrirgh'a Menagerie, when
travelling on the $..41 ray between Montgomery and Mobile,
recently waa upset and tumbled down an embankment.
Tivfi tigers. two nears, and a hyena escaped. and began
fighting ovtr the carcase of • deer The contest lasted four
hours, and was described as frightful the animals were
then re captured. '

There is said to be a dog in New Albany, Ind.,
who Is specially fond of play log oil the piano. Ile gets .on the
stool, strike, the keys with his paws, throws he head beck,
and seems to enjoy himself thoroughly.

A forlorn old beggar, who bad been living upon
charity in Oreetibiish, N Y., was found recently upon his
miserable bed, with a bank-hook in one hatil and a bunch of
greenbacks In the other. Ile had died counting his aecret
hoard.

_ .
Two rich men of Chicago are at law about a lot of
four inches front un cue of the streets of thst city.
fireat destitution prevails in Louisiana, and it is
reported that thousands are in danger of starvation.
Nine Fmnch Canadians were burned to death in a
recent prair e Ore in D.trotalt.

At itontr..al, revently, Captain Crouch, le,th regi-
ment, shot hirneelf

More than 300 kinds of hoonakirta are manufactured
In New York.

A man in I)etroit haa kreed to walk three clays
sleep for '2,000 dole.

The prairie fires near Fort Harker, Kansaa, de-
stroyed ten thowishd timmlt hAy thin mks. n.
-

Six hundred and fifty fren,ll stlo.is were blaugh•
tared In St. Louis in November but

At we.hlinga in Neviia I, all the gentlemen T•rvaent
kiss the and all the I.olies kis* the laidegrooni, alter
which all the ladies and geollernen kiss each other.

A Chicago court has just glechied that young women
of seventeen are to 01,1 te be chastiattl eurporesily
„ .

On the 11th of December, a fearful railway acci-
dent °MIRO in Vermont, on the Vermont Central Rail.
road. A carriage containing 75 men, employed In repairing
a bridge recettly burnt, was earelessy balied otY the Oint-
ment. Fifteen men were killed and 40 wounded, several of
whom will tile.

Half of the drew; circle at the Galveston Theatre,
fess., Is reserved for freedmen

In Illinois a man is nporteil to have had his boot
taken off liy • sin Ice of llghtilloo.

The harber-ahop advertiaementa in a California
paper aro placed water the head of •• Tonsorial Saloons "
Two women in Kansaa fought a duel recently, and
one was shot dead.. The cause of the quarrel was Jealousy.
. . . _ _

An anaociation of Cl,inette in San Francisco is aloiut
to eon' the Chinese lagais in that city lack to tl.clr
native land.

Four children in one family, at South Dennis, Man.,
have died f putrid are thr.Bt within the past four weeks.
In Leeds, Me., recently, a youth of fifteen years
locked • cotorregation n church and then robbed the house
onis of the deacons

Three couples who were marriefl on the same day
fifty %ears ego in MuMoro', Maw. celebratefl their g Idea
weltifog lately.

_
An infant, fifti-en months old, in Thornton, /mi.,
was choked to death 7ecently by aetttng a wood .crew, w,th
which it as play in its throat.

A gentleman living in Patermn. N.J., while on his
aay home from Jerary city, I luring the recent snow storm,
was over.mie I.y the drift, awl frozen to I leath.

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A new fsabion haa sprung lip in Mietemtri. A
newspaper of th It State g•tv's notice, of I arriases In ad-
s alter. They are in the toini form, with the words, 'Swill
Is: married" Introducing the announcement,

"Captain' Mullin-ler, wlio was arreated in March
last, in Ireland, has been release", and sailed for America.
"Th. Fenian bn,therhoaal in thia country has long
been Weakened—not to say parabsed—by a division into
two separate organiiations, one of them presided over by
Colonel William It Roberts, the other I late, by John
Savage, Rsti Negotiations for a fusion have been for some
time In progress, which now !:ive prond of speedy sue^ess.
The Prob.i.le Presideot of the combined organlsatlon is
John Mitchell, Esq."—S, sr lock Tribune.

• •
The New York State Asylum for Inebriates is
declared to 1w rtmarliably successful both as to the willing-
ness of inebriates generally to enter it, anti its curative
effects. It is a h,ndstone Gothic building ne.r llinghainplon,
with chive!, library. turmai.litm, billiard mon. and con-
servatories. There ate too acres of ground belonging to it.
The building and grounds hare cost aoi),000 dollars. The
corner stone wes laid in 18. co, in the presence of Edward
Everett sat other diatinguivhed gentlemen. Dr.- Dty, Its
superintendent, an eminent ph) sichui, has found no need of
severe restraints for his patient&

American journals report business ad everywhere
dull in thatieounti y. In New York suction sales are remitted
to by some leading firms to keep up their business auil it is
estimated that in the came city there are cn,oeo women
reeking ennployrrent. The Nen says eve] y branch if
nieebanical labour Is overstated, sail inechani, are
flocking from country distriets to seek empliiyment 6, the
city, which is not to lie had. In New England the niaidifac-
barer. declare that they can only continue their works at
reduce wages The Maine shipyards are nearly idle. Tne
only trade reported as " brisk " Is the oyater trade In
Nlaryland the best oystermen earn from ten to twenty five
dollars per day.

_
This Nem York Erprem says that 50.000 men are
out of employment in that dry, and fully 9,000 girls are
looking or " places," and can find none.

A man, name.' Ethan Allen, was recently execntvil
at Montreal I.e. brutal murder. Before his death he fre-
quently Fanl that he a oald die with a 9111 ile m hi, face, and
nanally -o, the mule remtininz on lilt Colt,,tetiat,ee after
death; he had been engaged with the Fenian raiders at .ate
time.

A tenement house, No. 594;, Seroml•avenne, New
York. was burned down at an early hour I,n the morning of
the I 6 hof December. It wns crowded with poor people,
all of whom had a narrow escape with their lives, and nine
01 whoni perished in the flames. It is not known how many
more bodies are yet in the ruins. Three children were
among those who peri+hed, and their mother is not expected
to recover from the Injuries she curtained. A baker who
occupied the lower Moir has been arrested on su,pi:lon of
arson.

••••
The New York Tribune of the 14th pohhBhes a long
despatch by the cable Orme an account of the Fenian out-
rage at ilerkenwell the previous afternoon. In commenting
upon it the Tribune says:—" The first response to the Man-
chester executions tells the Tories what kin.l of resistance
they mast expect from the Feniens. Awl in this 'new
struggle it is safe to say that sympathy of public opinion
in all foreign cenntriee is overwhelming with the Feulans !"

The Oneinnati Commercial tells a story of a fellow
who walked into a millinery store in that city the other
evening. and after liking about, asked the proprietress If
she conilu..ted the establishment alone. She informed him
that he hid no business to ask such questions, and politely re-
yielded him to leave " I understand,' said he, " that you
have eonsiderai is money about the house ; and I mean to
have it" For answer, the lady emietly rose from her chair,
seized a hatchet from under the counter, and chopped into
the fellows face with it in • way that male the blood spirt
in all directions. The miscuided man rushed into the street,
and has not since been heard of.

In the Simate, on De cipher It, Senator Wilson
presented a memorial, whhh he stated wan from ...lois.
Warren, an American citizen now in a I.e t•sh ytioc, set-
tin, firth that he was held for trial for olTenc-oi .-onamilted
M n the city of N w Yolk." Without any debate it was
referred to the etmmittee no Fatten/it Relations. Mayor
oi New York, on the sonic lay scat a mes4age to
the Colam"n Culmeil of that city declaring tied ii. bin jmig-
meat thernonicipal authorities, •• Omni.] take deride t and
emphatic, intiop in vindication 41 the •prliteit le' that
American Citizens ate tree. bet ire the world. anti owe duty
to this If "remittent alone." This sarongs was Kent to the
'mindi at the unties'. of the committee appointed by recent
meetings in New York, called to rcinonsieste against the
execution of 'the Maticlie,ter Finians.

During the great snow-storm on the 13th of De-
cember, a Uhl robbery was raccesafinly.perpetrated ju New
York. A messenger of the Banker :Yew York, while on his
way shave Wall street from the •! Clearing-house" with a
satchel containing checks and draughts, was accosted by a
tom who punned from a sleigh and seized the ratchet The
man at game son intothe weigh and it was driven off, the
messenger still clirwing•f.4 the satchel aunt being dragged
along theAtreet, the thief awl two others with him beating
the messenger ..n the head ant anti! to make him let go
After being dragged a hundred yard, he sem beaten off
awl the sleigh Meal neared with the booty. The satchel
contained 3,600,11V0 lois. uncheeks and droughts. and
MIA amount lit money. Payment of these papers has 4.f
be•• 11 styli I, bat a hare number of the tairsinefol
ane• of Nese York are interested, and a diligent starch
Sr the thieves hal