The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1884-07-12 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

EPITOME OF NEWS.  BRITISH AND FOREIGN.  American crop advices are very favourable. The grain belt promises the largest harvest ever known, with a large surplus of wheat for exportation. The Revere Rubber Works, at Revere, Massachusetts, have been destroyed by fire. The loss is estimated at 500,000 dole. A shoal of whales were seen in the vicinity of Stronsay, Orkney, the other day, when a large number of boats set off in pursuit of them. After an exciting hunt, the whole shoal, numbering 40, and averaging about Bft. in length, were captured. The report of mercantile failures in the United States during the past half-year shows that there were• 5510 failures, with a collective liability of 124,391,282 dols., as against 4637 failures, for 66,189,034, during the corresponding portion of last year. Mr. Frank Merrivale, a medical student from Edinburgh, was drowned on Saturday while bathing at Rowardenen, Loch Lomond. He was seized with cramp, and the efforts of his two companions to save him proved fruitless. His koYal Highness the Prince of Wales presided at a meeting of the executive committee of the Frere Memorial Fund at Marlborough House on Monday, when it was resolved that Mr. T. Brock, A.R.A., be asked to execute a statue of the late Sir Bartle Frere, and that the Metropolitan Board of Works should be asked to grant a site for the statue on the Embankment, near that of the late Sir James Outram.  Intelligence received at St. Petersburg from the Caspian territory states that a virulent epidemic has broken out near Kerbalai, on the frontier of Persia, Turkey, and Russia. Precautionary measures have been taken to prevent the introduction of the disease into Russia.  On Monday an inquest was held at Parkhurst Prison on the body of the Rev. John Selby Watson, convicted in 1872 of the murder of his wife at Stockwell, his sentence being commuted to penal servitude for life. Evidence showed that on the night of June 29 he fell out of his hammock, and sustained injuries from the effects of which he died on Sunday morning. A verdict in accordance with the medical evidence was mtlirnod At Ryde on Monday an inquest was held on the body of Mary Ann Maxwell, a domestic servant, who met her death by burning. On Saturday morning, in order to make the fire burn quicker, she poured upon it some paraffin oil. Flames suddenly leaped up, causing her to drop the jar containing the paraffin' and about a gallon of the oil therePpon caught fire. The girl was shockingly burned, and died on Saturday night. A verdict of" Accidental death" was returned. ,  Great anxiety is felt with regard to the crop prospects in the Bombay Presidency owing to the want of rain.  The "Baku Gazette" states that the Mollah Sadyk, the principal chief of all the Persian robber bands on the frontier, was killed on June 23, near Surrah, by Cossacke. The steamer Orcadia, returning from Kirkwall to North Isles of Orkney, on Saturday, from a volunteer review, with about 150 volunteer and civilian passengers, struck on Jack's Reef, Stronsay. The passengers were landed by fishing-boats that were returning from herring fishing. The Board of Trade returns issued on Tuesday show that the imports for June decreased £7,686,379, and the exports decreased £1,385,768, compared with the similar month last year. The imports for the first six months of the present year decreased £18,204,301, and the exports decreased £1,345,732, as compared with the corresponding period of 1883. The yacht Kara arrived at Lerwick on Sunday evening from Jan Mayen Island with five bottle-noses, yielding five tuns of oil. George H. Wade, of New York_ issues a challenge to the world to swim any one for 200 a side and the title of Champion of the World, from one to ten miles. Elizabeth Goode, a married street, Wednesbury, went home night, and during her husband's absence she went into _ medical aid could tained. The deceased had been a confirmed drunkard e extraordinary circumstances.bleed.Monday most Theshocksecreted compounds causedthevillagenitroglycerine. sightßue, andbledParis, before Saturday, He had been ill, and fell into a , state of ooma;:which his friends mistook for deatb. An undertaker was sent for and came with a coffin, but just as the man was about to be placed in it he opened his eyes and of the funeral preparations was so great that he was seized with delirium and expired a few hours later. It having come to the knowledge of the police at Hanley Bucknallz a search was made on Monday night which resulted in the discovery of a considerable quantity of gelatine,lookedhona that reooxfuvrid him.ivtl the esna e t dangerouse glycerine. The owner had absconded.