Bridport, Beaminster, and Lyme Regis Telegram and Dorset, Somerset, and Devon Advertiser. — 1878-10-11 (Bridport, Dorset, England)

CHIOKEREL. CONGREGATIONAL ANNIVERSARY. —On Tuesday the annual tea and public meeting were held at the chapel, West Chickerel, where the country friends as usual provided a capital repast in quantity and quality, but not many going out from Weymouth, the attendance was limited to about 40. A goodly number of the villagers attended the public meeting, where were present the Rev. W. Lewis (Hope Chapel, Weymouth), Rev. J. S. Butcher (Upwey), Rev. W. ,141. Fell (Portland), Mr. S. Anderson, dm. Mr. W. M. Fell gave a stimulating address to the young people, urging them ta improve their minds, and for a help to this he recommended an improvement class. Mr, T. Anderson's address was on the same topic, Riving examples of successful study. Mr. Butcher urged the young women especially to acquire knowledge, and more than hinted they would not be fit for wives unless they knew how to cook a dinner and possessed other doe:ionic knowledge.—Mr. Lewis also gave a well-reasoned and thoughtful address, and a very pleasant time was spent. A wag suggests, with regard to Mr. Butcher's address that one way to advance the knowledge of cookery, making, mending, Sze., would be competitive examinations. He says "Surely there are several bachelor gentlemen about who ought to be married, if only they could find the right ladies. One can hardly expect these eligible bachelors to offer themselves as prises to the best cook and button-sewer; but she who is all my fancy painted her, would have a better chance of a good husband, if she—among the— 'Sweet girl graduates, with their golden hair; was able to pass an 'excellent' and even with a prise for practical knowledge of 'What shall we eat? What shall we drink? and wherewithal shall we be clothed r"  A little girl has died at Huddersfield from eating a toadstool which she had mistaken for a mushroom. A clerk in the Liverpool Branch of the Bank of England has absconded with a parcel of bank notes, which are stated to represent in value about £15,000. A six days' walking match in New York for o belt, 1,000 dollars, and the championship, finished on Saturday night, when O'Leary had traversed 403 miles and Hughes 310. On Saturday Waterloo Bridge and the foot bridge at Charing Cross, London, were thrown open to the public and declared free of toll for ever. This step has been taken in accordance with the provieions of the Metropolitan Toll Bridges Act of last year, and is to be speedily followed by a similar course in regard to the toll bridges at Lambeth, Vauxhall, Chelsea. and Battersea. The Salisbury police have apprehended three gipsies on suspicion of having murdered another gipsy named Eliza Woods, who had been found dead in a tent on Salford Down, near the city. The total number of lives lost in the Ebbw Vole Colliery disaster is now known to be 286. No danger of fire now exists, and the work of raising the water, which is estimated to be about 28 feet deep, is progressing. The London Hospitals are feeling the effects of bad trade in the curtailment of subscriptions. A fortnight ago one of the most popular of the metropolitan institutions sent out 1,500 letters appealing for assistance, and up to Friday last the net result had been two annual subscriptions of a guinea. Sheffield has followed the example of one or two other Provincial towns, and formed a 'Funeral and Mourning Reform Association, the object of which is, if not to dispense with the mourning altogether, to prune its extravagances, and enable people of limited means to show respect for the dead without involving themselves in crushing expense. A Yankee journalist, waxing eloquent on modern improvements. remarks that there has been a great improvement even in toys during the last quarter of a century. Twenty-five years ago a child made a job for the undertaker by sucking the paint off a two-cent wooden monkey. To-day Young Hopeful's toy 'steam engine explodes and knocks his mother's brains out.