The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1880-11-20 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

EPITOME OF NEWS.  - BRITISH AND FOREIGN.  Intelligence received at New York from Alaska states that a cyclone, accompanied lay earthquake shocks, occurred at Sitcha on the 26th ult., causing much devastation.  A sum of 3,600• dols. in all has been forwarded to Ireland by the Branch of the Land League at Rochester, New York. -Under the head of "Conscience Money" in The Tinves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer acknowledges the receipt of £75 on account of under-estimated income-tax of 1877 and 1878 from "W. X."  During the four months ending September 30 the number of passengers carried by the Great Eastern Railway Company's boats via the Harwich route was 26,583, being an increase of 46 per cent. over the same period in ISM It is reported that the first silver dollar coined in the United States has been found. It is held by twenty-eight different American citizens.  Wheat shipments from California are now on a large scale-100,000 quarters weekly. Canada is offering fine e to make up the wants of North Europe.  _ . Agricultural labour, in the North of England at all events, would now seem to be in excess of the demand, for at the Newcastle hiring fair the wages given to women for the half-year ranged from ninety shillings to £7, with an average of about £5 10s., while men took from £7 10s. to £l2, the average being about £9 10a., whil lads got about £0 10s. A large number of men and women remained unengaged.  - Mr. Adam, M.P, in taking farewell of his constituents at Kinross, said the great difficulty in the future of the Government was the question of Ireland. It was impossible for any one to predicate what would be done in that country. Like children crying for the moon, the Irish people wished to have something much more than any Gov,•rnment could possibly, give them. While they must make great allowances for the way in which Ireland had been governed for centuries past, the law must not be set at nought; but, if it were, decided and vigorous action must be taken. Petitions to the Home Secretary have been signed in Chelmsford, Saffron Walden, and other plaoes, praying that the sentence of death passed upon \Man Wright for the murder of John Prior, a gamekeeper in the service of Lord Braybrooke, may not be carried out, on the grounds that the prisoner had no intention to kill the deceased, that the finding of the hats of the two men and a button from the prisoner's waistcoat on the ground suggested that there had been a struggle, and that the jury stronglY recommended the prisoner to mercy. If there be no intervention, the sentence will probably be carried out at Chelmsford Prison on the 22nd inst. At Brunn, in Moravia, the regular customers of an old-fashioned beerhouse had bet' incommoded for some time past by the prevalence of a very strong and obnoxious smell. The police, accompanied by a chemical inspector, having examined the cellar, discovered in a dark recess behind the staircase a small, self-supplying petroleum well. It is expected that a petroleum•seeking fever will be the consequence in the vicinity of the town A signalman, named William Lee, for 17 years employed by the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway, has met with an accident which resulted in death. The man travelled from Camberwell in a train from which all the passengers alight at Ludgate, and the train is then shunted into Holborn Viaduct Station empty. He walked along the. Plain line metals towards the Liplborn Viaduct signal-box, and was seen by the station-maatet and another official to suddenly step between the metals along which the shunted train was coming. Shouts were raised, but these failed to alarm him, and he was knocked down, and, the wheels passing over him, was so injured that he died in a few hours afterwards.  1