The Warwickshire Herald. — 1889-05-02 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

PUBLIC NOTICES.  to set people by the ears, retard public business, and to generally make himself ridiculous and obstructive. But, he is old, and age always bring, with it the privilege of being eccentric and even insolent, without the fear of chatisement and severe rebuke. If the ratepayers will elect doddering old fogeys as their representatives on their local governing body, ene must be prepared for manifestations of old fogeyism and the weaknesses of dotage.  " Pendragon," writing in a recent number of the Referee refers to the controversy which has taken place over the cremation of the Marquise of Ely, as to whether the corpse should be prayed over before or after it is cremated : and there is a characteristic bluntness and straight-from-theshoulder tone about his observations that are refreshing. He says :—" One thing is very certain—i.e., that if the dead soul has been judged he will not be called up again for sentence becaul3e of the folly or stupidity of those who have charge of his frigid portion. If God thinks a man is good enough for heaven or bad enough for hell, he is not to be humbugged or "kidded to" by what happens at his funeral."  On Saturday a meeting of the Joint Committee of the Waawickshire County Council was held at the Shire Hall, Warwick, under the presidency of Lord Leigh, when the question of granting pensions to certain retiring police officers was discussed. At the commencement of the business Mr. Fisher—our own Sidney —the representative of the Six Ways Ward, is reported to have called attention to the presence of the members of the Fourth estate, and asked whether it would not be better to consider the business before the committee in camera. It was, however, held by the meeting that the chiel shauld be present, take his notes, and nrint 'em if he liked; and had the committee decided otherwise the committee would have been deserving of much censure.  The Joint Standing Committee whith has the control of the County Police is an important body, and it is extremely desirable that their discussions, and not merely the results of their deliberations, should be published. It is not pleasing to note that a representative member of the committee— and an Aston representative—should have taken the initiative in expressing a desire that the reporters should be excluded.  The buxom little widow who keeps the hostelry which nestles within the shadow of Aston Parish Church will, perhaps, in future, be careful in the matter of her lodgers and their guests; though it would be unfair to suggest that ,he was guilty of anything worse than a technical breach of the licensing laws. If the Veaetian blind had been in a proper state the officer would not have seen into the smokeroom, and all would have been well.  Just look to your blind, when you feel inclined Your lodger to favour in a way that'll savour Of a sly little drink and make a " slop" think He's only got to mind to make a little find, That'll have a bit of flavour and put himself in favour.  It was very kind of the members of the Executive Committee of the Aston Liberal Association to pass a resolution sympathising with their late prospective candidate, Mr. Beale, and commending "him for the self-sacrificing spirit he displayed in entering the contest in Central Birmingham." Bah ! "Self-sacrificing spirit ; " such twaddle, It was rather a craving for notoriety at any price he exhibited in becoming the contestant against Mr. Bright. -Mr. Barnes, net of New York, but of Victoria. road, Aston, who was on Friday sent to gaol for three weeks by the Aston Bench for beating his wife, apparently has a better idea of his spouse than most husbands have of their wives. He threatened to knock Mrs. Barnes' brains out and make a slide with them. Now the average husband does not credit his partner with possessing any braihs at all, and would, therefore, never threaten to indulge in the pointless talk of knocking them out and converting them into a rink.  Feminine caprice has, I should think, got to its bent. The newest personal adornment now takes the form of hairs from the tail of the African elephant. These hirsute appendages ma le into watchguards or bracelets, with gold embellishments, are strictly the fashion. One will next hear of the pouch of the kangaroo being used as a reticule by some fashionable haddled-fated belle.  The Aston magistrates the other week had a somewhat peculiar case before them. Two persons were summoned for selling or being responsible for the sale of one quantity of adulterated milk. It was a moot question whether the actual vendor of the milk was in business for himself or whether he was in the service of another man ; and before the Bench could proceed with the charge for selling the adulterated milk, they had first of all to decide as to which of the two men summoned was the actual offender.  Through a lapstm lingua one of the Aston Bench on Tuesday,fined a prisoner "one month with hard labour."  A man's hat and a crutch were recently found floating in a canal in the neighbourhood of Aston. Information was at once given to the police and two officers were ordered to search the canal for the supposed suicide. They dragged for nearly two hours and didn't succeed in bringing anybody to the surface. They were about thinking of relinquishing their search when news arrived that a crippled man had been found asleep in an entry near at hand, and having been awakened he was making anxious enquiries for his hat and crutch!