The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1876-07-22 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

THE COTTON TRADE.  A meeting of the represegtatives of cotton operatives was held at Blackburn, on Saturday to decide what steps should be taken with reference to the proposal of the cotton spinners and manufacturers of North and North-East Lancashire to reduce wages 10 per cent. Mr. Craven presided, and delegates were present from Lancashire, Cheshire, and Derbyshire. Resolutions were carried deploring the course decided upon by some of the employers, and declaring that the only remedy for the present unsatisfactory state of trade wig to he found in a reduction of hours. It was further resolved that in consequence of not having raceived any advance in wages for more than twenty years, during which time other trades had obtained considerably i'mreased remuneration, any proposal to reduce wages was cruel and unjust, and must be strenuously resisted. A committee was appointed to take any action that might appear necessary to oppose the threatened reduction.  A good man is a peacemaker; a bull in a china shop is a piecemaker too. . .  "What branches of learning have you been pursuing at school to-day !" said a father to his son. "None in particular, sir; but a birch branch has been pursuing me." Never insult a man because he is poor in purse or raiment ; for beneath a ragged coat it may be that a muscle Les concealed that could put a head on the oldest man in the business.  How many children had the "mother of pearl?" The life of a rich old bachelor is a splendid breakfast, a tolerably at dinner, and a most miserable supper. A true picture of despair is a pig reaching through a hole in the fence to get a cabbage that lies a few inches beyond his reach:. .  "My onthankful hearers," said a backwoods preaoher, "you are like unto hogs eatin' acorns. They never look up to see where the acorns come from."  An American editor thints that "one of the most pitiable sights in this life is the spectacle of a man who has been married but three months wearing cotton in his ears." The same man: Wearing poker and broom-handled monograms on his head, we should say, is a much more pitiable, as well as a painful spectacle. At a certain school recently; when the pupils were asked what water was for, the answer was, "To give to horses ;" another "To slack lime with." The application of water to quench the thirst of human beings did not seem to be known to the rising youth' educated at the school in question: Their fathers never used it. In the Sheriffs Court in London, on Wednesday. Mks Amelia Thomas, schoolmistress, was awardel £B5O damages for breach of proini!4e of marriage on the part of the Rev. J. Rowlands, rector of Queenhope, Mold. On Saturday, Mary Ann Coward, 17 years of age, a cook at Downham, Norfolk, was committed for trial at the assizs on the charge of murdering her child and burying its body in her master's garden. . .  At the Se,lgley police court, on Saturday, James Badhams, the son o. a Dudley tradesman, was committed to the Worcester assizes, charged with sealing a horse belonging to Mr. Jeavons, Dudley. The prisoner took the horse out a field and attempted to sell it for 25s to man named Smith. The latter thought the horse had been stolen, and detained the prisoner until the arrival of a policeman. On kFaturday a platelayer named Thomas Ridgway, 40 years old, residing at Haslingden, was killed by a locomotive at Crewe station. Deceased had been engaged sweeping the line, when an (ngine came up unexpectedly, and the wheels passed over him. Deceased was immediately removed to the hospital, but lived only a short time. George Powell, under remand at Sheffield, on a charge of endeavouring to murder his wife, has attempted to commit suicide. He succeeded in getting a knife from a prisoner who had not been carefully searched, and with this inflicted a frightful wound on his neck. Before the officials were aware of what had happened, he had lost a large quantity of blood.