The Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1865-09-02 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

LOVER'S QUARRE, AND SUICIDE.—An inquest has been held at Maida-hill on the body of a girl named , Mary Higgins, aged 22 years. The deceased was a domestic servant, but, being out of place, was living with her mother. She was keeping company with a man named Fowley, and several witnesses detailed the particulars of the quarrel which led to her suicide. It apy.-ared from their testimony that last Saturday the deceased and her lover were in a public-house, and that she found sixpence. A friend proposed that she should spend it; but she said, "I like a young man to spend money on one, and not I upon him." As she was leaving the house with the sixpence she accidentally knocked Fowley's pipe into his mouth. He boxed her ears instantly, saying that she did it on purpose. She caught hold of his scarf, and twisted it. In his evidence be stated that she nearly strangled him, and that to prevent the calamity he knocked her down. Her head and face were cut open by the fall on the pavement, and her dress and apron were covered with blood. She applied to two policemen ti take her lover into custody ; but her sister obser, ed that as he was her young man she would never appear against him in the morning, and that the best way would be for her to summon him. She complained afterwards that she felt quite light-headed. She said to her sister that she should never get over that quarrel, and said that she would punish Fowley "in another way." On Tuesday night she wished her friends good bye, saying that she was going out. She left her crinoline outside her mother's door, and went sit and had some gingerbeer. The next morning tier body was found floating in the canal. The jury accordingly returned a verdict, "'['hat the deceased was found drowned in the Regent's Canal at Makin-hill, but that how she came into the water there was no evidence to prove."  COFFINS FOR ALL ! —A shop window in the West End of London presents at this moment a somewhat singular appearance. Large panes of plate glass reflect, not rich jewellery, silks, or novelties connected with the adornment of the living, but a collection of coffins for the reception of the dead. These are of all sizes and shapes, most of them handsomely decorated with gilt ornaments, lined with satin, and stuffed with down. There are small coffins for infants, and large coffins for adults; for peers and peeresses, for clerks, artizans, needlewomen, and the many thousands of anxious, careworn mortals who struggle in a great city like London for the barest necessities of life. The coffins are lined with a composite metal, which renders them perfectly air-tight, and the lid may, if desired, be made of thick plate glass, so that, in the case of sepulture in catacombs and private vaults, the body, (if previously embalmed) may be viewed for a number of years without any material change. There is nothing, however, novel in airtight coffins. At Thebes, 4,000 years ago, the dead were enclosed in coffins of glazed earthenware, with lids fitting perfectly close, and the crevices filled up with a description 01 plaster which became as hard as the earthenware itself. The Eastern traveller still discovers them in enormous quantities in the neighbourhood of the ruined Cities of the Plain.  WHAT WILL THEY DO WITH THEM ?—There are at present in New York a great many "returned" or "disbanded" volunteers, some of whom are in a condition of semi-starvation, and all of whom need employment. These (late) defenders of their cotmtry held a meeting on Thursday to take measures whereby their needs might be prominently placed before the public. It was determined to have a procession. Accordingly, recently several thousands of our discharged veterans promenaded through our streets in line, bearing banners on which were inscribed such sentences as "We represent thousands of discharged soldiers and sailors, now asking for bread and work," "Give us employment to support our families," "We are now the soldier citizens," to. It was a motley crowd of unkempt mortals—the lame, the halt, and the blind, one legged and one armed veterans in dirty blue, with coats out at elbows and shoes of more ventilation than leather. It would have moved the heart of anybody but a Yankee the sight of these maimed and poverty-stricken volunteers: but what do our people care? They bought the men with heavy bounties —'tie no matter what becomes cf them now they have done the work they were purchased to do. The Union is saved ; let its needy defenders go hang!