~Jewish Persecutions in Russia.~--On Feb. 6, 1882, a town's meeting was
called with reference to the gross persecution of the Jews in Russia,
and the collection of a fund towards assisting the sufferers was set
afoot, £1,800 being promised at the meeting.

~John a' Dean's Hole.~--A little brook which took the water from the
moat round the old Manor House (site of Smithfield) was thus called,
from a man named John Dean being drowned there about Henry VIII.'s time.
This brook emptied into the river Rea, near the bottom of Floodgate
Street, where a hundred and odd years back, there were two poolholes,
with a very narrow causeway between them, which was especially dangerous
at flood times to chance wayfarers who chose the path as a near cut to
their dwellings, several cases of drowning being on record as occurring
at this spot.--See "_Manor House_."

~Johnson, Dr. Samuel.~--Dr. Johnson's connection with Birmingham has
always been a pleasant matter of interest to the local _literati_, but
to the general public we fear it matters naught. His visit to his good
friend Dr. Hector in 1733 is historically famous; his translations and
writings while here have been often noted; his marriage with the widow
Porter duly chronicled; but it is due to the researches of the learned
Dr. Langford that attention has been lately drawn to the interesting
fact that Johnson, who was born in 1709, actually came to Birmingham in
his tenth year, on a visit to his uncle Harrison, who in after years, in
his usual plain-speaking style, Johnson described as "a very mean and
vulgar man, drunk every night, but drunk with little drink, very
peevish, very proud, very ostentatious, but, luckily, not rich." That
our local governors have a due appreciation of the genius of the famed
lexicographer is shown by the fact of a passage-way from Bull Street to