Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-14
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS

A Vienna lad of attempted suicide to
escape strapping
Iowa Is talking about building a $780,
900 soldiers monument at Des Moines.
There are no fewer than 2S, 729 known
thieves over Is years Of age in England.
There is a company organized in En-
gland which insures you against burglary.
"A spring near Bagtown, Col, throws a
stream of scalding water to height of 30 feet.
The income of the Free Church of Scot
land this year is f6SS, ,939, being an increase of
f46,O as compared with last year.
The newest English umbrellas have
knobs with broad, fat tops, upon which de-
signs are worked out in gold and silver and
platinum.
"A Boston cobbler has this sign, chalked
upon !g piece Of board, displayed in his window;
I'VE generally shine boots and shoes when we
heel and tap them tree"
Among the curious things exhibited at
the Royal society's Conversations in London
the other evening was the tail Of Japanese
barndoor ock II feet long.
There are only two women living, it is
said, who have gowns embroidered with real
pearls. They are Queen Margherita, of Italy,
and Mrs. Bonanza Mackay
In 16-page love letter exhibited in
court in Providence the other day the word
darling occurred 81 times, and yet the girl in
the case said it was "a cold, unfeeling epistle."
Frank Morse, of Battle, Me-, died re-
Gently of catarrhal pneumonia, induced by ex.
cessive cigarette smoking. after short illness,
aged l9. This Is another warning to cigarette
smokers.
One mode of selling turquoises at Nishni
is curious. A person, on payment Of a fixed
sum, Is allowed to plunge his hand into bag
full of them and to become possessor of the
handful.
"A gorilla in the Bombay geological
gardens takes bar of iron two inches thick
and bends 1t double in his hand, and with one
bite Of his teeth he shivers mahogany knot
into match wood.
"A charter was issued at Springfield, ILL.,,
to the American Executing Company, Of
Chicago, capital stock s25,OO0 The purpose Of
the company is to execute criminals who are
sentenced to death.
"A painting of the Madonna, dated 1884,
has been discovered in the village of Messem-
bria, an old Greek colony, near BOurgas. Ithas
been removed to Sophia, where it will be placed
In the National Museum.
Thirty thousand letters written to Gen.
eral Boulanger from sympathizers have been
seized by the French Government. Among
them were otfars of service from GoVernment
officials, both civil and military.
-Elberton, Ca, has curiosity in the
form Of colored boy. His advantage lies in
the unusual size of his mouth. He can puta
large baseball in this organ, and then have
room for his hands to pull it out
The Cherokee Indians support over 100
common schools, with an aggregate Of 4C59 pu-
pills, and high school for boys with I'll stu
dents. They are Just completing q seminary
that will accommodate l65 students.
AT the Thames Police Court, London,
some days ago, a woman, who had been con-
victed 27 times at that and other courts in the
metropolis, was charged with being drunk and
disorderly. She got five days at hard larbor.
The largest ferry boat in the world is the
solano, used in carrying trains across the
Straits of Carquinez between BenicIa and
Porta Costa. 1t is 460 feet long, and has a ca
pacity Of 4S freight cars and two locomotives.
Here is cricket curiosity which will
take q good deal of beating: A Millhouses,
Sheffield, England, eleven playing against a
team from Stanley scored one run in their first
innings and three in their second. One greedy
fellow got two Of these.
"A Newfoundland dog in California,
which lost its MASTER was found no less than
three times trying to dig open his grave. After
the last visit the body, for some reason or other
was disinterred, and the dog, upon shifting the
coffin, took to the woods and thereafter re-
fused all food
Mr.. Senseman, Of Meehanicsburg, Pa,
heard something fall few nights ago, but gave
the sound no heed. Next morning he found
that the bottom of his cellar had literally
dropped out, and that the gable-end of the
house had sunk, and was in danger of falling.
An underground stream had caused the sink
The Esquimaux of the Hudson's Straits
are in the habit of making offerings OF various
articles to spirits, and scraps Of food. powder
and shots, tobacco and the like are to be found
on the graves of their dead. But they are
natural powers as well as the unknown, and,
therefore, they made similar offerings the
beacon in the shape of a man recently erected
in that region.
The American lift in the EiffeI tower.
at Paris. was subjected to final test before
handing it over for public use. The lift, which
consists Of two apartments, one above the
other, weighs I,0O0 hlogrammes. and
loaded with 5000 kilogrammes of lead-that
is to say, weighing l.4OO kilogrammes-was
raised to a considerable height. There 1t was
fastened with ordinary ropes, and this done it
was detached from the cables Of steel wire
with which it was worked. What was to be
done was to cut the ropes and allow the lift to
fall so as to ascertain whether, If the steel ca
bles were to give way, the breaks would work
and support the lift. Two carpenters,
armed with great batchets, had ascended to the
lift and were ready to cut the cables on a sig
nal There was great anxiety. The signal
was given, blow cut the rope and the enor-
nous machine began to fall. Everyone was
startled; but in its downward course the lift
began to move more slowly, it swayed for a mo-
nnant from left ri0hE stuek The break and
stopped. There was general cheering. Not
pane of glass in the lift had been broken or
cracked. A powerful arm seemed to have
caught the lift In its descent and to have