Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-16
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.


Levi staufer, of GoodYille, Lancaster
county, VINO is "a years old, has spent So years
in bed, being helpless paralytlc
Last year 15s,OOO,OOO shad and about
80. OO0, 900 trout fry we're distributed over the
country bv the Fish Commission.
Charles Mourse, aged IA, and Nellie
Shattuck, aged l3, of St. Johnsourg' VI. ran
away and got married. When they returned to
their home the bride got spanking
New York will celebrate Washington's
centennial with the biggest -bird Of freedom"
ever seen in the country. The centennial arch
at Madison SQUARE will be surmounted Dy an
eagle "A feet from tip TO tip
John Hamilton, of Fra nkford, Phila-
delphia, was some months ago bitten on one Of
his hands by dog Since then Ham1ltons
hand has been almost useless, the bones aP-
pearlng TO decay. His physician mas IecOn-
mended amDutation Of the hand.
Did you ever figure up how many miles
your faithful old Dobbin has traveledT An
Eastern Maine man has done it and finds that
In the 13 years he has driven his horse she has
gone 5O,9OO miles by the record. In ten years ,
pair Of Eastern Maine stage horses have traV-
eled &c, 900 miles.
j. M. Lane, of Orlando, Fla, is the
owner Of valuable Ceylon cat. The princt-
pal distinguishing feature of these cats is that
they have no tail They are great rabbit
eatchers. being able to effeetually deceive
rabbit by feigning to be one, and being able By
reason Of having no tail to carry out the do
ception.
The Bean brothers, of Fairview, Mont
gomery county, Pa, have been wrangling for
years over lane which divides their farms.
Last summer John had stones hauled on it to
worry Samuel, who thereupon had John held
to bail John has retaliated by digging
trench. which he hopes will cause SamuePs
fence to fall, Another suit will follow.
1t was not many years ago that the cot
tonwOod tree was considered useless for the
purposes of lumber. To-day it is crowding
white pine out of the market for certain pur-
poses, and large fortunes are being made all
along the Mississippi River out of this wood,
which was once despised as much in that held
as garhsh always has been among fishermen.
In New Orleans white pine is worth s35 thou
sand, while yellow cottonwood brings s65.
The courts at Boston decided day or
two ago that the law could not permit a local
collecting bureau to persecute delinquent
debtors by sending after them agents gotten
up as corpses in burlesque grave clothes. The
notion was not only ingenious, but humorous
as well, conveying cheerful suggestion of
pursuing the deadbeat even to the tomb. But
some of the victims did not enjoy being fol-
lowed around by imitation cadavers, and so the
business was put stop to.
The Society of West Jersey Proprietors
held its two hundred and second annual meet
ing in Burlington lately, and in accordance
with the manner of conducting the election,
the Proprietors collected on the sidewalk and
announced in loud tones the following formula:
at now being high noon, by virtue of an an
cient custom and the rights and prerogatives
granted to the Council Of the PrOprietOrs Of
the Province of New Jersey by King Charles
II, Gracious Sovereign of Great Britain, Ire
land and France, and Defender of the Faith,
we, the Proprietors, now meet to elect the
Council to serve the ensuing year"
William Cowan, of Denver, Col, en-
route for Brooklyn, N. Y, got OF the Lake
Shore train at Cleveland. When the brake
man called out New York, Pennsylvania and
Ohio depot" thinking he had arrived at New
York City, he inquired the way to Brooklyn,
and policeman put him aboard a car for Brook
lyn Village, four miles distant. When he
crossed the Central viaduct, mile long and
100 feet high Cowan was morally certain it was
the great Brooklyn bridge Il required the
testimony of q score of citizens to convince
him that the Brooklyn he was seeking was 800
miles further on. He took fresh start, feeling
very cheap.
james Dawson, of Atchison, recently
from Nebraska, has been pioneer in railroad
and town site business for many years. A few
years ago he gained considerable fame and
created a great furore among settlers by plow-
ing single furrow distance of over 100 miles
through Scott Greedy and Wichita counties,
Kansas. and into Colorado. He said nothing,
but kept ON Plowing and the people imagining t En
up claims along the furrow. Afterward Jay
Gould came along and bought the Dawson
right and the D.. NJ. & A. branch of the Mis-
souri, Pacific was built on the famous furroW.
Omaha physicians are very much
puzzled over the case OF Kittie Edwards. who
was shot last week by John holland, who after
ward suicided al the house of his victim in
Council Bluffs. The ball entered Kitty's brain,
half an inch over the center of the left eye.
and passed down some two inches in rear Of
the left ear, at the base OF the skull The
woman has had fully four ounces of brain mat
ter removed and it was said she could not live
II hours. She is still alive. however, and is
constantly improving She is conscious, and
converses with her friends. Her physicians
think now that she will recover, but are pug
zled to know why and how.
"A piece of bread lodged in the throat of
Job Brewers, of Luther, Mich, and in few
minutes he was unconscious Mrs. Brewers
did not lose her presence of mind, however,
and at once poured several dippers of water
down his throat. The bread became suffi-
ciently softened and had apparently slid down
into Brewers stomach, but by that time he was
nearly drowned by the water. Mrs. Brewers
heroieally persevered, however. and by rolling
her husband over a barrel and then using arti-
fetal respiration for the natural, that was
lacking she soon had Job on his feet again.
He had come very near to death twice in an
hour, but his brave wife saved him.
Last Friday. while Henry Martin and
his son Charles, Of Corydon, Pa. were remov-
ing a huge pile of stones, the collection of a
number of years picking in the field, they un-
earthed what seemed to be a ball of black rope,
knotted and curiously interlaced. The mass
was as large as a bushel basket. and covered
with light powdery substance more resem-
bling bran than anything else. The tails pro-
truded more and more as the snakes unlocked
their intricate coils. They appeared to be
packed with the heads in the center. One of
the men tossed q small stone into the writhing
mass to ''stir 'efn up" He succeeded most eff
fectually. One huge reptile. nearly 6 feet in
length, glided from the center of the group,
and turning its fiat ugly head toward the in
truders, opened wide its mouth, and swayed to
and fro. kissing angrily. Another stone was
thrown, this time of some weight crushing
and manning many of the reptiles in its fall.
The scene then wa simply frightful. The sit
uation looked decidedly unpleasant, and the
two men armed themselves with stout clubs
and began killing snakes. The largest had Il
rattles.