Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-22
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

An enterDrlSlng beamsOer III orluge-
port, Conn.,, is digging for a supposed buried
treasure about which ne dreAmeu ior 'nree
nights.
Joseph, Charles and Frank KlOuchek,
brothers, of Portland, Ore, were all born on
the Fourth of July, two in Austria and one In
this country.
Mrs. Ryan, who lives alone on farm
near Hannibal, NO., being much troubled BY
tramps. concluded to dress up in mems clothes
and has not been annoyed since
The kerosene used in Dakota freezes
solid at 70 below zero, and it is as much part
of the household work to melt the cake OF
kerosene as it is to wash the dishes or sweep
the floor.
Civilization in Africa is failure. The
savages who murdered the British engineer
Penrose. swallowed the chemicals used for
photography found in his baggage, supposlng
1t was rum or some other civilizing beverage
Mrs NJ. R. Stanton, a Brooklyn widow,
while walking last summer IN the Catshlls,
fell over an embankment near bridge, and
blames the township authorities for it. She
broke no bones, but has sued for $1,000 for
damage to her beauty.
New wonders are being unearthed every
day, and new and rare one has Just turned NJ
in Paris in the shape of fine bust of Nine. de
Stael by Canova. 1t was found in q second
hand shop, where it had lain for years. sub
merged under rubbish, with its value all un-
guessed
Mrs. John Crosby Brown, of New York,
has presented her collection of musical instru-
ments to the New York Metropolitan Museum.
The collection contains 266 specimens and is
estimated as worth $4,000. 1t contains all
SORTS of instruments known both in ancient and
modern times.
The bones of nine British offices who
fell at Waterloo and were buried in the eeme-
terry of the QUARTER Leopold at Brussels, have
at last been transferred to an English ceme-
terry. The skeletons are all finely preserved.
All were very tall men. The old tombstones
were set up over the new graves.
"A young negro boy, only 3 years old, is
being exhibited in England. He is blind, but
possesses a remarkable memory. The young
ster will answer 1900 questions contained in a
book, and any combination of figures or names
told him at the beginning of the entertain
ment will be repeated at the finish.
1t has cost the city of New York for
each lineal foot of the sea wall now in process
of construction under the supervision of the
Dock Department, s., 1873 80, and some of it
over 5000. In the % miles contemplated there
are l47 $40 feet, which, at the rate of-say 81 400
of S206, ,976.000
The rock to which chain was attached
during the War of the Revolution to prevent
vessels going up the Hudson river will have to
be removed in making excavations for the
Peekskill bridge in the highlands. 1t will be
taken out entire and preserved at either West
Point Newburg. or in the rooms OF the His
torical Society in New York.
The medical editor of certain London
-
undertaken 10 live for an entire month on
nothing but whole meal and distilled water.
This meal he grinds himself mixes it with cold
distilled water into a batter, and bakes it for
an hour and half. He allows himself one
pound of meal and two pints of water daily.
Experiments are, it is stated, being
made on tha<Rrussian railways with axle-boxes
in which the bearing surface consists of sheets
of vegetable parchment set on edge, and
strongly compressed together The fabrication
of these bearings Is said to be very perfect, as,
owing to the capillary attraction between the
different sheets, the whole becomes thoroughly
saturated with oil.
"A correspondent writing from Arizons
says that at the time the law was passed max
ing it an offense for Indians to appear in city
minus their trousers. the red men accepted the
decree with their usual stOicism. They would
carry their pantaloons on their arms until they
reached the city limits, wheTeupon they would
don them, removing the obnoxious garments
when they left the city.
Boston is shortly to have magnificent
new athletic grounds. a syndicate of capital
lists have purchased the land on the Cambridge
side of the Back Bay The purchase includes
1,0O0,000 square feet of land, and it is the in
tention of the management to lay half-mile
bicycle trace and build grandstand, which
will contain, among other things, a parlor,
dressing, retiring, and bathrooms and kitchen
The unexpected discovery in ones an
cestral bookshelves of volume worth any,
thing between $4,000 and $4,000 must be an ex-
perience as rare as delightful. While clearing
the library at HopetOun House for sale at
SOthebys, some one came upon a copy of the
MaZarin or Gutenberg Bible. Lord HOpetoun
did not know he had it; book collectors and
experts did not know of the existence of this
copy.
Preparations are being made in the
Apollo Gallery at the Louvre for exhibiting the
diamonds and other gems reserved from the
sale of the crown Jewels. These valuable relics
of the monarchial and imperial regimes will
be placed in show cases so arranged that they
can be lowered into fire and burglar-proof safes
fastened to the floor of the gallery, which will
be under the surveillance day and night OF q
special detail of watchmen.
The original eau de cologne is made
from recipe which, according to writer in
the Leisure Hour, has been known to only ten
people since it was discovered nearly 200 years
ago. The written copy of it is kept in crystal
goblet, under triple locks, in the room in which
the essential oils are mixed. The casks in
which the perfume is kept are made of cedar
wood from Lebanon, which is stronger than
any other ard does not SMELL More than z
900 bottles are sold annually, and Of these
150,000 go to one house in London.
Cards, which were invented at the close
of the fourteenth century, says Notes and
Queries, were originally very different from
those in use at present. In shape they were
square, and instead of suits of spades, clubs,
hearts and diamonds, their marks were rabbits,
pinks, roses and flowers of columbine. The
figured cards were very prettily devised, a
queen riding on horseback with rabbit beside
her marked the queen of rabbits or of clubs.
A rustlc-looking man. grotesquely dressed and
standing in strange attitude, with pink be.
side him, signified the knave of pinks or dia-
mo nds.