Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-01-13
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

There are 136, 900 drink sellers in Bel
GUM, or one for every ten families.
-Kuang-Hsu, the young Emperor OF tne
Flowery Kingdom. has 30 cooks and as many
doctors in his household.
"A musical manuscript of Mozart was
sold few weeks ago in Berlin for 55o marAh
and letter from Lessing for 500 marks.
An alum mine has been discovered In
Utah. 1t yields so to 9Oper cent pure alum,
which can be extracted by simply placing tns
crude material in boiling water.
The Chicago Times has now 81, ,11S,OOo
worth of libel suits on hand and does not seem
to be worried over them bit. Western jour
nalism is not frightened attrifes.
"A man has just been released from the
Minnesota penitentiary, after serving ten years
for murder which his brother committed and
recently confessed on his death bed.
-Experimenters at Manhattan, Kan,
have discovered that the use of salt on wheat
fields viii greatly increase the yield 1t is also
announced that salt will kill potato bugs.
Cats are held in high esteem in Egypt,
even to this day. In one of the Khedive's
palaces at Cairo there is free ration distrib-
uted every day to any cats that may care 70
apply.
The hind buttons used on the coats worn
in America cost s232O,OOO year, and are of no
earthly account Think of how many bars Of
soap that money would buy! And soap is
something that you feel the direct benefit OF.
"A citizen of Dubuque went around town
pushing an empty baby carriage before him,
and was arrested and fined s.. Had there been
a baby in the cart no law or ordinance could
have touched him, while he would have been
no less nuisance.
London has a poor relief society that re-
ceives as contributions garments instead OK
money Each member is obliged to contribute
two garments a year. These are disposed of in
various ways by the officers of the society.
Some are sold at low prices to the poor; some
are given away; and some are kept in STOCK and
loaned.
Wildcats abound this winter in the vi
cinity of West Stockbridge, Mass. and have
played havoc with turkeys and chickens. 1t Is
thought too, that the great scarcity Of part
ridges in that neighborhood is due TO the
abundance of wildcats. A Roekland Mills man
caught one the other night that weighed -
pounds.
A Massachusetts mother went to the
room where her little girl was sleeping, and,
when she turned up the light. noticed some-
thing dark under the little ones chin. Stoop-
ing to see what it was, a mouse sprang away
like a flash and was gone. The little girl had
been eating crackers in bed, and the crumbs
had attracted mOusey, who tried to hide under
her chin when the light was turned on
The oldest active stage driver in New
England is probably Harvey Ward, who drives
between East Eddington and Bangor. Although
his route is but II miles long. it takes him into
the woods, away from railroads and telegraphs
and where bear and deer cross his road almost
daily. Harvey always eats his thanksgiving
dinner at a certain Bangor hotel, and last
ha hrOp fO
his fortieth consecutive annual turkey dinner
on the very same red coach which he drove to
the same door in lS48.
The entire aspect of nature along the
HUDSON Just now is far more like spring than
winter and the ice gatherers in utter
despair. A farmer near Kingston has just
been sowing eight bushels of rye; others are
yachts have been dropped into the water from
the dry docks, and are making regular trips
along the river. Tows are being made up Tor
vari5us points North and South. Continuance
of sLch mild, moist weather is contemplated
with alarm by the fruit growers.
"A Chicago man got on street car, car
rying in his hand quart can of oysters. He
took seat near the center of the car and care
fully slid the can under the seat near the stove
pipe. The conductor had deadened his fire
with fresh coal while going around the loop"
but as the car travelled along State street the
",
the stove lid became red hot Then the appe-
tizing odor of cooking oysters was distributed
through the car. The owner of the bivalves
did not realize what was happening until it was
too late, and when he alighted at his destina-
tion he had dry stew instead OF quart OF
raws.
Five historical swords have been left by
the old German Emperor to the Berlin arsenal
They are the long sword, with leather sheath,
which the monarch wore from lS101S34; the
sword worn through the Austro-German and
the Franco-German wars, on the handles OF
which are inscribed the names of the most
famous battles of 1866 and lS70-'71; the sword
which the Emperor wore at parades and which
was called the ''Konigs-sabel?' the sword he
inherited from Frederick William w.. and his
fathers old sword, which had been through all
the wars against the First Napoleon, and which
had its place next to the desk of William l.,
close to the famous corner window where the
old man was daily greeted by the crowd when
the guards passed the palace.
AS substitute for granite blocks, steel
paving is attracting considerable attention. its
durability being said to be quite point in its
favor, and its cost being somewhat less. It
consists of steel strips about two and half
inches wide and one inch thick, rolled with
channel on the side exposed to traffic, and with
notches about eight inches apart: these STRIPS
weigh II pounds to the yard, are laid across the
street distance of about five inches between
centers, and their length is only sufficient to
extend to the middle of the street, so that the
proper slope from the center to the cutters can
be secured. They are bolted together, so as to
fastened to wooden sills. A firmly constructed
bed of gravel cOmposes the support for this
pavement while between the steel strips
mixture of pitch and cement is poured, nlltng
the interstices to a level with the tops OF the
strips, and rendering the surface comparative
ly smooth