Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-05
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS

/
-Terre Haute, Ind, has the oil fever.
Everybody is getting up company to bore for
| the greasy fluid.
Mesquite, Tex, comes forward with q
| champion snake story. A snake measuring six
feet in length was Killed near there, and its
| immense size caused the parties who found it
to cut it open. 1t was found to contain three
large rabbits and % guinea eggs.
There is a new fly in the market which
viii doubtless take well with anglers The
| hook is so completely concealed to be invlsi-
| Bile even when the fly is held in the hand. 1t is
made like white miller and Is so constructed
that the action OF the water VIII not aneet it.
"A philanthropic citizen of Harvey
county, Kansas, has planted three miles Of
peach trees along public road ''for the benefit
Of travellers But the small boys Of the neigh
borhood have another theory as to whom they
viii benefit.
Hereafter women will be admitted 10
the Hartford theological Seminary on the
same terms as men. This action has been taken
by the trustees to meet the needs OF women
who desire to prepare themselves for Christian
work either at home or abroad.
The Salvation Army has new method
of advertising itself in Paris. An open car.
riage is daily hired and in it are placed four Of
the most conspicuous members of the contra
ternity-a North American Indian. q China
man, an Egyptian and q Persian. These are
driven wherever the crowds greatest.
AN American painter, living in Flor
ence has painted a big picture of Satan so
realistically" that when lot Of young people
who went to see it began to dance, the shaking
of the canvas made the figure have such .
semblance of demoniac laughter that the
dancers would not continue until the picture
was covered.
"A team Of four cows appeared in Belle,
vue, Idaho not long, ago having been driven from
Nebraska, distance Of 1000 miles. They had
acted as motive power for a prairie schooner,
and had also furnished milk and butter for the
with the exception of their feet which needed
shoes badly.
"A new mat, which acts as o foot
scraper without retaining the dirt on its sur
face, and which is readily cleaned, is made Of
flexible wood mating. Strips of clear white
hard maple, straight-grained and well seasoned
are connected by means of galvanized iron
wire, with a rubber tube between them, and
the result is a very durable and flexible mat.
While Henry Parker was calling on
Miss Dudgeon, in a small town near Mt. Vernon,
o., the other night at midnight, masked man
entered the room, presented revolver at his
head, and demanded his money. Parker re-
pied that he had none, but when the roooer
cooked the revolver the young man handed him
over 81, all he had. The robber escaped. This
is warning to all young men not to stay later
than IL o'clock.
Recent experiments to ascertain within
what limits the ear can distinguish the differ
ence in the pitch of two sounds show that the
smallest difference perceptibls by unframed or
only slightly trained ears appears to be from
one-sixth to one-fortieth of semi-tone. It is
said that peculiarity that seems to apply alike
to trained and unframed ears is that they de-
tect upward differences more easily than down.
ward.
To think of having a hole bored through
your nose in order to facilitate breathing is al
most brutal. But it is not considered so in these
days for the operation is performed on all sorts
of persons. The oarsmen of a certain college
who have Just submitted TO it are merely fol-
lowing current fad of one school of doctors.
The part that is bored is the cartilage between
the nostrils inside the nose. The hole is bored
by means of sort of wire drill, and the opera
tion is said not to hurt at all Very many la
dies as well as men have their noses bored.
The wound does not show, Of course.
Sir William Thomson recently delivered
series of lectures on physics at Johns Hopkins
University and the fashionable people of Balti-
more set out to make them an event in social
intellectual circles. They understood that
some mathematical training was necessary, but
Sir William sailed right into the questions in
volving differentlal and integral calculus. After
lie had filed blackboard with equations he
turned and asked. SDo you follow me?' A few
minutes later, in particularly difficult problem
he mildly asked his audience, if they saw any
mistake, to call his attention to it He won
dered why everybody smiled Half dozen
very studious looking men made up the audi
ence at a second lecture.
From New England comes the idea Of
applying the drop-a-nickel principle to the teie-
phone. The person who wants to send loRl
messages occasionally but does NOS care to p
come regular subscriber will be Frivileged 'o
- txr.--a :.
distributed about the srreets, drop bit OF
money into slot and open door admitting
him to the mouthpiece of telephone through
which he can communicates with his friends at
will or send an order to his grocer, or engage
seat at the theater for the evening perform
ance. But is it not odd that with all the pub
lie conveniences fostered by the nickel-and-
slot device, nobody seems yet to have thought
of a scheme for furnishing the customer with
change of the right size2 It is not everybody
who has nickel in his pocket whenever ne
wants to use one OF these slot-boxes. Why
should not each box, therefore, have one sup
Elementary to 1t, which on receiving dollar
or half-dollar or quarter Will shoot out an
envelope containing the equivalent in small
change? Here is a chance for some inventive
genius.
"A little girl in Lewiston, Me-, fell in
love with the sweet dissonance Of the ''SilYer
Threads Among the Gold" as wound ont by
the hand organ the other day, and she went to
her mothers purse for money for the grinder.
"What have your asked her mother carelessly,
as the little one approached the window with
the piece of money "a penny" was the re-
ply, "but it is an awfully pretty one" Her
mother held out her hand to look at 1t, and was
surprised to see it IS gold piece. A half a
minute more and the barrel organ virtuoso
would have been wealthy. The lady saws she
would not have minded the loss Of the money
SO much as she would the permanenee of the
"Silver Threads" Five dollars worth of 'Sil-
yer Threads would weave shroud for per-
son of iron nerve and constitution, and would
have included the summer vacation while the
house is closed. If a hand organ will play hve
tunes for cent It win play Is 900 for 500 cents,
in which each tune is repeated 500 times, nos
including the additional favors in the direction
of additional tunes arising from hope Of receiV-
ing another S. gold piece.
CLIPPED BITS OF WIT.