Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-26
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.


During the last year the sum total Of
educational gifts in this country was nearly
s5,06O.O00.
Mr.. Henry Gilbert, Of Westville, L. l.,
Is the possessor of pet henwhich has been
setting for the past three weeks on three
kittens.
Am iceboat on the Hudson river recent
Iy ran race with an express train, beating it
easily. Two miles and half were made In five
minutes.
"A bill has been introduced in the Kan
sas Legislature appropriating money for drill
ing four deep holes in the ground ITO see what
can be found"
AN exchange says that in the factories
OF the great butchering towns out West, they
are making such articles as combs, buttons,
ese.' ETC., out of compressed Dlooo-
John Heeg, of Newton, L. l., is the
possessor of musket presented to him BY
captain Bill Sands. and which the latter claims
was found In the waters of Flushing Bay our
ing the War of 1872.
An Oxford county, Me-, clergyman
once called on an unlucky farmer who had
lost pair Of valuable horses and tried to con-
sole him by quoting the Scriptural account of
Jobs Affections. But the farmer refused to be
comic ted. JOB" he said. never owned so
good pair Of horses as my Dick and Corey
was"
-E. NJ. Goodal1 and friend arrived at
Melbourne, Fla, the other day in 32-foot craft
of eight feet beam, after run of LOO miles az
sea from Sanford, Me. The boat is a novel
combination. as it can be run either as kero-
sene launch or sloop-rig yacht This is the
smallest craft that has ever made the run from
Maine to Florida.
-Quoddy Head, Me-, is the easternmost
point of the United States, Alton Islands the
westermost, Point Barrows the northermost
and Key West the most southern. Taking
these points as the basis for work. it is found
that the geographical center of the United
States is about 30 miles west of San Francisco,
in the Pacific Ocean,
"A man fishing off Beacon Hill, in
British Columbia, was attacked by an octopus
(devil fish, 20 feet in length. The fish fastened
itself to the boat retaining its hold Of the rocks
beneath, and almost succeeded in upsetting
the boat: A large hook thrown out caught in
the fish, which made of, swapping the stout
line like silken thread.
Mrs. E. Parks, who lives near Bangor,
Call, wanted to cross the fume of the Forbes-
town Ditch Company, going from her place to
the residence Of her daughter near by. As she
could not jump she placed a board over the
ditch and started across. On the second step
the board broke and she was precipitated into
the water, which was running very rapidly She
was carried through the ditch and hume down
to the dump" about three-quarters of mile
distant Remarkable to relate, she escaped
without injury.
"A marriage of a somewhat romantic na-
ture took place at Portland, Ind, last week.
Hiram Glenn. of Harrison, Mo-, and Lucy Mil
Ter, resident of Pennsylvania, met by agree
ment, neither having before seen the other, the
acquaintance having grown out of an adver-
Hsement in a matrimonial paper. The court
ship and engagement were conducted entirely
w n O1rra aOT7dn LODI hxra
was to wear broad white ribbon he had sent
her as the insignia by which he was to know
her, They met on the street, he introduced
himself and at once marriage license was pro-
cured and the knot was tied. At 8 o'clock they
boarded a train en- route for their Western
home, where the bridegroom owns a farm.
"A pretty married woman living near
AmerIeus Ga, owns cow that she thinks the
world of. She milks the COW berself as she
does not want her spoiled by endless attention.
Since the crops have been gathered the COW
has been running in the fields, and the brush of
her tail got filed with cookie burrs. One
morning last week the lady went into he pen
to milk, and. while she was performing the
dnty, the COW switched her tail into the neatly
done-up hair on the lady's head The burTs
caught. and the lady dropped her pail of milk
and began to entangle her hair. The oceLpa-
tion disturbed the COW and she began to
hands and said: so wench! so wrenchr' but
the weneh not liking the grip started in a trot
around the pen. The lady startled the house
hold by her shrieks. and a negro woman ran to
her rescue. but had to return to the house for
pair of scissors. The cow was driven into a
stall, her tail trimmed OFF and left sticking to
the lady's head. She went to the house and it
took her husband, the negro woman. and the
family until 10 o'clock that night to pick the
burrs from her head.
AT one of the meetings of the British
Association, paper was read on plan OF rails
ing large stones for the purpose of building
huge masses of masonry, and which was sup
posed to be the means employed in building
the pyramids, although the precise method
adopted by the mighty builders of the Valley
of the N lie was admitted to be a vexed ques-
ton. The supposition is that the lifting power
was applied from below, the stone being raised
by fitting process. One end of the stone
would first of all be raised from the ground by
means of powerful levers, which might be of
considerable length and worked by large
number of men. After getting the stone to the
proper height, slab of stone or metal could
be inserted, and a similar process adopted with
the other end of the stone. So, by alternately
working at either end, certain height might
be attained. Then, by the use of wedges and
rollers, the stone might be got into position.
Another method suggested was by means Of
slightly inclined planes formed of strong tim
ber-work or even masonry, working the stones
up on rollers by leverage applied behind. There
does not seem to be any suggestion of any de
rect lifting power applied from above. The
question is certainly one involved in consider