Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-01-19
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.


The veterans of the late war are dying
at the rate Of 5000 year.
"A Trenton thief this week got i've years
for stealing 75ecnt knife.
The weight of the heart is from eight TO
II ounces. 1t beats 1O0, 100 times in "a hours
One police patrol wagon in Boston
made IS trips during Saturday night recently
An Indiana citizen has followed the ex-
ample of Southern man and eloped with DIS
divorced wife.
"A party of immigrants has reached Kern
ride from Nebraska.
At ball in Paris recently lady wore
shoes. each of which had watch inserted in
Ine leather, near the toes.
"A San Francisco detective, after search
ing that city over for house robber, found him
ing ''N- "-- YOU -O- Of'N--''
Charles Allen, of Red Bank, N. j., mas
long suffered from an oyster thiefs work. A
lew days ago he shot the thief, a seal weighing
100 pounds.
The sum total of all the counterfeit
money set afoat last year did not amount to
s25,0OO, and the queer" men were out of pocket
in their transactions
The English villages are diminishing in
population, owing to the exodus of the unem-
ployed, who are fiOcking into the towns at the
rate of 10000 or 20 1000 year.
"A family of five in Dakota subsisted for
three weeks on five pounds of pork and .
bushel of carrots, and there is no use in any
young housekeeper trying to beat that record.
Mrs. Jane Mccarthy, of Louisville,
waded into gang of loafers with sleeves rolled
and I'm ro1 1vo of hv iOhf
and left handlers before they could get away.
In so doing she smashed a knuckle, which .
doctor mended free of charge.
The microscopic of the Department Of
Agriculture, Professor Thomas Taylor, has
discovered that pepper is adulterated often as
much as so per cent, with the seed or stone Of
the olive, which are obtained in large quantt-
ties from the olive oil factories.
While saving log that had been
chopped down a couple Of years ago V. 8.
Whitemore, of Beatrice, Neb., struck a stone
as large as his two fists that had grown solid in
the heart of the tree. The tree was sufficiently
large to indicate growth Of perhaps 20 years
or more around the stone.
Tobacco should be credited as a part Of
the discovery of Christopher Columbus.
When he first met the Indians they ''were inn
bibing the fumes of tobacco in the shape of
cigar" This cigar was not wholly of tobacco,
though. 1t was stalk or straw tube filed
with this weed. But the Indians smoked pipes
chiefly.
They are still pegging away at the Cape
Cod ship canal, which was begun nine years
ago. The contract requires the work to be
finished by June 20, 1891. but as there are seven
miles yet to be dug, and as during 1888 there
was only about seven-eighths of a mile opened,
the prospects are not good for the fulfilment
Of the contract.
Illinois census returns show that out
side Of the cities the population is decreasing.
The school census of 1888 shows that in July
last there were in the State 843 g76 males under
q years of age. In 1880 there were 7S9, ,676 This
is gain OF 54,3OO but the gain in Cook county
was S3,217, so that the loss in the rest of the
State was 28,917.
Duluth has had tremendous boom
during the last IL months. Over 81, 300, 600 has
been spent for improvements, and 1872 new
buildings have been erected at a cost of S2,S02,-
800 The citizens of Proctor Knott's city are
confident that this year is going to beat the
last, and say that there will be at least l,5OO
new buildings put up.
John Derone, of Easton, Pa, must give
up SO to a wicked small boy or go bald-headed.
During the cyclone of last week Mr.. Derone
had his hat and wig blown off while crossing the
South Easton Suspension Bridge. The wig and
hat were found by an enterpriSing youngster,
who undismayed by the agents threat of law
owner pays him SO for them.
According to a German scientific Jour-
nal they are using electricity in India to pre-
vent snakes going into dwellings Before all
the doors and around the house two wires are
laid, isolated from one another and connected
with an induction apparatus. When a snake
attempts to enter the house or go under it he
the circuit as he crawlS over the two
wires, and if the shock he gets doesn't kill him
t is likely to frighten him so that he goes away
rom there as soon as he can
Electricity cut up some queer capers
With a tree down in New Orleans. A guy cable
vas attached to the tree from an electric light
IN some unaccountable way the cable became
crossed with live wire. and on wet days
run down the former. Several
lines it set the tree afre and eventually
tarted a blaze which destroyed that part of
he tree above the wire The trunk was exam
ned and its heart was found to have been en-
irely eaten out by the electricity, leaving
mere shell.
MIR. Friese Greene, a British pho
ographer, has actually produced a picture
With only the light issuing from his eye. Hav-
ng stared for 15 seconds at a 3,0O0-candle elec-
TIC arc only three feet away, he closed his eye
nd quickly brought it over sensitive plate at
distance of one inch. The result was very
IONS, due, probably, to momentary phosphor-
scence of the retina. A second attempt
allied. and gasl1ghts proved too weak to pro-
luce effect.
I'm the Pine Grove Mines, Esmeralda
ounty, Nevada, there is a blind boy employed
o do errands tend cars and the like. He has
lost remarkable faculty of finding his way, not
My through the intricacies of the mine, but
bout the town. He goes to any part of the
line for tools, and never goes astray, and on
ark nights he guides the other miners from the
own to the house where most of them lodge.
hey cannot easily find the way without him,
1r the trail is narrow and crooked. and on each
de are many prospect holes and old cellars.