Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-31
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS

The gift of pocket knife is supposed to
cut friendship in two.
The issue OF 81, 900 Treasury notes is
| called the edition de luxe.
| The number Of Italians in New York
City is roughly estimated at 10000
-Berliners may be little slow. but they
| have buried all their telephone and telegraph
| wires.
There are certain actors who are called
Jonahs, because their presence is supposed to
| bring ili-luek.
1t takes two men two hours to wind the
large clock in the stseple of Trinity Church,
New York City.
There is an old and widespread notion
mat the mirrors must be removed from . room
in which corpse is lying.
Indiana now lays claim to the heaviest
man in the world in the person of Hoosier
who tips the scale at 9O7 pounds.
The mines along the Union Pacific
Railway now produce over ], 400, 600 tons of coal
annually, and the owners are preparing for n
much larger output.
Think of living for 81 years as the guest
of the same hotel. That is the record made bv
boarder in the New York Fifth Avenue
Hotel, who has been there continuously since
August n, 1859.
One of the largest forests in the world
stands on ice. 1t is situated between ural and
the Okhotsk Sea. A well was recently dug in
this region, when it was found that at q depth
OF lI6 metres the ground was still frozen.
The tin mines of Cornwall pay but
per cent, and 100000 tons of ore now on the
dump Of the Harvey Polk, Montana, tin mine
average y per cent. and the Eta ore, with
Wnlcn th1s has been compared, averages per
cent
-Aroostook's potato crop this year is esti
mated as worth at least s., 200 600 many claiming
that the Maine farmers will receive even more
than this for It. The Aroostook starch fac
torres VIII grind up about 100000 worth Of po-
tatoes this fall.
For some time Mr.. Isbell, of Rivera,
Los Angeles county, CAL, has been troubled
with bees, that took possession of the upper
part of his house. He sent for the Emerson
brothers of Santa Ana, who cleared the place
out and gathered 5000 pounds of choice honey.
The horses and carriages which were
used by the Queen and royal family during the
stay OF the Court at Osborne were SO numerous
that 1t required three steamers to bring them
from East Cowes TO Southampton and they
were conveyed thence to Windsor by special
train OF 80 vehicles.
In New York it is estimated, according
to the output, that the annual consumption is
Is whole pies for each man, woman and child
within the city. There are 20 establishments
that bake pies exclusively or these one com.
pany turns out $500 pies day, or 2660 500 pies
q year. not counting Sundays, and another
averages 1000 day, or 2, 19l, 600 year.
All OF Emperor Williams Hohenzollern
ancestors born since I722, as we'll as himself
his brothers and sisters, have been rocked in
the same cradle. The ancient family couch is
a clumsy affair Of oak, richly carved. Around
the four sides is cut in Roman letters the texts
HE hath given his angels charge over thee
and they keep thee in all thy ways"
Bacteria multiply very rapidly, and
they do this in q very curious way. A single
one breaks itself in two. then each half grows
very rapidly until it becomes as large as the
original. Then these in turn divide up again,
and So on. until from single one we have
many thousands in a very short time. To give
you the figures, such as they are, single one
in 4S hours 1t can produce something like
2SO, 600 600 900 OF its species,
Kansas has more miles of railroad than
all the New England States put together. She
has ], 159 more miles than New York, whose
population and wealth surpass Kansas four to
one. She has more than the great States of
Pennsylvania, Iowa or Texas. Kansas to-day
passes her with 1900 miles Next comes Iowa
with 1894 miles. Following her is PennsyIva-
mia with S,224; then comes Texas with s2l0
miles.
1T is said that In many French villages
boards are set up bearing the following instruc-
tions: Hedgehog: Lives upon mice, snails and
wireworms, animals injurious to agriculture.
Don't kill q hedgehog. Toad; Helps agri.
culture; destroys 20 to 80 insects hourly. Don'f-
kill toad Cockchafsr and its larvs: Deadly
enemies 70 farmers, lays 70 to 100 eggs. Xiii
France loses yearly many millions of francs
through the injury done by insects, Don's kill
the birds"
1t is said that there are BIT Iivings Of
the net annual value of over half a million
dollars in the gift of Cambridge University,
England, Of which. however, the university
presents only two, the rest being distributed
among the chief cnlleges-Tnnity, st. Johns
and Kings Even the most amply endowed of
American universities do not all together
equal in the amounts bestowed in permanent
fellowshiD3 that are bestowed by Cambridge
alone. Ths livings entail celibacy, and 10 that
extent are not in accordance with the spirit Of
our age.
-Du Halde, In his history of China, SAYS
the Chinese used . compass similar to the mar
iners compass as early as 1040 B. G. Renandot
disputes this, however. 1t is certain, though,
that they knew the use Of the magnetic needle,
as Marco Polo saw them on the northern con-
fines Of China in 1885; and the Arabian sailors
some centuries before that time, were in the
habit, in cloudy weather. of floating them on
cork in water to obtain the north point; and, In
149S. Vasco de CANA reported that the Arabian
ships met with near Mozambique were provided
with compasses.
Fifty years ago there was no reason TO
doubt the correctness of Bonpland's theory,
that the depth of the deepest sea corresponds
to the height of the highest mountain; but the
supposed maximum of five miles has now been
found to fall short by more than 8 900 feet at
three different points-nearly midway between
the island Of st. Helena and Cape Lopez on
the west coast of Africa; go miles south OF the
Maldive Archipelago. and in the Group OF
Abysses," as Captain Baudissin calls number
Of remarkable depressions near the eastern ex-
.remity Of New Guinea.
Among the names Of Government post
ofices in Pennsylvania are bird In Hand"
Bean" Bald Eagle" Burning Bush,"
Darling" Good Interest and Gum Tree"
West Virginia boasts Left Hand" In Ohio
here is Antiquity" In New York State
Promised Land,'' Painted Post" GOOD
3roun6i and "Half Moon;', while Indiana, the
State whence comes the august dignitary Of
he White House, caps the climax with such
lames as "Mud Lick," Potato Greek" "Pinka
NJ 90 To-