Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-17
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

-Pennsylvania Established the HlSs HOsPA-
tai in America in l75l-
From less than 20 acres of land farmer
near Butteville, Ore, sold hops to the value OF
SlO,5O0 this season.
in the Middle Ages the lower animals
were frequently tried. convicted, and punished
for various offences.
The beautiful swallow-tailed kite mas
accomplished the feat of flying across the
"hole Atlantic Ocean.
Although the virus from wolfbite IL
not more vIrulent than that from the bite OF a
rabid dog, yet its action on the blood IS much
more rapid.
w. II. Dobsou, of Havre de Grace,
Md. has record of $50 ducks killed in one
day. This feat he performed in 1884, and II has
never been equaled.
No doubt exists as to the fact that many
deep-sea animals do emit light, though the pre-
else nature Of the mechanism for It's emission
is not always certain.
There was a stage of civilization before
the tinder-box came H. and that was = time
when fire had TO be kept in, and if it went out
borrowed from neiGhbor
In 1856, when the Protestant chapel at
Rochelle was condemned to be demolished. the
bell thereof was publicly whipped for having
assisted heretics with its tongue
The rapidity with which hawk and
many other birds occasionally fly is probably
not less than at the rate of $50 miles an hour,
when either pursued or pursuing.
The CITY gas works of Berlin brought
81, ,75O, 900 clear profit into the treasury during
the last financial year. despite the unusually
heavy expenditures for new gas houses and
conductors.
In, Scotland the honor of Staying the
last wolf is contested by Clan Cameron and
Clan Macintosh, the former attributing it TO
Sir Even Cameron Of Lochie, who Killed his
wolf in A. ID. 1880.
We know now that arctic and polar
creatures depend ultimately for all their food
upon the swarms of little pelagie or open-sea
animals which are carried northward by warm
currents towards the frozen regions
The way of an eagle in the air is one Of
those things of which Solomon expressed him
self ignorant and there is something truly
marvellous in the mechanism which controls
the scythe-like sweep of wing peculiar TO most
birds of prey.
From reliable data the Oregon weather
bureau estimates the following average yield
for the State: Wheat. 26 bushels per acre; oats.
~ bushels; barley. 50 bushels: rye, 2S bushels,
and hay, two tons per acre, except alfalfa,
which averages four tons.
There are the curious ribbon-6sh, with
their fms prolonged into feelers many times as
long as the body; and there are other strange
types with pointed tails and eyeleSs heads that
look more like nightmares than actual produc-
tions of matter-of-fact nature.
"A native gentleman of Bombay has
been investigating the ancient history of the
game of bat-ball (or chowgangui) as given in
the epic of the Persian poet FirdusI. A game
something, but not very much like cricket ap-
pears to have been played centuries ago in
Persia.
l. ~
aux-Roses, near Paris. for having eaten a child.
In 1856 judge of Falaise condemned SOW to
be mutilated and hanged for similar offense.
Three years later horse was SOlemnly tried
before the magistrate and condemned to death
Tor having killed man.
The American passenger pigeon COM
| passes the whole Atlantic Ocean. The speed
of its flight is approximately known, and it is
| able TO cover I6O0 miles IN "a hours. This. in
deed, is marvellous when it is seen that. flying at
the rate of nearly 20 miles an hour, it takes the
bird TWO days and nights to cross.
The question has arisen, whether Poly
| nesian architecture Is of Asiatic or South Amer
| lean origin; and it is thought that the prepon-
| derance OF evidence is in favor of the Asiatic
| theory. Indeed, 1t seems probable that the
| American continent was influenced bv the same
| migration from Asia which gave the copper
| colOred races to Polynesia.
There is a present craze among collec-
| tors for old tapestries. Six TAPESTRIES which
| were sold some 10 years ago from the old Liv-
ingston manor house for 500, have Just been
| resod for SO 900; and five large old Flemish
specimens. which Mr.. William Z; Prime. the
| well-knOwn archBOlogist paid 5000 for in 1872,
| are now valued 1t $1,000 apiece.
| Que reason why the remarkable archi-
| tectural remains existing in the many Islands OF
the Pacific have as yet attracted so little atten-
| tion has been the prevailing idea of their com-
| parativeIy recent construction. combined with
| the fact that very few o. them have been exam-
| ined by such travellers as have studied the arch
itecture and economy of primitive races.
There was displayed in the window of
the First National Bank of Albany, Wash.
last Saturday, the first gold brick ever pro-
duced by the mines on the Santiam river. The
| Albany Mining and Milling Company has
erected a small mill on their property in that
| region and 4 500 brick the result of the
first five and one-half ton lot of ore worked.
SO effectual had been the transmission
| of the fearful poison, and so wholly does the
disease still mock at mans efforts to counter
act it, that of those 26 patients who were bitten
by mad wolf and afterward inoculated by NJ.
Pasteur, five died in Paris. and four more, who
had been treated with apparent success, died
OF hydrophobia Immediately after their return
| to Russia.
| November, 1740, was ushered in BY one
of the most furious and fatal gales of the
century. Between Boston and Lynn so ships
and upward lay wrecked. At Whitby. the
| damage done both at sea and ashore was in
| credible and from the Firth of Forth to the
| mouth of the Thames. there was scarce port
or fishing village escaped without damage and
| loss of life.
The archaeological Institute of Vienna
has been conducting experiments on dirt taken
| from finger nails, and 7S examinations have
| been made. TIE process was TO put the dirt in
| "cultivating mixtures" such as are used for
| supplying germs with food on which to develop.
| The crop that grew from the germs in the dirt
was a varied one and included 36 kinds Of
| micrococci. and many Others.
In the fifteenth century it was popu-
larIy believed that cocks were intimately asso-
Grated with witches; and they were somewhat
credited with the power of laying aecursed
| ercs from which sprang winged serpents. In
| 1874 at Bale, a cock was publicly accused Of
| having laid one of these dreadful eggs. He
| was tried. sentenced to death, and, together
| with the egg. was burned by the executioner in
| the market-place amid great concourse OF
people.
THE EMERRY-GO-ROUND.