Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-05
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

The Crown Princess OF DenmarK Is o
feet inches tall.
According to the superstition or belief
the relation between q man and his totem was
one Of mutual help and protection.
"A Yankee chemist is said to have dis
covered method for making soap from corn
which is reported to be OF first-class quality.
"A native of Western Australia, whose
totem is vegetable. may not gather it under
certain circumstances and ata particular period
OF the year.
According to Chinese legend, the vir-
tues of tea were discovered by the mythical
Emperor Chinung. 2737 B. c., to whom all agri-
cultured and medicinal knowledge is traced.
Familiarity with leprosy has made
| Sandwich Islanders SO careless that they some
times allow school teachers suspected of being
tainted with the loathsome disease to ply their
vocation.
The name totem is derived from an
| Ojibway (Chippeway) word which was first in
| troduced into literature, SO far as appears by
]. Long, an Indian interpreter OF the last cen.
tury. who spelled it totam.
The Turtle clan of the Iroquois claim to
have descended from fat turtle, which, bur.
| dened by the weight of its shell in walking con-
| trived by great exertions to throw it of and
thereafter gradually developed into man.
The favorite food of the Sandwich ISL
anders is the flesh of the Mexican hairless dog
1t is said to taste like spring chicken and is con-
sdered great dainty. These dogs are raised
in large numbers and fattened for the market
The Snake clan (Ophiogenes) of Asia
Minor believed that if they were bitten by an
| adder they had only to put snake TO the
| wound and their totem would SUCK out the
| poison and soothe away the Inflammation and
the pain.
Charles Lamb gives it as an admitted
/
| longs properly to the man who can make the
/ best use of ii, and that he can reclaim it. with
| out ofense, from the shelf of any previous
| owner.
Walter Won Wogelweide, the great w.
ric poet of the Middle Ages. SO loved the birds
that he gave by his will a large sum of money
| to the monks of Wurtzburg. on condition that
they should feed the birds every day, on the
| tombstone over his grave.
| One of the three totems of the Della
wares was the turkey, which they referred to
as mot chewing" this reference being to the
birds habit of swallowing its food, and this
| elan called itself Those who do not chew"
Undoubtedly they gobbled their food.
The manufacture of finder was one Of
the accomplishments of our forefathers, or
rather foremothers. 1t was made of linen rag
burnt in close vessel, charred to finder, withf
out being set on fire, and the manufacture o
t1nder had to take place weekly, and consumed
considerable amount OF linen.
The total value of the fish landed on
the coasts of Scotland for the month Of octo
Der was sS5, IA, decrease of "a AT on that for
the corresponding month of last year. For the
ten months the total value has been Fl. 44I,Z29,
an increase of flO5,65l as compared with the
value for corresponding period or 1889.
"A remarkable feature of some of the
oraon, Bengal, rotems is that they are not whole
animals, but parts of animals, as the head of
tortoise, the stomach of a pig In such cases
| 1t Is. of course, not the whole animals but only
the special part, that the elansmen are forbid
den TO eat. Such totems may be distinguished
as split totems.
The color of genuine green tea is en-
tirely due to the rapid drying of the fresh
leaves, which prevents the chlorophyll from
undergoing any alteration. The green tea sent
out from China is almost invariably faced or
glazed with artificial coloring matter, princi-
pally with a powdered mixture Of gypsum and
Prussian blue.
Several years ago four teachers resolved
to try fruit raising. They formed copartner-
ship and purchased 100 acres Of land near
Fresno, Cal. Two continued teaching while
the others superintended the hired men and as
sisted on the ranch, planting grape vines, pick
ing, packing, and shipping fruit. They now
carry on an extensive business shipping large
Quantities OF tne raislns every year.
: Every really natural, vigorous, live,
thinking person breads the enervating effects
Of our artificial indoor existence, and longs for,
and If possible obtains for himself. during at
leass . re" weeks gu. OF tne year a NE manly
fine savage hunger appeased by few and plain
| dishes; an apotheosls of sleep on bed of bal
sam in the tent, or in a hammock under the
. stars.
i 1t is hardly credible that on the first in
, PRODUCTION of the Chinese tea leaf, which now
3 affords such daily refreshment or the American
: tobacco leaf. whose sedative fumes make it so
; popular. or the Arabian coffee berry, whose
Z aroma delights so many, that the use of these
! novelties should have spread CONSERVATION
! among the nations of Europe and been anath-
ematized by the terrors and the fctions of the
learned.
The Cray-Fish clan OF the Choetaws say
that they were originally cray-fish and lived
underground, coming up occasionally through
, the mud to the surface. Once party of Choc-
1 taws smoked them out, and, treating them
: kindly taught them the Choctaw language,
, taught them to walk on two legs, made them
. . cut OF their toeDa1ls and pluck the hair from
their bodies alter which they adopted them
into the tribe. But the rest of their kindred.
the cray-tish, are still living underground.
The cultivated varieties of tea, being
+ comparatively hardy, possess an adaptability to
> climate excelled among food plants only by the
r wheat. The limits of actual tea cultivation ex
tend from 39o N. lat. in Japan. through the
tropics. to Java, Australia, Natal, and Brazil in
the Southern hemisphere. She tea plant will
even live in the open air insthe South of Eng
| land, and withstand some amount of frost
when it receives sufficient summer heat to
harden its wood. But comparatively few re
I gions are suited for practical tea-growing.
! The Lords Prayer from beginning to
r end without spoken word is a novelty. TO say
the least The whole Impressive appeal is
represented by pictures of s. little girls litho-
' graphed on a big sheet of cardboard, each little
girls gestures representing word OF the
! prayer in the sign language OF the silent world:
Norfolk Va, a young deaf mute The pictures
of the little girls are all handsome, the gestures
people not familiar with the sign language.