Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-07
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

1t is estimated that 10000 pianofortes
are manufactured every year in London.
1t is now claimed that the first steam
boat was built by Kentuckian named West
English naval officers have made de-
mand to be allowed to wear russell leather boots
at sea.
-Th1rty-three millions of people either
walked were driven over the Brooklyn bridge
In the year ended October l.
The largest room in the world under one
roof and unbroken by pillars. is at st. Peters
burg. 1t is go feet long by l20 in breadth
"A French scientist declares that the
domestic cats of the world carry at least 30 per
cent OIL the common contagious diseases from
house to house.
The incomes from the London daily
papers are thus pat down: Daily Telegraph.
El30000 Times. fl20OOO; Standard. f7O. 0O0;
Morning Post E41.OOO Daily Chronicle E40, 900;
Daily NelOS E30 900.
1T is stated that an hotel has been built
in Hamburg entirely of compressed wood az
hard as iron, and rendered absolutely proof
against both fire and the attacks of insects by
subsection to certain chemical processes
The reconstruction of the neglected for
tiications of Crete appears to have been de-
cided upon. Two large outer works are to be
works are being planned for Retimo and
Gambia
A Delaware COW didn't seem to feel we'll
for a month or two, but lived on until killed by
a bolt of lightning. Then she was post-mor-
tened and two pounds of nails and glass found
in her stomach. and a ten-penny nail had also
lmbedded itself in her heart
"A Montreal clothier recently stuck up
monster sign 100 feet long and 90 feet from top
fnh t. la,vc e. 81.
passing crowd, but the proprietor of the build
ing had the sign removed. The clothing man is
now suing for $4,000 damages.
An illuminated cat is among the curios-
tiles of the Patent Office at Washington, D. c.
1t is made of pasteboard or tin painted over
with phosphorus. and is intended to frlghten
away rats and mice and such small deer" in
the darkness of cellars and garrets.
The oak tree is often struck by light
ning the beech very seldom. A curious seien-
tst discovers the of this to lie in the fact
that villous leaves, like those of the beech, seem
to prevent the accumulation of electricity, while
smooth leaves, like the oaks, do no..
From San Francisco comes the news that
a aChinaman Wong Ching Wah, has constructed
a telephone which is superior to any in exist
ence, and which, moreover, avoids, SO it is
asserted. any infringement of the Bell patent.
Details are not Forthcoming at present.
The weaving of ''The Acts of the Apos-
tles' occupied from three to four years. The
Interpretation of the cartoons cost about $780,
600. The purchase of gold thread absorbed the
largest share OF this sum. AS for the designer.
Raphael. he received $1,000 for each cartoon
"A young lady artist whose summer
sketching tours in the country have been con-
siderably interferred with by the predatory in
cursions of ants and other insects, finds that by
sprinkling circle of cayenne pepper around
easel and camp-stOol, she is left unmolested.
An excellent and inexpensive prepara-
tion for cleaning soiled gloves and other deli
cate articles is the following mixture: "One
quart of deodorized benzIne, one drachm of
sulPhuric ether, one drachm of chlOrOfOrm.
two drachms of alcohol and enough cologne to
make it pleasant.
A luminous crayon has been invented
for the purpose of enabling lecturers to draw on
the blackboard when the room is darkened for
the use of the lantern. The invention is likely
to prove of value not only to the lecturers who
use a lantern. but also lin another fOrm) to
those students who wisl to take notes.
In view of the greatly augmented de-
mand for camphor for the new uses found
for it in the arts, with consequent en-
hancement of price, it is proposed to use naph-
thalin as substitute for 1t IN anti-moth appl-
cations 1t is quite as effective as camphor. and
being aso equally volatile, leaves no more
permanent SMELL
There is man in St Louis, Mich,
who. in order to overcome the opium habit was
advised to smoke cloves with tobacco in his
pine. II certainly did abolish the hankerIng
after both opium and tobacco but it has left,
him Glove victim, and now he smokes only
cloves pound day, and it is rapidly drying
up his system.
A Michigan man who was going out to
hunt in the trackless forests bought COM
pass, but about the time he wanted to use it he
remembered that he could not tell one letter of
the alphabet from another, and that no one
had ever told him whether the needle pointed
east west, north or south. He was lost for
four days as consequence.
The present Russian Chancellor is q
Swede; the late Persian Ambassador in London
was Scotchman; an Ir1shman was three times
Prime Minister of Spain; and Celt, Mac
Mahon, was President of France. The Russian
Ambassador at Paris is German; the French
the Italian Ambassador in Berlin is 4 French
man. The Chief Consulting Admiral Of the
Turkish feet Is an Englshman, as was also the
late Admiral of the feet.
The marriage ceremony practeed by
the people of Borneo is very short and simple.
Bride and groom are brought out before the
assembled tribe with great solemnity, and
seated side by side. A betel nut IS then cut I'M
two by the medicine woman of the tribe, and
one half is given to the bride and the other half
to the groom. They begin to chew the nut;
and then the old woman, after some sort of in
cantativn, knocks their heads together and
they are declared man and wife.