Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-18
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

"A red bird died at Atchison the other
day at the age of Is years.
A 6O-pound salmon was caught at the
mouth of Eel river, California, the other day.
"A Matrimonial Bureau" with capi-
tai of $4,000, has been incorporated at Ia
coma.
Farmer Rifle, Of Mound Valley, New,
sold hog at Tuscarora last Thursday that
dressed 642 pounds. He got 10 cents a pound.
-Four thousand men and 900 teams are
now employed in the construction of the Union
Pacific extension between Tacoma and Port
land.
"A Coehranton photographer advertises
tnat he will give, free OF charge. cabinet
photo OF any man, woman or child over s. years
Oh age, who calls at his gallery.
The Santiam Lumber Company has
shipped to Albany. Ore, this summer 2S4 car
loads Of lumber, 100000 feet, all of which was
used Tor buildings in that thriving city.
During the abnormally hot summer of
1887 hydrophobia in Southern Russia increased
to very alarming extent, and mad wolves
claimed an unusually large number Of victims.
In an erudite medical work (Medicind
de Qundrupedibus) we are gravely assured
that the most certain cure for sleeplessness is
to place VOLTS head under the pillow of the
patient!
Wolves seem to have continued to find
secure haunts in Ireland long after they had
been exterminated in the sister isle. for there
are records of wolf hunts in the Emerald Isle
as late as 17l0.
I'm long flights the birds meet with in
Vulnerable hindrances Rain, hail foss wind
and thunder storms not only impede their fight
but often affect their wonderful sense of local.
ity and direction.
"A book of poems by Oregon authors is
to be brought out in time for the Worlds Fair
in Chicago. Applegate's "Ode to the Pioneers
and Simpsons Beautiful Willamette are
foremost among the number.
I'm the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
were-wolves were throughout Europe regarded
in the same light as witches and wizards, and
human beings suspected of being such were
burnt or hanged with the utmost cruelty.
How tar down in the sea life can be sun
ported we don't yet know with certainty; but it
is settled that some species find it worth LIVING
in spite of Schopenhauer and Mr.. Mallock, az
depth Of over three miles from the surface.
Although much is known of the speed
of birds and animals, there are but few ascer-
fishes. The comparative low intelligence OF
these two classes of animals makes it dificult
to direct them.
-Marvelously expressive as is our untir-
ing engine, which all day and all night throbs
and pants and pulses in noisy rhythm under the
deck, what a clumsy affair it is compared TO the
dainty plumes and delicate muscles which
carry that pretty, fearless sea-svallow back TO
his roost.
Tuberculosis, in its familiar form of
consumption, is the most prevalent of diseases.
1t kills 90 900 persons in the United States alone
every year, and worse still, it often renders
men helpless for years before DEATH impOver-
ishing their families and infictiag sufferlngs
worse than death.
The natural tendency of the sampan TO
describe circles in the water is overcome in
fact by device of leaning so upon the oar that
it forces the stern of the boat inward, while at
the same time driving the whole boat forward.
But to acquire the power of doing this is not
given to the ordinary European.
In the days of King Edgar the lives of
criminals were sometimes spared on condition
Of deVoting them to killing wolves, and
periodically producing given number of
wolves tongues. Several estates in what we
now call the Midland counties, notably in Der
byshire, were held on this tenure.
A fish that is adapted to a pressure Of
1000 fathoms can't easily support depth Of
1,5O0, and a blind species selected for the pres
sure of the three-mile line would blow itself
up with spontaneous combustion" like the fly
in the song, if it ventured to rise to the un-
On October 6, 1850, Sir John Ross dis
patched pair of pigeons from assistance Bay,
a little west of Wellington Soufd; and on Oc-
tober l3 pigeon made its APPEARANCE at the
dovecot in Ayrshire. Scotland, whence Sir
John had the pair he took out t., distance
direct between the two places is ~ miles.
The mineral fields of Idaho are among
the largest in the world, and have produced,
and are now producing. the richest ores known
in the history of mining. Since their first dis
princely sum of SIS. 1852 81. The production
Of last year amounted to 1874, 900. OF this
there was of gold, S2 2O4 500; silver, 567 500;
lead, Sc. 900; copper, sS5,OOO
The werewolf was supposed to be a
human being possessed of an unnatural craving
for human flesh, who by magical arts had found
means to assume at will the form of a wolf in
order the more readily to crafty this horrible
appetite Thus transformed, the werewolf
was possessed of the strength and all other
powers of the brute, while retaining his human
faculties, and his human eyes, by which alone
he could be recognized.
An American naturalist asserts that
birds of prey and some others have the power
to lock securely together those parts of the
wing holding the extended feathers. and corre-
spending to the human hand. The action Of
the air on the wing in this condition exi ends
the elbow, which is prevented from openinA
this position for an indefinite length of time,
with no muscular action whatever on the part
of the bird.
Recent information gathered by the
German Forestry Commission assigns to the
pine tree 500 and 700 years as the maximum, 425
years to the silver fir. 275 wears 20 the larch 241
years to the red beech, 2l0 to the aspen, 200 TO
the birch, 40 to the ash. lis to the alder, and
l3O to the elm. The heart of the oak begins TO
rot at about the age of 800 years. The holly cak
alone escapes this law, 1t is said, and there is
specimen of this aged 40 years in existence
near Aschaffenburg. in Germany
"A recent writer in the Asiatic Quarterly
Reviel0 says that so far as is actually known
none of the Pacific islanders were man-eaters
from morbid appetite. as is proved by the fact
that among such Of them as were cannibals il
was only upon certain occasions that theY ex-
hIbited this propensity; none were slain among
them for food alone. The bodies of enemies
killed in war or victims sacrificed to idols fur
nished the feast, of which only certain of the
initiated, as warriors and priests, were allowed