Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-04-08
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS

OUnlUOO
"A Butler county, Pa, cow gave birth to
five calves last week. but none of them lived.
Twin gorillas were born at the London
400" the other day They are the first of their
species ever born in England.
"A San Benito mare treated its owner to
surprise lately. She gave birth to two colts,
one Of which was mule. the other natural.
born trotter.
During March 75,S19 barrels of salt
were inspected in Saginaw county; 29,l57 bar
Iels in Bay; 43O9I in Manistee-s total of l6O,-
z'' barrels for the State.
"A cedar stump stands on W. S. ClE's
1arm near Shohomish City. Ore. that measures
~ Ieet IN diameter. A photograph was taken
abreast. AN
-olr Edward Guinness has selected sew
eral sites In London for the erection Of dwell
ings Ior the working classes, which are TO
ulner u, III, from the famous Peabody houses in that
Lney viii oe let only to the poorest class Of
inal "
-Sixty-fVe Cardinals have died since the
present rope became the head of the Church.
and the Sacred College is now composed almost
entirely of new men. ONLY 18 ~ the nrasent
Cardinals were there under the lat. Pope and
one OF these is seriously ill while savarai others
are over 80 years of age.
-Nashville's, Tenn, curios1tv ia aroused
as to what becomes of the pennies that ara sens
there. They are not used in trade To anv con.
siderable extent, and it is surmised in some
Quarters that most of them fall into the hands
OF superstltIous people, who toss them over
houses or cover them with stones "for luckn
Ivan Petrof will take the census of
Alaska. He is a Russian by birth. and vas
living in Alaska when it was bought by Uncle
sam. His name appears officially in two or
three OF the Government books, in one of
which he is registered as "a citizen of tba
United States by treaty" and in the other as a
citizen by purchase"
Hon. Frank O'Brien, of Atlanta. Ga
has valuable relic. 1t is the canteen which
General Mcpherson had on his person when
ne was killed, and which bears the imprint of
the bullet, SO it is supposed, that killed him.
Inc identity OF the canteen Is abundantly
Mcpherson Society of New York.
John Phillips, young slater, believes
he has solved the question of how to reach,
without building scaffold. the top of the tall
Chimney at the Clark Thread Works, at New
ark, n. j., to repair the damage done over a
week ago by lightning The chimney is 325 feet
ladders firmly attached to the chimney with
long spikes. He has already got over Is of the
ladders in position.
"A passenger car on the Louisville and
Wadley Railroad performed a new feat in rail-
road running by running on two tracks at one
and the same time. While drilling the train the
front trucks jumped the switch and took the
rlgnt track. while the rear trucks failed to jump
anu look the wrong track and continued on the
main turnout until both ends of the car were
nearly even. When the conductor called halt
ne found his car in rather an awkward position.
"A printer by the name of Lewis, who
has been working in the Hastings, Mich, DEM
ocrdt office for some time past, but who was
discharged, entered that office Thursday night
took all the type which was set for the paper
and several cases of type and dumped it all in
pile on the floor. Then he took keg of print
erS ink and turned it out ON top of this. He
left note in substance as follows: Hastings,
midnight: Windsor, daylight. From the looks
OF your Office, am even now. Goodby."
During the present term of the Maine
Supreme Court ladies in the gallery bring
their needle work and sit out the long hours Of
the season. 1t is interesting to watch them
threading needles, tying knots, basting, occa-
sionally pausing to catch some por tion of the
evidence and again to conflde in a neighbor
solneSnlng relatlve TO some new conner. inter-
spersed with the slight click of the cissors, all
OF which tend to impress the lockers on with
the solemnIty of the oC casiOn and adds per-
ceptibly to the home like" appearance of our
"A gentleman living at Eau Claire, Wis,
had a sick horse. The veterinary surgeon
could do nothing for the animal, and the local
Christian science experts failed also There
upon the owner of the horse went to the tele-
graph office and wired an account of the case
to Christian science professor in Chicago
The symptoms were given in the telegram, and
the Chicago expert was asked to treat the case
by the usual method. The horse was at that
v,,Oi 0st loD ha
scientist wired back that he was treating the
horse to the best of his ability and was think
ing hard Within i've hours the horse was well
and eating oats.
Texas farmers have been almost ruined
by the depredations of rats. To get rid of them
a novel expedient has come into use. The
farmer finds burrow in which from fifty to a
hundred rats reside. Every exit save one is
carefully stopped. At this one is placed a com
mon iron tea kettle. Opposite the spout is
bored hole in which is inserted a piece of gas
pipe about one foot long. Over the spout is
placed another piece of pipe, which is run into
the opening leading to the burrow. A fire is
then built in the kettle and a couple of hand
fus of sulphur thrown on the Goals. TIE top
being closed. the fumes are driven into the
burrOw by hand bellows the nozzle of which
is inserted in the top pipe. Some of these bur
rows are 50 yards in length; the fumes 90
through all its passages and in five minutes
every young and old rodent is dead.
EARLY in 1861 a young farmer, Of
Bulloch, furnished home for himself and
bride. The kitchen was a log one, with one OF
the old-fashioned hard clay floors. He had
built over gopher hole and of course the hole
was filed up and the owner was forgotten. The
farmer went off to the war and when he came
back he found some charreG timDers which
Sherman had left. The house was rebuilt and
The dirt floor was still feature. But the
kitchen was never remodeled. Last week the
mother who first set foot on the clay floor %
gears ago, was sitting by window when chanc-
ng to look down on the kitchen floor she was
lstonished to see 1t show signs of being dis
,urbed underneath. For five minutes she
watched it intently, and then called other mem-
Ders of the family. who entered just in time to
zee his gophership emerge from his long sleep.
FROM THE TESTERS.