Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-22
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.


Bakin consists of LOG volumes.
Three thousand dogs were drowned b
the Detroit police during the year.
An Atchison drygoods house sold
worth of pocket handkerchiefs to one woma
one day this week.
An electric railway has recently bee
opened in Switzerland which ascends the pea
of Rouchberg at an angle of 20 degrees.
Michigan farmers are raising thei
mortgages this year by the extraordinary crop
of potatoes and the excellent prices they ar
receiving for them.
The government OF Siam is vested in
duarchy, but practically it is a monarchy
There is a second OF vice king but the first o
senior king is the real ruler.
The Paris Gas Company is said to b
the first Of the important European gas com
panies that shows visible decline distinctl
due to the increase of electric lighting.
There has been an enormous increase il
the value of land in Berlin. For a piece o
property in the suburbs, which was sold fo
$3.50 80 years ago, Sl5O,OOO is now demanded
Chicago has annexed and absorbed unit
one can go out and shoot wild turkeys inside
her city limits, and she has sufficient pasture
range to feed 10000 Texas steers all summer.
"A scholarship of 5000 is offered by th.
Vassar Students Aid Society, for a studen,
who passes all the requirements for admission
to the Freshman class at the examination TO bt
heldsn June, 1891.
1t is proposed using the Eiffel Tower tc
exhibit the rotation of the earth by the
Foncault method. The pendulum is bronze
wire $50 feet long, with steel globe at the end
weighing 1873 pounds.
The Turtle clan of the Iroquois claim te
haua Fot
burdened by the weight of its shell in walking.
contrived by Srs3; exertiOns to throw it of
and thereafter gradually developed into a
man.
The Catholic magistrates of Ghent have
recognized the Salvation Army as a sect and
have fined a number of persons who were
brought before them. charged with having
created disturbance at meetings held by the
army.
"A rapid penman can write so words in
a minute. To do this he must draw his quill
through the space of a rod-161< feet. In 40
minutes his pen travels furlong and IN five
hours and third mile.
In every tobacco flctory at Key West
there is a reader" Cubans and Spaniards
cannot talk without gesticulation. In order to
keep them from talking and dropping their
work in order to use the hands, person is
hired to read aloud during working hours.
"A horse at Flint Mich, tried to make
short cut and go across railroad bridge
About half way across he slipped cog and his
front feet fell between the ties. A passenger
train was obliged to wait about half an hour
while the horse was being taken of.
"A special train of three cars arrived in
the Union Pacific depot at walla Walla, Wash.
last week with a ghastly cargo. consisting OF
the entire contents of the military graveyard
at Fort Lapwai Idaho. There were upward
yIwr all al,
bones.
"A popular error is to suppose that fungi
are eatable and toadstools poisonous; there is
no such line of demarkatiou. nor strictly speak
ing. has the word "toadstoor' any precise
meaning. Very many fungi are eatable the
number of poisonous varieties being exagger-
ated.
"A wealthy Canadian is travelling about
the country with mission. That mission is to
save shoe leather TO the world. He insists
that If everybody would cover three inches
more at every step the saving in boots and
shoes in America alone would be S27, 600 900 per
year.
"A man in Jackson county, Ore, has
been plowing this fall with a steam engine and
has found that it works quite successfully
He pulls eight plows with his engine and turns
over the soil at the rate of Is acres per day.
The cost of running the outfit is not over S.
per day.
"A Greenville, Mich, woman missed
one of her turkey hens and supposed it was
dead until she saw her coming in from the
road with IA little ones The. mercury was
swinging around close 20 zero. but the old hen
realized IL was near the holidays and che hatch
Ing went on just the same.
One of the results of the late Pan
American Congress has been the establishment
in the State Department of a Bureau of the
IS the dissemination of useful information con-
cerning the commercial conditions and advan-
tages Of the several American republics.
The French postal administration has
just introduced a convenient plan for enabling
people in remote villages to send a telegram.
although there is no Office IN the place All
such villages are to be connected to the nearest
telegraph office BY telephone; so that the mes
sage can be spoken to the telegraph office
where it is dispatched.
There is now lying at the De Lamar
office. says the Silver City (Idaho) AUuldnche,
silver nugget which will be seen by a good
many million people two years from now for it
is proposed to place it in the Idaho exhibit at
the Worlds Fair. 1t is a chunk of silver
glance with masses of ruby silver running
through 1t, and weighs 800 pounds.
in the first six years of the "forties" no
other American city could compare in gayety,
or IN the bravery and show of wealth, with the
City of Mexico, which was far more important
than ever Paris was to France or London to
England. 1t was not only the seat OF Govern
ment, the residence of foreign representatives
and the largest city: it was in many senses the
only one.
"A common drunk" was run in by the
Kansas City police the other day. Shortly
after his release he rushed into the station de-
manding to know what was done with the
81, 200 in gold he had in bis pockets when he
was arrested. Since that amount Of the
precious metal wo1ld weigh about eight pounds,
the justice doubted the ability of his pocket to
carry that amount.
Oscar Trigg, former Superintendent Of
the Madison (Ind.) Poor Asylum. has block
of wood-a piece of beech limb-in the heart
of which the growth shows perfect likeness
of woman dressed in the style of three or
four years ago, the skirts hounced, tucked.
gathered and pinned back and the arms carried
a Ia kangaroo. 1t is wonderful freak of wood
growth, unaided by art in the least.
AT the last election Indians on the res
ervation in Isabella county, Mich. were about
evenly divided, half Republicans. half Demo
Gratis. Political aspirations with them are con-
fined to the lower steps only. They become
stables and school officers, but no red man has
ever received the honor of a county office. The
white man takes care Of that, because 1t Is fat.
"A minister at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich,
left his pulpit in disgust the other evening
Suddenly stopping in the midst of sermon,
he said: There is flirting, talking, note
W riting. gum-chewing and visiting going on
here, and will stop until you get through"
He waited l5 minutes, and the festivities in
creased instead of diminished. He then told
the janitor to lock up the temple. and the
Ill N-.lN