Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-29
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

The Grecians had songs appropriated to
the different trades.
In 1874, in England, the women extern
sively petitioned against the use Of coffee.
The two scourges of human commune
ties are war. in its widest Specification. and
pauperism.
-lu China less than 80, 900 officials suf-
nee to rnle, in a most perfect manner, one-third
Oh The worlds Inhabitants.
-Confucius teaches that the perfection Of
ourselves, and the perfection of others, consti-
bules the true human ideal.
1t Is said that Norwegians, on the first
sight Of roses. dared not touch what they con.
oeNeu were trees budding with fire.
-Prof. 5. keat has at last found a salts
factory origin of toboggan in the Mcmac word
IooAahun, accented on. the aa, meaning sled.
during the year the United States Gov
eminent life-saving stations rescued SI59 per.
sons and So, 45l, SAB worth of property from 3SI
shipwrecks. ~
For about 20 years after the introduction
| of coffee into England, there was a series of
) continual invectjves against its adoption. both
for medical and domestic purposes.
From the very earliest times in China
| great Importance has been attached to encour.
| aging agriculture, and to rendering 1t more
"A Wyoming man raised 974 bushels of
potatoes on one acre of virgin soil this year.
| There were y 800 hills. His profits were STA,
| exclusive of the first prize of $500 offered BY
the american AgrtcuItu, tSt.
Under two exceptional cases divorce is
| allowed in China. The first is: Disobedience
accompanied by insult to the parents of the
| husband; the second: Failure of heirs after the
wife has reached a certain age.
In China man is attached to the soil,
which returns to him a hundred-fold; in other
countries large tracts are often acquired by
| individuals through marriage or otherwise,
| and are left nearly uncultiVated.
There is no clear proof of the use of tea
inl England before the middle of the seven.
teenth century, and yet one hears of Oliver
CromWelPs teapot being in the possession OF
some oVer-zealous and credulous collector.
1t is authoritatively stated, as a great
tribute to the industry and success of the
| Chinese in husbandry, that their ordinary
workman earns on the average five times as
much as he with small family need to expend.
The ink of the ancients had nothing in
| common with ours but the color and gum.
| Gallnuts, eopperas and gum make up the COM
position of our ink; whereas SCOT or iYory-black
! was the chief ingredient in that of the an
| clients.
Fleet street journalism has increased by
| leaps and bounds in recent years. In 1S46 there
were 35 newspapers and periodicals published
| In Fleet street, three Of them dailies; in 1880
there are more than SOO and IL of them
dailies.
| "A curious French memoir says that we
can only trace the rise of feux de joie, or fire.
works, given merely for amusing spectacles to
| delight the eye, to the epoch of the invention
OF powder and cannon, at the close OF the thir-
teenth century.
/ h. .f L.
| population might, perhaps, eventually exceed
| the supplies the soil can yield: but as yet the
| contrary takes place; and apparently with the
! increase of workers more than Corresponding
| increase in yield is obtained.
Tradition has it that the natives OF Vir-
ginia the first time they seized on a quantity
| of gunpowder, which belonged to the English
colony, sowed it for grain, expecting to reap a
| plentiful crop of combustion by the next har-
vest, to blow away the whole colony.
The East Indian pipe of red clay-the
worst and toughest material IN use anywhere
| looks to the eye more like bad imitation of a
teapot than pipe. In point of fact, it belongs
to the hookah species, and it is constructed ac-
cordingly, as vessel for holding water.
The duties specially relegated to the
Chinese wife are the supervision of the house,
hold and the care of the old parents. There
are no warehouses; for the old and weak in
| China: the family quite replaces these benevo-
lent institutions OF the highly civilized West
"A service of carrier pigeons between
| Zanzibar and the more important posts of the
interior Of Africa is being organized. Prelimi-
nary trials have given every satisfaction, and it
| is intended to establish chain OF posts, 30
| miles apart, between Lake Nyassa and the coast.
in Handkow, China, which, with the
surrounding districts. has population of
probably 2,0O0,O 900 inhabitants. there is on the
| average only one case of murder in "a years
| The Province of TshIIi, with 25 10000 Inhabi-
tants, had the maximum of u executions in
1867
The one part of the world in which no
native pipes and no native smokers have been
| found is the Australian mainland. Its one
| solitary specimen of a pipe, formed out of the
foot of an emu, is not of aboriginal workman
| ship, but is the product of the higher intelli-
gence of Malays or of Chinese immigrants.
"A farmer of Alpharetta, Ca, has an
acre of cotton. every stock of which is a deep
| red color leaf. boil and bloom. This novel
| crop is the product OF seed derived three years
| ago from two stalks of red cotton found in
cotton field. If this variety can be perpetuated
| it will likely mean fortune for the successful
| planter.
in China an official is at once dismissed
If member of his family. has committed
breach of the law. Consequently, it will be
readily believed, that every official is exceed
ingly anxious to well regulate his family and to
| let it form a shining example of virtue to the
| people. According TO Confucius he only can
| govern nation who knows how well to govern
his family.
I'm the case of crimes of particularly
| heinous eharacter-parricide for instance
neighbors. local magistrates, and even whole
villages in China are overwhelmed with dis
| grace, and suffer punishment of some kind.
| 1t is reasoned, that il the community had exer-
| cised sufficient salutary influence, or If its
i r-t,NN 49, 49,