Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-26
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.


About 1900 houses are added every
year to London.
Sunday is now generally observed in
Japan as day of rest.
The English Channel was never crossed
by swimmer until the year 1870
The product of an English COW in milk
and butter has an average annual value OF ell
| The receipts of the French Treasury are
larger than those of any other civilized nation.
/ Dublin is better provided with open
spaces than any other town in the United
For the first time in 12 years, ship
| yesterday left the port of Montreal for England
| in ballast.
The noise of the artillery at Waterloo
was heard at Greil, ll5 miles from the scene of
the battle, and also at Dover.
In some foreign cities there are men
hired to attract crowd to their employers
windows by staring and gazing into them.
"A law went into effect in Louisiana last
Friday requiring the railroad companies to fur
nish separate cars for white and colored per-
sons.
According to the scales used in the
House of Representatives, 10000 Nevada peo-
pie weigh politically as much 10000 New
York people.
The loveliest summer resort on earth is
probably the plateau of Newera ELLA, the
kings Summit" =" as the natives call iL, IN the
highlands of Southern Ceylon.
"A single hair can support a weight Of
two ounces, and is so elastic that it may be
stretched TO one-third of its entire length, and
then regain its former size and condition.
1t is said that in New York there are
professional blackeye eoncealers, where those
employed are fully occupied in painting black
eyes with mixture of white and red paints.
Across the water and possibly here,
| there are men who undertake to make pre-
tended wormholes in various objects of furni-
ture TO give them a due appearance of All
tiquity.
According to Captain Wissman, of the
African exploring party, the paradise of birds
seems to have been found on the shores Of
lagoon communicating with the eastern extrem-
ity of the Albert Nyanza.
-Hedgehogs are occasionally cannibal-
istic, the larger ones, when hard up for din
ner, chasing the smaller at a wonderful rate,
and aeVouring them without sauce mercy
when caught and conquered.
In Paris there professional trunk
packers who can be hired to pack trunk ar.
tlstieally, folding expensive gowns and other
garments in tissue paper. and slowing away
uelicate bric-a-brac in the safest way.
The greatest distance ever recorded at
which the sound of cannon has been heard was
on the 4th of December, 1852 when the cannon
of Antwerp we're heard IN the ErzegeDirge
mount aims, at distance Of 80 miles
The greatest height upward in the at
mosphere at which the sound of cannon Las
been.heard was q, COO feet, when MIR. Glaisher
at that height over birmingham, heard the
firing of the guns being proved there.
Southwest of Suez party of French
surveyors have discovered the bed of an an
eient canal, running for miles in the direction
OF the Red Sea, which 1t seems to have con-
nected with the basin Ot the Mediterranean.
"A citizen of Americus, Ca, owns dog
that lives on English sparrows, which he
catches by slyly creeping upon them" In
many cities of the Ohio Valley the progeny of
that Quadruped would be worth their weight in
gold medals.
Among the gallinacee, the pheasant
may be considered cock of the roost," for he
will boldly enter the farmyard, and settle the
miiitarylooking barn-door fowl in a trice.
Even the gamecock fares but little better, de-
spite his superior agility.
1t is strange how fast American rifles
have rid the New World of the larger carDiy-
ora. Within the last 80 years wolves and bears
have entirely disappeared from hundreds of
thousands of square miles where they once
were as numerous as rabbits.
AT last they are about to introduce gas
into the boys dormitories at the Rugby school.
Up to now candles, stuck IN a rude zinc can
dlestick, have been used. Each evening II was
the duty of the flag" for the week 10 blow out
the candle and put the stick outside the door.
of the 80 alI-round athletes in a New
York CLUB of five years ago, three are dead OF
consumption. five have to wear trusses. four or
five are lop-shouldered and three have catarrh
and partial deafness. As far as general health
and longevity goes, the drygoods CLERK outdoes
the athlete.
Veteran seamen agree that the iceberg
crop of the present summer exceeds that or
any previous year during the latter half of the
nineteenth century. Their theory is that the
whole mountain chains Of Arctic ice must have
been set adrift by the almost Unprecedented
mlldness of the last winter.
The Brazilian Government has repeat
edly offered liberal reward Tor a plan result
ing in the abatement of the vampire plague,
which, in the provinces of Matto Crosse and
Enter-Rios makes stock raising almost impos-
sible. AS many as 20 OF the winged bloodsuck-
erS often attack-a COW IN single night.
Among curious professions are artificial
ear and nose-makers, ,prayer-makers, leg stretch
ers, salad-mixers, knockers-up, and fourteenth
men. The latter class are much in demand in
Paris to meet the awkwardness of having thlr-
teen guests to dinner, of which they are very
supersritious; the fourteenth man is always
ready to attend at a moments notice.
The "SeVen Ages of Man were de-
plcteu Dy JAPANESE aIdsIs IonS OeloIe bney De-
came famous IN ShakespearIan recitatiOns in
this country and perhaps before Shakespeare
was born. On the walls of q great tea store in
New York City, which has branches in Hong
Kong and Shanghai, hang series of Japanese
pictures illustrating the seven picturesque Pc
riods of mans existence.
An Austrian impressario, who has i'm
ported whole galaxies of Oriental stars, holds
that Japan excels in acrobats, and Hindostan
in peast tanners, but that China stands unriv-
ajIed for s1eieht-of-hand tricksterS of the mys-
teriOus and Incompreheusible kind. The magi-
clans of the Flowery Kingdom seem TO form q
special guild, and transmit thelr traoe secrets
from generation to generation