Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-04
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

"A party of expert oil drlllers mas Just
sailed from New York for India, where tney.
are wanted to search for oil.
The Hindoos consider flesh food as de
filing man. vegetarian diet being the first
essential OF their religious life.
The knot, or nautical nile, is 6,086.7
feet, while the statute mile, which is employed
III measuring distances on land, is 5.2SO feet.
Buffalo has a firm named Irish & En-
gl1sh What is equally curious Mr.. English IL
an 4rlshman and Mr.. Irish is an Englishman.
Nearly "a, 900 horses are annually con-
sumed as food in Paris. In Vienna and Berlin
the annual consumption is about 5000 horses
each.
The highest price ever paid for book,
it is said. was $4,000 1t was for a veIlum mis-
sal which was presented to King Henry VIII,
by Pope Leo x.
Simplicity in living strengthens not only
the body, giving it great muscular mower and
endurance, but purifies the mind enabling vital
force to be accumulated.
The total length of the streets, avenues,
boulevards, bridges, quays and thoroughfares
of Paris is set down at 600 miles, of which
nearly 200 are planted with trees.
-Pennsylvania's claim to be great State
is borne 5ut by the fact that strawberries are
being picked in Sullivan county, while snow
has been falling only ten miles away.
The slave population of the country was
2OO9O43 in $780, 2 4S 355 in 1s4O 32U4 S13 in 1850
and ,953. $50 il 1860 Missouri had 25,O9l slaves
IN 1880 24O in 1870 g. 42 in 1850 and ia 9Sl in
1860
In man the lower Jaw has much freedom
of lateral movement, which aids in grinding
food between the molars; the jaws of earnivOra
admit OF only the upward and downward move
ments.
The increase of about 1000. 900 people
in l3 years in Spain is attributed in a great
measure to the success that has attended the
changes in the hygienic condition of the cities
and large towns
The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific
Circle, which was organized in 1875 with mem
bership of 200, has now II 900 circles located in
all parts of the the world, including branch
at the Cape of Good Hope.
"A Williamson, Mich, man, whose well
ran dry. found that the roots of a willow had
grown a distance of "a feet. coiled up on the
bottom in a solid mass, and were carving all
the water into the foliage.
1t is stated that there is negro king on
the west coast of Africa who reioices in the un-
pronounceable name of Hagabahahasmadasa-
balanarahitaragaradalam Observation-Disclosures
Observation-Disclosures
Dispatches received at New Bedford.
Mass, give the latest reports from the Arctic
feet of whaling vessels, and state that the
fleet has taken, to October g. 90 whales or
nearly twice as many as were taken last year.
-Aroostook's potato crop this year is es-
timated as worth at least 81 200, 900, many
claiming that the Maine farmers will receive
even more than this for it, The Aroostook
starch factories will grind up about S4O0 OOO
worth OF potatoes this fall.
The Siamese have great regard for odd
numbers, and insist on having an odd number
Of windows, doors and rooms i'll their houses
and temples. There must be an odd number of
steps in the stairs and an odd number of feet in
the height of all steeples and minarets.
"A vegetarian recommends as a davis
food for an adult, three pounds of ripe fresh
fruit, one pound of dried fruit (igs dates.
prunes, raisirs sultanas). half q pound OF
almonds or nuts (walnuts Brazils, filberts. etc l.
four eggs, and y quarter TO half pound of
cheese Dutch or Gruyerei.
-Apropos of the educational progress OF
women in England. it is worthy of note that at
Birmingham there ara Al women and only
three men candidates for the Cambridge
higher local examinations: at Bradford "a
women, one man; Leeds, IS women, two men;
at Manchester, AZ women, one man; at Liver.
pool, 81 women, one man,
What is stated to be an improved
method of etching glass has been patented in
England. It differs from the older methods in
the fact that etching is accomplished by cold
process with the aid of rubber stamps the
etching OF such articles as bottles, lamp glasses
glass plates and similar objects being consid-
cred accelerated. and the cost of treatment re-
duced.
-Eighty-two per cent Of all public school
teachers are women. Men hold the chief
Offices however, in the National Educational
Association, though this year for the first
time, women's names appear in the list of vice
presidents They are also the Board of
Directors, but not among the trustees They
ought to be everywhere. and will be one of
these times.
In the Church of st. John, at Pisa,
Italy, there is piece of stone heavily marked
with red. blue and yellow spar. the lines repre-
senting an old man with heavy white beard
with bell in his hand seated beside small
stream, To the worshipers at ST. Johns it is
known as the St Anthony stone the picture
upon 1t being a perfect likeness of that saint
even to the minor details of tunic and bell
1.-THE holy carpet" SAYS GaHqnani
which is now being brought back TO Cairo.
where it will have to submit to the indiguitv of
quarantine for 10 days. is one of those which
are periodically taken to Mecca to be saucti-
fled, and is made of a thick sort of silk en-
brOidered with letters of gold each letter being
feet in length and inches broad. 1t covers
what is known as the Beat-Allah or inner
sanctuary of the temple.
AN interesting historical relic has lust
changed owners in Scotland. When James V.
visited LOudoun Castle, 400 years ago, hand
some black oak chair was specially constructed
for him. The "Kings CHAIR was then re-
moved to SOrn Castle and afterwards to Ca
trine, where by some mistake it put up
for public sale, and bought by a Mrs. George
Mair for trifling sum. This lady at her death,
which occurred recently, bequeathed it to her
son.
The Gifflrd gas gun, to the uninISated,
hardly differs from any ordinary rife, except
hot ba