Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-13
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.


The first lueifer match was made in
1920
The first theater in the United States
was at Williamsburg, Va, in I752-
On January 1, 1888, snow fell in San
Francisco for the first time in II years.
R. L. Hicks, of Coyington, Ga, claims
that with one dog he has captured ITO 'posums
Six boys of one Augusta, Me-, family
drew their pensions last week, they all having
served through the late Civil War, being now
gray-headed old men.
There are dozen bathrooms in WASH
ington that have cost all the way from 81, 900 to
$4,000 apiece. One Senator's house has nine
bathrooms, all Of which are finished in ma
hogany.
The tax on spirits for the year 1889
brought the Russian Government 275.OOOOOO
roubles. about 10000. 900 mora than the preced-
ing year and 100000 above the average in
come OF the ten years previous.
The gardener of the Kew gardens, after
numerous failures, has at last succeeded in
growing the Coco de Mer or double cocoanut,
which often attains height eff $50 feet, with
smooth trunk about foot In diameter.
Among the 35 richest millionaires in
the United States there are only two who made
teoted by our tariff laws, and out of the l22 who
are worth s50OO,000 and upward, not more than
~ made their money in that way.
I'm the year 1772 John Wilson planted
pear tree upon his farm in West Virginia,
few miles above Wheeling. Judge Gibson L.
Cranmer. of Wheeling. says that the lower
branches OF the tree are still IN bearing. 1t Is
still in the possession Of the Wilson family.
The debt of Reading, Pa, church has
just been paid of in $1,000 pennies. The chill
dren of the community are the principal suf-
ferers, most likely and one can imagine their
bitter grief as they look into their empty money
boxes and contemplate the advent Of Christ
mag.
1t is said that the largest church income
raised in the United Kingdom is the 10000 an
nually contributed by the congregation of DR..
Whyte, st. Georges Free Church. Edinburgh.
and the largest in the world that of DR.. Hall,
of New York, which amounts to nearly ESQ, 600
year.
Certain New York firms have been
trying good-looking women as bill collectors.
So far the scheme has been unsuccessful.
Three Of the women married inside week.
and four more are engaged, while the balance
sympathize with the poor fellows who have
run into debt, and have not collected cent.
-Aroostook, Me-, makes some preten-
tions as a wheat country, says the Aroostook
Times. As an instance of success may be men,
toned the family of Cyrus Shaw of Mars Hill,
which though it consumes 10 barrels Of -four
yearly has bought only four barrels Of -four IN
IL years, all the remainder being raised on the
farm.
The news from Connecticut is that the
the cranberry crop is big and Of fine quality,
and that it will be profitable to its raisers.
There is similar news of this crop from Massa-
chusetts and from some parts of New Jersey.
The American cranberry is a wbolesoms and
rich-havored fruit especially the bell, the bugle
and the cherry varieties of it.
In the Volkov fields, near St. Peters,
burg the Ministry of War has instituted ex.
ercises in flying kites. If experience shows
that kites can be made to fly with a certain
regularity, small electric lamps will be at.
tached to them, and the cords will be provided
with metallic wires. to be used as air telegraphs
between distant camps in times of war.
The Russian Ministry of Education has
appropriated funds for central meteorological
observatory in Odessa. All the meteorological
stations of South Russia will be connected
with it by wire and private persons through
out that region will be requested to report their
meteorological observations to that station,
which will issue daily bulletins, as the central
station of st. Petersburg does.
With the ensuing year the Imperial
Library of st. Petersburg will begin publishing
a catalogue of all the Russian books it contains
which was issued from the press since the art
of printing was introduced into Russia. The
catalogue will be published in periodical in
stallments, under the editorship of learned
commission appointed for the purpose by the
Ministry of Education.
The Ministry of Imperial Property has
prohibited the manufacture of oleomargarine
in Russia. The article will be allowed for sale
only IN exceptional cases, and then it will have
to be Kept in vessels painted certain color so
that everybody should at once know what it is
A fine of 500 roubles will be imposed on the
merchant who sells oleomargarine for butter;
at the repetition of the otfense his license will
be revoked.
E-Some of the most valuable processes
have been discovered by the merest chance,
That of whitening sugar is one of them. A
hen tramped through clay puddle and then
got into sugar house and walked across the
sugar. somebody noticed that wherever her
feet had been the sugar underneath the tracks
way whItened. This was hint, and after con-
siderable experimen entIng wet clay came TO be
used as sugar refner.
The first ancestor of the bicycle and
tricycle., the velocipede, was born in France in
the stormy days of the Revolution. The ma
chine was very simple and even clumsy one.
There were no pedals attached to the wheels;
these were not invented till 1855. The rider
struck each foot in turn against the ground
with force enough to set the two low wheels of
the machine rotating, and by this fatiguing
mode of progress attained considerable
speed.
Upon the 100000 acres of land en-
braced in the counties of Belmont, Harrison
and Jefferson, Ohio, devoted to agriculture,
there was produced in 1888, $500 900 bushels OF
grain. 1000, 900 bushels of fruit 2100 600 pounds
OF wool. II 900 tons of hay, 9SS0OO pounds of to-
bacco, L 100 900 pounds of butter, 100000 bushels
of potatoes, 300. 900 dozen of eggs, $4,000 gall
Ions of milk 21,OOO gallons of molasses, $1,000
pounds of honey and 10000 pounds of grapes.
1t produced and sustained withal an aggregate
of 100000 head of live stock and millions Of
fowls.
1t is matter of surprise that no at
tempt has ever Deen made TO utilize for foreign
commerce the immense quantities of bamboo
which grow spontaneously on the margins Of
the rivers which flow into the Bay of Honduras.
These beautiful trees-many of them go feet
high to inches in diameter, and straight as
arrows-bend gracefully from either side Of
the stream, their brilliant foliage interlaced
with Towering creepers and vines, forming
archways under which man and beast find q
grateful retreat from the sun.