Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-19
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

Jules Verne is the author of "a novels
Photographs on gravestones are the
newest things projected
There are $4,000 Americans who con-
stantly reside in London.
Germany boasts the healthiest army In
Europe. Belgium is second best, and England
comes in third
-Londoners consume 3O,0O0,0O0 gallons
Oh lnilk-or what is sold as milk-per annum,
and pay $4,000 for it.
jacobs we'll and the plot of ground sur
rounding 1t have been sold by the Turkish Gov
ernment to the Greek Church Cor $4,000.
1T Is stated that the great soda deposits
OF Wyomlng have been sold to a party of En-
gIiSh anu French capitalists for s2,00O 700.
AT the census of 1881 the population OF
BRUSH India was found to be 1888 755, 800 show
ing density of 222 persons per square mile.
All birds of great and sustained powers
of flight have one well-marked characteristic-
they have long wings with sharply pointed
ends.
up to the end of October the loss from
fires in the United States and Canada for the
year 1890 was SIS sos less than for the cor
responding ten months in 1889.
1t has been said that one Of the strong
strokes of nature was when she made the
'loon," bird which represents the wildness
and solitar1ness of the widest and most solitary
spots.
"A shoe dealer says that girls between 16
and is have bigger feet than after 20 and "A
The foot is feshy at that time and large. but as
years come the foot decreases and the muscles
grow more firm.
Collections of portraits are late artistic
hobby. Just now in Pennsylvania those Of
Martha Washington. Grant, Hancock, Web
ster and others are In great demand with ad-
mirers of political bric-a-brac.
The effect of the electric light current on
the compasses of some vessels is so great that
it becomes. pecessary to determine how many
hours the dynamo has been running before
working out the vessels reckoning.
Every fairly large house in Toxic has
its own bathroom; but besides this there are no
less than 500 baths in the city of Toxic, where
300, 900 persons bathe daily at cost per head of
one sen three rim, or about halfpenny.
"A new sketching apparatus for cyclists
has recently appeared in England. The paper
is placed on small board in front of the cyclist
and the work can be roughly cOntoured in
about half the time ordinarily required.
"A trade journal has just published some
statistics concerning poultry in France. It
states that there are in the country As 900 900 of
hens, which, at an average price of francs. 50
cents per head, represent a value of u2050,0O0
francs.
in the wear 1900 chimneys were scarcely
known in England. One only was allowed in
religious house. one in a manor house and one
in the great hall of castle or lords house, but
in other houses The smoke found its way out as
it could.
The rate of wages paid to fremen on
ships sailing from London is f3 15s. per month
on voyages up the Mediterranean, to Australia
and New York. To the Cape of Good Hope.
Natal, China and India, it stands at from f3 l5s
to "a per month.
The King of France had falcon which
escaped from Fontainebleau and in "a hours
after was found In Malta a space computed to
be at not less than 1850 miles, 4 velocIty equal
to So miles an hour, supposing the hawk to have
been on the wing the whole time.
There are more ducks in the Chinese
Empire than in all the world outside of it.
They are kept by the CelestIals on every farm,
on the public and private roads, on streets of
cities, and on all the lakes, pouds rivers,
streams and brooks in the country.
Water carriage is still the rule in Siam,
and land-carriage the rare exception. Rail-
ways as yet do not exist, and the few roads
which have been made quite recently in the
capital and some of the larger towns do not
extend more than few miles at the most from
the walls or suburbs.
1t is true tnat swallows attain to an i'm
mense speed in their rushes, and there is we'll
authenticated instance of one having flown 20
miles in IL minutes. The probable speed OF the
swallow. flying straight and swift, is about ITO
miles an hour; its ordinary speed 100 miles.
The swift attains to 200 miles.
The military pigeon post is best organ
ized IN Germany Italy. and France In the
last French budget q sum Of So, 900 francs was
devoted to that branch of the service, and
there are at present in France 81 sub-dspots,
besides the chief pigeon station. In Italy there
are II sub-depots, and in the Italian Dos
sessions in Africa.
The great Lethbridge coal fields lie lust
across the Canadian border from Montana. and
are tapped by branch of the Canadian Pacific
and the new Gait railway from the Great
Northern, in Montana. The coal company
owns 65 900 acres of land in and around Leth-
bridge, forwhich they paid the Dominion Gov
ernment SO an acre.
Strictly speaking, the only precious
stones are the diamond, ruby. sapphire and
emerald though the term is often extended to
the opal, notwithstanding its lack of hardness
and to the pearl, which is not mineral but a
strictly an animal product. Popularity gem is
a precious or semiprecious stone, when cut or
polished for ornamental purposes.
-Herodotus tells OF sorcerers who once in
every year had the power of assuming the
semblance of wolves for several days at a time.
Marcelus Sidetes also tells of men who at the
beginning of every year were afflicted with .
form of madness, during which they believed
themselves to be wolves or dogs and spent the
night prowling about burial grounds.
The Mariposa Gazette says: While out
hunting cattle near Ben Hur last Friday, Will
lam Coughran's dog bayed large deer. Will
having nothing to shoot it with. resolved to kill
il with a stone. The third stone he threw
struck it behind the ear and killed it. This
makes the third deer he has killed without a
gun. About two years ago he laSSoed one and
cut its throat
Farewell to freckles on faces and arms
If the experience of South American lady is
verified. She says that some time ago. in the
absence of water, of which there was a great
dearth at the time she washed her face with
some of the Juice of a watermelon. The result
was so soothing that she repeatedly washed
her face in this manner, and her astonishment
was great, few days later. on seeing that there
was not freckle left on her previously be-
freckled face.
HIJMOR OF THE HOUR