Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-28
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

London has more Scotch than Edin-
burgh.
American railroads would reach half
way to the moon.
In 1745 not a house in Maine had
pane of glass in it.
The rails in the United States would go
round the earth II times.
Missouri is not bad State for water
melons Mississippi county sent sou car
loads OF them to market.
"A bill to forbid and punish the making
of caricatures has been introduced into the
Legislature of Vermont.
Young mules which have not been
trained to kick are selling in Howard county,
Missouri, at from $40 to 500
An Oil City milliner has a very unique
novelty in the shape of broom made from the
wings of the English sparrow
Faster steamers and swifter trains will
make the circuit of the world in 80 days a pos
sible feat in the present generation.
About 200 letters are mislaid or misear-
ried every day because of the identity of the
name OF the State of Washington and of the
National Capital.
"A prominent electrical engineer states
that about 10 storage battery street railroad
motors are now In operation in various cities Of
IHO Y ulbeu OldLco anu GuIOpe-
Sir William Petty predicted 200 years
ago thar the population of London would
reach 4000000 in the nineteenth century,
forecast more than verified by the event.
AN English company has purchased the
petroleum field near Payta, in Peru, and ex-
poets to furnish oil enough for the whole Of
South America, Australia, China and Japan.
"A law has been promulgated at Har-
danger. in Norway, to the effect that no girl
shall be eligible for the marriage state until
she is proficient in spinning. knitting and bak-
ing.
The projected elevated road in Boston
will almost grazs the old South Church and
the old State House and will cross very nearly
above the ground OF the famous Boston massa-
ere.
Mexico is called a republic, but, as a
matter of fact, it is governed by an oligarchy
of landlords. Some of these men own vast
domains, one possessing 500000000 acres of
land.
Justices of the Peace were first ap-
pointed in England by Z iward ILL, in the year
l327, and IN l36O-l they we're empowered to try
feIonies, while their wages were fixed by Rich
ard II. in 1889.
AS late as last Thursday the children of
Abraham Lincoln Fritz, of Nardmont Pa,
picked two quarts of ripe strawber-
ries. This is Sullivan county event of fruit
full significance.
Alaska exported during the past year,
whaleboue, 81, ,l59,9O5: whale oil, SIT, 500; cod
fish, s555 600; salmon So 900; gold estimated)
1900; all other exports sufficient to make
the total 50, ,S4O.730.
The total number of barrels of beer
brewed in the United Kingdom in the year
ending March 81. 1889, was 2S, 1893. OF these
2,946. 6S2 barrels were brewed in Ireland, and
1,4s5. .7O9 in Scotland.
In China all the land belongs to the
State, and trlfing sum per acre, never altered
through long centuries, is paid as rent; this is
the only tax in the country. and it amounts to
but about gu cents per head.
-Four tame ducks have cost the county
of Cascade Mon, about $500 owingto cross
suits among neighbofs for trespass. perjury
and threats of bodily ham. One of the men
has been sent to the penItentiary.
The British South Africa Company, it
is reported. has proposed to its employees that
any servant discovering mine in the country
covered by the cOnpany'S charter will be made
a co-proprietOr OF 1t with the company.
The Archbishop's throne, designed and
executed by Grinling Gibbons, which was pre-
sented to Canterbury Cathedral by Archbishop
Tension, has, it Is said, for many years past
been slowed away As lumber in damp cellar
adjacent to the cathedral cloiSters.
"A number Of ornithologists residing in
the vicinity of Philadelphia have organized
the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club
for the study of the birds of Southeastern
Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey, with
special reference to their migration in the I,
valley OF the Delaware river.
The elephant is almost as amphibious
an animal as the hippopotamus. They can stay
under water five minutes at a time without any
inconvenience and they swim like ducks. FIRE.
quently they are carried into river or creek
in the summer time TO bathe, and like the
water so well that it's hard matter to get
them out OF 1T.
Take pencil and multiply-twice two
are four-twice four are eight-etc., and you
will find that in the twentieth generation you
had 576 ancestors without counting the
intermediates generations, and in the thirtieth
generation you had over zoo. 000, 600 of ances-
tors without counting those between yourself
and the thirrieth.
"A careful survey of Westminster Abbey,
taken under the direction of the Royal COM
mission. which has Just adjourned its sittIngs,
has made known the fact that there still re-
main 80 places within the ediice where inter-
ments may take place. 1t IS pointed OUT that,
taking the average of the last century, it will
be long time before these 80 places are
filled up.
-Hares and rabbits confne their ma
neuvers chiefly to a succession of vigorous
kicks, delivered by the hind legs in the act of
jumping over each other. fight between two
hares is droll sight. appearing much like
jumping match, the skipping exercise being
kept up with tremendous energy and nerve;
but a blow from the leg of a hare is no laugh
ing matter for the recipient, who occasionally
finds itself knocked out of the world alto
gether.
Among smaller birds perhaps none
wage war more desperately than the English
domesticated robin, A writer in LOngmd7's
Magaztne says that an invalid friend of
his was amused for six consecutive days by the
antics of other robins, which came regularly at
1880 A. NJ. and fought duel on the lawn OUT
side his window. The combat invariably lasted
untI one or two became t 90 exhausted to re-
cover his legs WhereupOn the victor would
seize him and triumphantly drag him round
the inclosure.