Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-04-09
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

line total TecelplS OF the IarlS theatpra
last year were s65OO.O00 an increase Of nearly
81 900. 900 over 1855 The Exposition is supposed
to account for it.
AT recent sale of skins in London one
of the lots was 25O.0O0 Australian opossum
skins. At another saIe $1,000 African monkey
| skins were offered.
| "A London woman announces that she in
about to open barber shop where all the bar.
| bers shall be women, and the newspapers speak
| faVorably of the scheme.
Steve Brodie will be interested to know
that man named Fuller. who jumped from the
London Bridge in a sack, cut it open after
reaching The water, and swan safely ashore
Emperor William's riding horse is shod
with new shoe. 1t is in two parts. and has on
its lower surface a rubDer-like composition, the
object OF which is to prevent the horse from
slipping.
"A Vienna baker is advertising his bust
ness by putting gold ducat in one loaf out of
every thousand that he bakes. The people in
the poor suburb where his shop is SITUATED fair
ly Fight TO buy the loaves.
Recent investigation has shown that the
people of Great Britain swallow over 5,5OO.OOO
pills daily, OF one pill for every person in the
population. The pill consumption for one year
would weigh us tons, and would nil SO freight
cars.
MIR. r. Wormerly, of Memphis, Tenn,
offers from so cents to SIS for old Confederate
postage stamps issued in 1851 from Athens or
Macon postoffices. Stamps cancelled and left
on original envelopes will command higher
price.
Not long ago Michael Londergan, of
New Haven. sat down to dinner in high spirits;
then he made joke. and laughed so violently
that piece of meat flew into his windpipe and
he was choked to death before he could quit the
table.
An English cook Ioasts venison in
crust made of equal parts of flour and bran
mixed with water and rolled out as thin
possible Twenty minutes before the joint Is
cooked the paste should be removed and the
joint browred in the usual manner.
An old bachelor who died at Newton,
Conn.,, last week, said on his death-bed that
there was one thing that would make him con-
tented. That was that he might be able to
swallow every dollar of the Sl00OOO he had
amassed by his life of shaving and saving.
Sea gulls are late in visiting London
this winter. Usually they come up the Thames
directly severe weather sets in, but none have
been seen this season until the end of last
week. when a flock of the black headed species
appeared between Blackfriars and Waterloo
bridges.
-Iu overhauling the Cars civil list with
a view to economy. recently. one of the items
discovered was the payment of $50 per year
for Zip salve," which has been made to one
family ever since the time OF the Empress
Catharine, who is supposed once to have had
chapped lips
While the compositors of the Bombay
Gazette were at work in the composing room
one evening recently full-grown cobra
dropped in upon them through windows in the
roof 1t was as badly scared as they were and
attempted to escape through WINDOW ous
r I11odr nT11 iron h0
Just so years ago, or in 1910, William
F. Andrews, a master mason of Providence, r.
l., stamped his initials on a copper cent and
put it in circulation. Last Monday in taking
some change, he found his coin. After 90 years
OF wandering it had returned. and he would not
take hundreds of dollars for it.
One of the finest pieces of work ever
turned out at Mare Island navy yard, San
Francisco, is a wbaleboat built for King Mal1e-
toa. of Samoa, to be presented to him by this
Government as token of esteem for his kind
ness to American officers and sailors at the
wreck of the Trenton and Vandalia.
Two men attempted to cross the ella
river, California, in skiff. They had $4,000
in bullion from the Harqua Hala mines. When
half way over the boat capsized. Davis held to
the bullion until ne struck bottom and lodged
the treasure behind a big bowlder. The boat
was soon righted and the treasure safely re-
covered.
Two Florida men cut down a bee tree
and saved several hundred pounds of honey.
When they finished gathering the honey they
commenced to investigate the top of the tree
and found where cranes had built their nests.
They gathered up l40 dozen eggs. We suppose
the gentlemen will buy incubator and start
a cranery.
A Novi woman doesn't claim to be con-
nected with the English aristocracy, but just
the same she was born on the same day that
ushered Queen Victoria into the world, she
was married on the same day that the Queen
and Prince Albert were wed. and her hrst child
was born on the same day that Albert Edward
assumed an entity.
A man at Tihis, Russia, paid an assas-
sin SO to kill an enemy, and $50 more when the
assassin brought ear in proof of his crime.
The assassin went to the enemy and obtained
sl00 for revealing the plot and produced
bogus ear. The man who paid to have his en-
emy assassinated is now suing the 'swindler'
to recover the money he paid
While bartender in an Americas, Ga,
saloon was boiling eggs to be used on the lunch
counter he heard the chirp OF chicken. Look
ing he found young chicken, which had kicked
out of its shell in the tepid water in which he
had placed the eggs. He took 1t and carefully
dried il and gave it food. 1t now is rs lively as
a cricket, and promises to grow to maturity.
There are perhaps 80 caterers within.a
mile of Union Square, New York City, who
make 4 business of supplying private dining
tables. For the regular customers gas oven
Is provided and left in the family kitchen.
This meal goes to the house in caterers bas-
ket, and is popped out of the basket into the
oven. Therefore there is no danger Of cold
dinners.
In Matabele-land, South Africa, wife
costs five cows; this is paid to the girls father
by the happy man. The price varies with the
rank of the dusky damsel. sometimes as much
as 50 cows being demanded; but in such cases
part of the COWS are returned with the girl as
dowry Then an OK is killed before the girls
"kraal" she Is annointed with the blood, and q
dance ensues.
In 1876 the firm of Hahresholtzl Bros,
boot and shoemakers, of New York City, made
pair of boots from human skin, which they
sent to the Centennial Exhibition at Philadel-
Dhia, They were never put on exhibition. Aft
erward they were sent to Prof. ). V. Baird Of
the Smithsonian Institute, who would not al
low them shelf room. The skin from which the
boots were made was taken from the breast,
stomach and back of a man who had died sud,
denly and been taken TO medical college.