Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-06
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

| -Ihere are loU,OUV hoOle"S 49,
and Algeria.
Flies are devastating the wheat crop
around Carthage, ILL.,
Artificial bananas, stuffed and scented,
are novelty in fancy goods.
Both Chicago and Detroit hold crysan-
themum exhibitions this week.
Railroad statistics show that no one car
on train is safer than another.
The Indian cotton crop of 1889-9O is the
| largest ever known in that country.
| A eolored girl is said by the New York
artists to be their finest-shaped model
| A large banana tree in greenhouse at
Flint, Mich. is bearing small bunch of fruit
A torpedo net constructed of finterlocking
steel rings is soon to be put to a practical test.
Ottawa, Kan, boasts of a rooster 90
large that it must be helped upon its roost every
| night.
The largest bearskin in the world is in
Kansas City. IL was taken from an animal
weighing $500 pounds.
Wabash, ind, has midget, Mrs Frank
| Stores girl babe, six inches in height. and
weighing pound and a half.
"A snuffbox containing three gold rings
was unearthed in the excavation for an annex
to the Niles works at Hamilton, 0.
There is tremendous activity in the
toy division of the Patent Office. especially in
automatic toys that can talk and walk.
The largest cotton mill in the South is
now being erected in Florence, Ala, by New
England capitalists 1t will have 53, 500
spindles.
H. C. Wheeler. of Odebolt, has under
cultivation the largest farm in Iowa. 1t COM
prises $500 acres, every foot of which is under
cultivation.
Women employed at handling clay at
the Columbia Tile Works, Anderson, Ind, have
been seized with miasmic poison from minerals
in the clay.
"A Pullman palace car recently passed
from st. Louis to New York. which was char
tered especially for the transportation of two
valuable dogs.
AN organization modelled after the Amer
lean Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle,
has been organized in Great Britain, under the
name of the National Home Reading Union.
The floating island in Sadawga Lake in
Whittingham, VT, contains over 100 acres. and
it actually floats on top of the water. 1t is not
attached to the main land on any part Of the
| lake.
The largest cotton planter in the world
| is James =. Richardson, of New Orleans, who
| owns 49 900 acres of cotton land and employs
| 5000 negroes. He has refused an English syn
dicates offer of SO. SEQ 900 for his plantations
"A newspaper at Newcastle England,
| commemorated its centenary by republishing its
| first issue. During the day a country couple
| called at the office to answer an advertisement
| for help on a farm. They were informed they
| were 100 years late.
A Canadian clergyman has advanced
| the theory that the walls of Jericho fell from
the blowing Of the keynote by the horns of the
| besiegers, Just as bridges have been known to
| collapse from the rhythmic tread of soldiers
| feet passing over them.
The officers OF the revenue cutter Rush
| recently returned from Alaskan waters, climbed
| over n newly made volcanic crater on the Island
| of BoCoslov They found that thousands Of
| gulls had utilized the steaming, hot sui
| phurous interior as an incubator for their eggs.
| "A watch by which blind people can
tell the time by touch has been patented in
| England. 1t is an ordinary hunting watch
| with a smooth enameled dial, without glass or
seconds, and Immediately over each figure on
| the dial is 4 small projecting stud. Extra
| stout hands are provided.
AT first the savings bank attracted so
little attention in Japan that at the end of 1875
there were only 1900 depositors, with 5000
lodged. Henceforth. however, the figures in
| creased at a remarkable rate. In 1876 the do
posits amounted to $4,000; IN 1882. to f250OOOi in
1885, to f2OC0OOO; and in 1889, TO "a 100000.
Island No. "a, on the Mississippi, has
| an owner, but belongs to State. county or
| township. 1t appears that. according TO enact
| ment whereby the States of Arkansas and Mis-
| sissippi were created the river boundary of the
| former extended to midstream, that of the lat
ter to midchannel. Herein is the difficulty.
The thirteenth centenary of Gregory the
| Great is to be celebrated in Rome by an in ter.
national liturgical congress. to which all those
| who are concerned with musical archaeology
and ecclesiastical art will be invited. An ex-
hibition of literary and musical works in con-
nection with the origin and growth Of Cath
olic and historical church music" will also be
organized.
The following will give an idea of what
Boston is spending upon some of its principal
buildings: The new Court House will cost,
| perhaps from 81 900 to s., 900 600; the State
House extension, $1,000, 600; the Public Library,
| &, 500, 900: the syndicate building on Static
street. $1,000 or So 900. 900; the Ames building
| at the foot of Court street, S70UO00. and thAp
Sears building repairs and alterations, s3OOOOOA
| BY count and estimate, it is said, that Al
shrimp would every year produce about $500
| eggs a prawn $780, a lobster 2l 900. a founder
| 133407. a mackerel 45465l. herring 36960,
cod 36S5.760 a ling l9.24S,G ,G25. The swarm Of
| enemies to which the eggs of fish are exposed
| renders necessary the production of much
| larger number than are hatched and come to
| maturity otherwise any species must soon be-
| come extinct.
| Sir Morrell Mackenzie is authority for
the statement that most of the leading actors
| suffer from a relaxed condition of the upper
throat, brought on, he believes, entirely by
smoking; but actresses are rarely affected that
| way. He has noticed the same thing in public
| speakers and clergymen. He says that for a
| delicate throat the usual smOke-laden atmos-
| phere of a common railway smoking car Is
| even worse than the actual use Of tobacco.
| There is a tree at Athens, Ga, which is
| a property holder In the early part of the
| century the land on which it stands was owned
! by Colonel w. II. Jackson, who took great de-
light in Watching it's growth and enjoying Its
| shade. In his old age the tree had reached
| magnificent proportions and the thought of its
| being destroyed by those who would come after
| him was so repugnant that he recorded deed
| conveying to 1t all land within radius Of
| eight feet Of IL.