Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-25
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

Thomas Meirs, of Bath, o., died on
| Wednesday. aged 100 years and months his
wife, aged S6. died on Tuesday.
] The severe weather continues in the
northern part of Africa. and the Arabs of the
| mountain tribes are suffering greatly from cold
| and famine.
Washington county, GA, produces
annually 5000 bales of cotton, worth about
| 81, 100000. This is one of the largest cotton
| producing counties in the State.
The thaw throughout England con-
| tinues. One of its effects was a disastrous
landslide at Folkstone. Three people were
| crushed to death in the avalanche of snow and
earth which fell upon their cottages
The following is copy OF the return
made by a colored constable on a warrant in
Liberty county. Ga: L have this Day
Hir in My Gust. This the 9TH day of the l7th
of Jan. 1891"
DIR. Corput, who had been charged by
the Belgian Government to examine the sani-
tary institutions of Germany, states in mis- re-
port thar the annual army death rate is in Ger
many 3g7, in Belgium 407, in France 9, and
in Austria-Hungary 694 per cent.
-Mr.i William Ledderdale, Governor of
the Bank of England was yesterday presented
with the freedom of the city of London in a
gold box by the Common Council, for averring
commercial crisis by aiding the Barring
OAobhoAo III kuGiA ESCCuS Au6uC4AA
The latest statistics show that the sui
eide mania is spreading in Germany to such an
extent that even the children take their lives.
During the six years ending witt 1883. 2S9
schoolchildren committed suicide. Many Of
these suicides occurred in the elementary.
schools and were prompted by fear OF punish
ment.
Newman, Ca, Herald: Panther Creek
district can boast of the biggest egg eater in
the world in the person of Joe Burks, who
measures feet and IL inches high in his stock
ing feet. Mr.. Burks told MS that not long since
he ate l3O eggs at one time. and felt like he
had only partaken of a small snack. He also
ate three hearty meals afterward in less than
i've hours.
The policemen of Savannah carry re-
volvers strapped to their belts in plain sight.
| They are armed with short clubs as we'll They
cannot unlimber their shooting irons any
| quicker than New York policeman, who usu-
ally carries his in his hip pocket, can do it: but
nost of the offenders with whom the Savannah
officer has to deal are darEies, and the sight of
| weapon in itself has a salutary effect on
| many Of them
The inhabitants of The Hague are de-
| lighted at once more having royalty in their
midst, and the sight of the day is the little
| Queen taking her afternoon drive in sleigh
| drawn by four ponies Both the queens lead
| the simplest of lives. and @ ueen Wilhelmina
/ has returned to her books and masters just as if
/ sno was SLllI at net Loo. 1eF latQeES OlQ
nurse (who had been present at his birth in
| Brussels) died swo or three DAYS since at the
| age of 100. and was buried with great state in
the Cathedral of Breda.
The Abghasians, a mountain tribe of
| Caucasia. follow the very primitive custom Of
| stealing wives for themselves. If young man
| kfdnaps a girl he likes. he makes Aer his wife
whether she is agreeable to the match or not.
| This gives rise to frequent fights between the
| families of the tribe, which never end without
human sacrifices. But if the kidnapped girl
likes the man who has taken her she acts as
| the Sabnian women in ancient Rome did
When her family declare war against her
| groom, she runs TO meet them, and to appease
them, and if they don't listen to her entreaties
| she joins her husband in fight against her own
kin.
The purity of gold is estimated By an
| Abyssinian weight called a carat tArabian,
| quirrar, a bean, the fruit of the carab tree),
| which is subdivided into four parts called
| grains. Tho term carat when applied to gold
| and silver is not a weight unit, but the mode of
| expressing the purity or ineness of the metal
| in twenty-fourths. Thus lS-carat gold is metal
| in which Is parts out of "a (or three-fourths)
are pure gold. This method of estimating fine
ness Is traceable from the marc of Europe hav-
| ing been divided into "a real carats or actual
! weight units. The present method is to esti-
mate fneness in thousands, l. e., gold $50 fine
has $50 parts alloy, corresponds to 1Scarat gold,
| three-Quarrers OF the metal beng pure gold in
each case. Our gold coins are 2l.ls carats.
"A friend of James Johnson's Quebec
street, Kingston, Ont, brought him a swarm
| of California beer bees Hived in self-sealers,
| and given a mixture of syrup. sugar and water,
| the colony manufactures about three quarts
per day of beer. equal it is said. to malt and
| enough drunk will put head on a fellow as
| big as anyone could desire. James Johnson,
Jr.. Factory street. Odessa. came here and took
| bottle and resemble ''baby's owni' sponge
| When placed in the sun or warm place, they
shoot rapidly from their bed to the top of the
| full then return languidly TO the bottom
again. When hundreds Of them shoot at once
| they make things siz About "a hours COM
| pletes the make and the beverage Is then ft
| for use-
Few people who pause to admire the
| beautiful landscapes bearing the name of Carl
| Weber know that the artist has done hls best
work under an afiiction which, in the case of
| most men, would have sapped ambition and
| left them melancholy and detected and bereft
| of all inclination to rise in the world. For
years the artists wife has been prostrated with
| a wasting disease, accompanied by exquisite
| pain, and, though attended by the best medical
/ talent, her condition shows no improvement
In fact. the physicians hold out no hope in this
direction, and the best, therefore,. that can be
| done is to make the invalid as comfortable
| her condition will permit. Like the actor who
] seeks to entertain while his heart is torn with
| grief at home, the artist, though depressed
| with the sorrowing strain. cOnceals his affiic-
! tion from the public gaze behind works of art
| that reneCL all L0aL DeauLllul IN nature, ana
| lead mans mind to ennobling thought. Surely,
| there is an impressive lesson in all This.
The natives on some of the Pacific
| islands, being provided with neither metals nor
| any stone harder than the coral rocks of which
| the atells they inhaoit are composed, would
| seem badly of, indeed. for material of which to
make tools or weapons, were 1t not that their
| very necessity has bred an invention no less in
| perious than curious and effective. This is
| nothing less than the use of sharks teeth to
| give a cutting edge to their wooden knives and
| swords The mouth of the shark contains 800
| teeth arranged in five rows. all closely lying
| upon each other, except the outer row, and 50
| constructed that as one tooth IS broken or lost
1 another takes its place. The teeth are not only
| pointed and keen-edged, but are finely and reg
| ularly serated SO that the cutting power is
| greatly increased. Indeed. SO great faculty
| have these teeth for wounding that the Imple-
| ments and weapons upon which they are used
| have TO be handled with great care. The King
| mill islanders make many strange articles Of
| sharks teeth
| A CORNER IN SMILES.