Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-25
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

-Shad are used as money in many of the
North Sea Islands.
I'm II years the city of Paris has ex.
pended s270, 900 on statues and $50, 600 on or
namental fountains.
The ship canal from Paris to Rouen i.
to be about ia miles in length and % feet
in depth, and the estimated cost is Sc, ,000, 900
The Spanish children hide their shoes
or slippers in the bushes on Christmas Eve
| and find them filed with fruit and suga1
plums ON Christmas morning.
The Esquimaux are docile and bright
people. They are extremely dirty, simply
because it is so cold in their country that
washing is very uncomfortable
First quality second growth white ash
| for carriages is so scarce that the probabil
| 1ty IS that in a few years oak will bs used
for coach poles and other purposes fo1
| which ash is now used
| I'm Holland the children hang up their
woolen stockings by the tiled chimney piece
| and then go soberly to bed quite sure that
good St. Nicholas will visit them, provided
they do not disturb him in his visit.
The largest siphon, probably, Is on the
1evee between Mckinney lake and the Mis-
sissippi river. The main pine is two feet in
a discharging capacity of 26, ,000, 600 gallons
day.
| The sacred nuts of Japan are so called
because they are used in certain forms OF
| worship where they are placed on the altar
and burned with a hot blush flame. The
/ fumes are supposed to be acceptable to the
| gods.
"A curious phenomenon is the rapid de-
| crease of the women's vote in Boston. Only
| three years ago 90, ,252 women registered, and
| all but about 800 of them voted. Last year
| only ,92j voted and next year it is estimated
that the number will be reduced to 5000.
in Belgium the children ell their shoes
with beans and carrots on Christmas Eve,
and set them in the chimney place for the
good Saints horse In the morning they e1-
and fruit in return for their good behavior.
Allowing an average weight of four
pounds to the brain, deducting one-fourth
| for blood and vessels, and another fourth
| for external integument, it may be said that
| each grain of brain substance contains not
less than 205,542 traces or impressions OF
| ideas.
The majority OF the Scottish G1psies
have spread over a vast tract of country.
Here they have gradually become lost tc
view as distinctive race. In Europe they
are found in the greatest number to-day in
Hungary and Wallachia, where there are
100000.
In selecting strong timber weight has
very little consideration. Only a man with
experience can Gull the good from the bad
timber with almost an infallible Judgment,
and probably without the ability TO tell why
he makes his selection. Color has little to
do with it, weight something, timber sense
more.
Bohemian children listen anxiously on
Christmas Eve for the chariot and white
horses of the "Christ-child'' as he comes
flying through the air with his krippe full
children
gravely with their parents to churches and
cathedTals to see the Bambino or saint who
presents them with their Christmas gifts.
of all coined money the Maria Theresa
dollar has by far the largest circulation il
Africa. Its territory extends from Fee in
Morocco down to that London of the Soudan
the great trade emporium. Kano, and thu:
comprises more than one-third of the whole
of Africa, about coo 900 square miles, witt
n population of 20 600, 900, but even in this
coin there are differences
1t is computed by leading Psychologist,
that, since one-third of a second sufices tc
produce an impression upon the brain,
man of 100 years of age must have collected
on or in his brain matter 9, ,467, go 900 impres
sions. Or, again, take off one-tlIird of the
time for sleep, and we still find 6 31l $40, ,Ot0
This would give 8. 155, $50, 900 separate wakin:
impressions on the man who lives to the age
of 80 years.
I'm such repute was amber in Rome 10
the time of the historian Pliny that he re
marks sarcastically: "The price of a small
figure in it, however diminutive,, exceed
that of a living. healthy slave.' He OBJ
ber beads worn about the necks of youns
infants is singular preservative agains
secret poison and counter charm 70,
witchcraft and sorcerieS."
The divorce contagion has reached Kaf
1rland. Not long ago a chief in voked tn,
pense with wife on the following ground
of complaints: "wife talk too much witt
neighbors: too much paint face and eye
browS: too much snore in sleep: too mucl
loss, and too much no good" And vet the
Kaffir cannot acquire the graces of civiliza
tiOn.
Games of chance were prohibited bJ
Mohammed. and in the Koran were placed
as sins in the same category as wine drink
ing. Herodotus tells that the Egyptian
were dicers, but whether they were gam
blerS is not stated. Their favorite game wa
one played with draughtsmen, and there i:
good evidence to believe that this is, if no
the most ancient game. at least one Of the
most ancient.
-Algol, the variable star in Pereus, has
long been a mystery. Its light remains con
slant for two and a half days. 1t then be
gins to fade, and in less than four hour
diminishes to an insignificant star, remain
gains its former brilliancy. 1t has Ion,
been suspected that dark body revoIyet
about Algol, and which, coming between u
and that star, intercepted more or less of it
light
The United States uses 2,400, ,000,0
cigarettes per year, or about So for each
the adult population, 100 for each male
Russia consumes 1888, 900 900; Austria, 1850
100000. French smokers consume 100000
francs worth of cigarettes every year. Ii
one term of IS days no fewer than 80 OC
cigarettes of a certain brand were sold b.
one tobacconist in Cambridge, while tn
total number smoked there in the academ
cal year of 1853 days is estimated at 3360,O00.
of other metals which are used il
coinage in civilized lands copper is used {
quite an extent in Africa. The cannibal
istic Niam-Niam especially like the Englisl
bar copper of one-inch diameter. Expedi
tions to the territory of the Niam-Niam
therefore, have generally been forced {,
include several coppersmiths, and thes
men, as soon as the Niam-Niam land
reached, applied themselves to transform
ing the bars of copper into rings OF size
varying from that of a bracelet to that of;
tiny lingering. And so great is the love
the Mann Mann for these baubles that ever
one of the small copper fnger-rings ivalu'
less than a cent? would purchase IA
chicken OF them.
PICKINGs FROM PUCK.