Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-10
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

| In A8piduu uEcsS ldSulOQ3 udv6 uOb
changed for a thousand years.
According to Chinese reckoning, the
present year is the year 7.9l0,3A-
| There are seven ex-Speakers OF the
| House of Representatives living.
1t is estimated that Indian wars have
cost the Government s7Oo.OoO,OOO.
| The number OF sheep in Australia on
March 1, 1890. was about 1O5, 100000.
"A Savannah professor has a complete
collection of old almanacs. dating from 1885 TO
1854
| The best hafbor in the world is that Of
Rio de Janeiro. with Sydney, Australia close
second.
| Hyde PARK, large town recently in
corporated with Chicago. has not single
| saloon.
The Speaker of the japanese Parlia-
| meIr and the chairman of the committee OF
| the whole are Christians.
The underground system of telegraphs
of the German Empire. it is reported, has
total length of 1900 miles.
Statistics show that men of thought live
on an average of three years and half longer
than men In ordinary Vocations.
The Socialists of Germany number
100000. and those of France 100000 They
The British Balloon Society has entered
a sturdy protest against the threatened choice
of Jerusalem as the prime meridian of the
world.
| Sixty thousand people are said to be out
Of work in the city Of Berlin. Ninety thousand
are out of work in the East End Of London
alone.
Dentists are peculiarly susceptible to
diseases of the kidneys. They stand still so
long at their work that they weaken their vital
| organs.
Infant mortality in England and Wales
| during the year 1890 was notlceably large. The
| deaths were registered of over l30, 100 children
| under IL months of age.
"A man who has just returned from
Alaska says that several rivers in that country
| are richer in gold deposits than the noted
Feather river Of California.
Seventeen hundred of the Sioux are
members of the Episcopal Church, and Bap-
fists. Catholics and Congregatlonalists are also
| well represented among them.
"A San Diego county. Cal, horticulture
ist is going to graft the many live oaks on his
| place with chestnuts. which, he has learned,
will succeed well on oak trees.
The amount of nutritive matter afforded
by Indian corn is inferior only to that of wheat
| and rice. In the quantity raised and used for
| for food. it is inferior to rice alone.
"A French physician has declared in
| favor of a good cry" He says that groaning
and crying during . surgical operation bring
down the pulse and benefit the patient.
A bottle thrown into the Atlantic No
vember "a. 1887 from the Cephalonia, about
400 miles out from Boston. recently washed
ashore on q little islet in the Caribbean Sea,
$500 miles away.
I'm the search for phosphates, many dis
coyeries have been made which have added
materially to the wealth of fair Florida, but
probably the most interesting one Is the find Of
deposit of genuine meerschaum.
Near Camilla, Ga, there is Justice Of
the peace who uses the oath to witnesses a.
follows: THE evidence you shall give in this
nothing but the truth, and pay all the costs, SO
| help you God"
The largest amount of wild honey ever
| taken from one tree was reported from Oregon
recently. A farmer took 700 pounds from the
| cottonwood tree in which huge swarm OF
| bees had stored up the annual accumulations
for many years.
The greatest meat eaters in the world
are the people of America, whose average con-
sumption Is IT'S pounds per annum. The En-
glish come next, with an average of a little
over ITO pounds. The French eat only half as
much meat as the English.
The directors of the English Great
Western Railway intend to run an express
train constructed on the American system as
an experiment. 1t will consist entirely of long
cars, having communication all through from
one end of the train to the other.
Castor oil, 1T is said, if regularly ap-
piled each day to a wart, will remove it without
leaving a scar. The time 1t takes may try she
patience of the user-from two to six weeks
being required-but if faithfully used 1t will re-
move the most obstinate warts.
The first works in the United States, in
which iron was puddled and rolled into bars,
were built by Colonel Isaac Meason in 1851
at Plumsock, on Redstone creek, in Fayetts
county. This mill continued in operation until
1874 when it was destroyed by flood.
A molder in Bridgeport, Conn.,, is re-
garded as wonder by his tellow-workmen on
account of his apparent immunity from burns
The other day he accidentally sat in pan Of
molten metal and, while his clothing was
burned from him. he received no injury.
The first heavy railroad iron OF Amer
lean manufacture was made at the Mount Saw
age Rolling MIL in Allegheny county, Nd.
which mill was designed expressly for this kind
of work. The first rail rolled was what is known
as the U rail. for which the Franklin Institute
awarded its silver medal in October. 1884.
"A cablegram of over 1, 800 words which
passed through New York from Lima to Lon
don one night recently over the lines of the
Western Union Company, cost pretty penny
10 Lr1uStnlI, Tue rate UeiuB over - HOIu. I018
would represent outlay of over 81, 800. and Is
probably the largest toll paid by an individual
or company outside of newspaper corpora
tons.
The cells of the smallest plants, as soon
as they have assumed the green color, assim-
ilate their food from the atmosphere, or rather
from the carbonic acid in the atmosphere and
from water. This is one of the most wonderful
phenomena of organic life and our greatest
chemists have striven in vain to initiate the
process. Should they ever succeed. they would,
as remarked by the celebrated botantst Ferdi-
nand Cohn. solve the first great social problem,
that is, the bread problem.
DIR. Santayana, instructor in psychol-
ogy at Harvard University. recently proposed
a curious experiment. He claims that the ex-
citement in the different nerves is probably the
same but that different sensations are pro-
duced in different brain centers. II the optic
nerve and the nerve of hearing were to be cut,
and the optic nerve connected with the center
of hearing, and the nerve of hearing with the
optic center, one might expect to see SYM
phony and hear landscape. The symphony.
he added, would probably look like display Of
fireworks, and the landscape would sound like
a dull roar.