Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-08
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

Alabama now comes to the front with
story about the death of a colored woman who
| was 156 years old.
Perhaps the strangest case that has been
known in Racine in many day is that of q
justice who forgot to tax his costs.
Town" is the correct thing in New
York to write on the lower right hand corner
of the envelope now. instead of ''cIty," for
local letters.
"A 14-year-old girl who was sworn as .
witness in Camden n. J.. murder case said
she had never seen a Bible before she entered
the courtroom.
A Philadelphia man wanted to commit
suicide as painlessly as possible. so after much
thought he carefully shot himself in the left
foot. He is still alive.
"A Kentuckian who hadHarrived at ma
jority offered his first vote the other day. but
so great was his excitement that he fell IN
heap in dead faint and could not sit up Tor an
hour.
"A Missouri weekly paper recently in
dulged in some critical remarks about Shakes
peaTe, and farmer named John Shakespeare,
thinking the family insulted, came to town and
gave the editor a thrashing.
"A stern father in Keva Paha county,
Kan. with a large family of girls, has passed
the cold edict that each beau who frequenrs his
load OF sawed stove-wood
The English school at Athens has OBJ
tanned PERMISSION from the Greek ministry to
excavate the Temple of Demeter situated in
the territory of Gortys in the Pelop0nnese, and
the ancient theater of Eretria, in Eubea
"A woman fell overheard in Jupiter
Inlet, Fla, and was eaten by a shark For
three years her husband has done nothing but
hunt Jupiter Inlet sharks. and up to date has
an1p ph ahnn nff and fac E1E,Tr
"A Paris tobacconist, who had perhaps
been in America, advertised a certain cigar to
be 1.-THE best in the world for cents" He was
arrested. failed to prove 1t "the best" and was
fined $50 for malicious intention to deceive"
"A Russian press censor permitted the
following item to appear in Moscow paperf
at Is opinion that Russia needs new rail-
roads and will have them" For this the censor
was suspended for three months and the editor
fined $500.
-''IfI am ever killed. said a Northern
Michigander as he shouIdered his gun the
other day. ''it will probably be by falling
tree. No gun has ever been made to kill me-"
In climbing fence ten rods further on he shot
himself through the heart
A Concordia, Kan, preacher had val
liable horse blanket stolen during the progress
of a series OF revival meetings. In few days
the thief was converted by the preachers
words. and the next day returned the stolen
blanket and confessed his sin.
AN English naturalist who put in two
years at boarding house. spent the next five
in tracing the Dedbug back to his native lair.
He found perfectly authentic information to
prove that the insect existed and was full OF
business in the year l2O Z. G.. He was even
found in the camps of the army and no war
fleet was deemed fitted out without a liberal
sprinkling.
There has been a decrease during the
past year in the number of students attending
the German universities, especially in the de-
partments of philosophy and natural science.
IL is the first annual decrease since 1872 There
are now 28 Ill university students in Germany.
Berlin is easily first with the large total of
5.527, and Rostock is last with 81. Leipzig has
3,45S, and Munich, 3,3S2.
Some doctors think they have too much
travelling to do to reach their patiens. Let such
doctors read this: A Caribou, Me-, physician
was called TO a lumber camp above the Allie
cash to perform surgical operation upon
lumberman. He started at 10 A.. NJ. and beyond
Grand Isle found four teams stationed at diff
ferent points awaiting him. He arrived at his
destination at midnight, having made the dis
tance of l02 miles in IA hours
The heroes of the Civil War have disap-
peared much sooner after its close than did
those of the Revolution 1t was half century
after the Declaration of IndeDendepce before
Adams and jefferson died, and the year before
by President who had Joined the army in I776.
1t is but 80 years now since the firing on Fort
Sumter, and the great leaders of that period IN
both civil and military life are all gone.
-Coeoanut butter Is an established fact
in Europe, particularly in Germany and
Switzerland. 1t is rapidly supersediDg oleo-
margarine among the poorer classes. and is
USED to a large amount in hospitals and state
institutions, 1t is good for both cooking and
eating purposes, though how it can be produced
cheaper than COW butter is mystery, since the
nuts from which 1t is made must be brought
from Africa, South America and the South
Sea Islands. 1t is very healthful and easily
digested.
"A learned professor of the Paris Acade-
mie des Sciences has been making experiments
which have resulted in convincing him that the
rabbit is of all living things the most capable OF
withstanding a very low temperature. InclOsed
all night in block of Ice, a rabbit was found
next day getting on very comfortably, and evil
IDENTIFY not aware OF anything very peculiar in
his circumstances. In this regard the rabbit
though according to the learned professor,
sheep, goats and pigs take good second, third
and fourth places.
"A correspondent Of a London paper
thinks that many medical men would be bene-
fitted by the adoption of a medical hat. He has
been saved many journeys in the country by
the fact that his hat differs from that of other
night, and often saved the trouble of retracing
his steps for several miles The hat be has
adopted is hard felt, Just the shape of an ord
mary straw hat, with low crown and hat brim.
OF course the hat is easily changed when
pleasure bent, and the cost is half that OF
silk one.
The Island of Juan Fernandez, once in
habited by Alexander Selkirk, is now tenanted
by a former Austrian officer who. after being
forced by the terrible wounds which he
ceiyed at the battle of Sadowa in 1866 to leave
the army grew tired of the monotOny Of exist
ence in civilized Europe, aud determined to de-
vote his fortune to life of adventure. For 10
wears past he has been living on the island OF
Juan Fernandez with q small colony of natives
and of European deseTters from civilization,
and only communicating with the world once q
year, when he SENDS his sailing yacht to Valpar-
also for provisions and supplies.
Everyone may not know that the Bank
of England notes are made from new white
linen cuttings-never from anything that has
been worn. so carefully is the paper prepared
that even the number of dips into the pulp
made by each workman is registered on a dial
by machinery, and the sheets are counted and
booked to each person through whose hands
they pass. They are made at Laverstroke, on
the river Whit, in Hampshire. by family
named Portal, descending from French
refugee, and have been made by the
same family for more than l50 years. They are
printed within the building, there being an
elabarate arrangement for making them SO
that each note of the same denomination shall
differ in some particular from the other.
HELPS TO HILARTTY.