Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-10
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

Mr. R. R. Postans is the only surviving
founder Of Punch He is IS, and said to be in
abject poverty.
The assessable value of the City of Lon
don, which in 1910 was the respectable sum
of ES24 $50, is tois year f3, ,S45,995.
1t costs an average student at Oxford or
| Cambridge close on f3O0 in fees, board, lodg-
ing and expenses before he takes his Z. A
degree.
Sir Walter Scott's novels yielded him
sl50,OO0 The best price he ever received
(Els,0OO) was paid for the 'Life of Ma
poleon."
The Kansas farmers have coined a new
phrnse. They call a man who has had q
piece of property sold by the Sheriff to
satisfy mortgage "a whereas"
Passengers and freight are carried for
one-third less on American railways than on
those of England, although American wages
are double those of the mother country.
"A new Government tax of mark on all
cats kept as house pets has been imposed at
Dresden. Thousands of the animals have
been destroyed by owners desirous of avoid
ing the "cat tax"
The late Mr.. Stephen Christy, the
famous halter, of Highfeld, Bramhall,
Cheshire, left by will s2s3 900. besides valua-
Dle LOnQOn properly. He the inventor
OF the patent ventilatOr hats.
"A 'sberdash" was a name ancientIv
given in England to sort of neck dress.
and the person who made or sold such neck
dresses was called q "berdasher" hence the
present term "haberdasher."
The proportion of insane to sane per-
sons in the United States is one in every 262;
in Scotland it is one in every 574; in the agrj-
cultural districts of England it is one in $50;
In London the proportion fs one in 400.
w. L Mattox, of Cuthbert, Ga, has a
small chfld's chair which has done service
for three generations of the family. The
but so well preserved is it that il looks
almost as good as new.
-Four boys of Beardseye, Ind, found an
old coat near the railroad and began tossing
it about and batting each other with it. A
bank note slipped from beneath one of the
patches The boys ripped the coat to pieces
and it panned out sl,7ll.
An English inventor has constructed a
novel device to do away with the enormous
pressure of water against the bows of ocean
steamers. 1t consists Of one or more screws
on each side of the bow, which throws the
water aside and creates dry well in front
of the vessel.
AT Moulton, Ala, q farmer bought a
pound of gunpowder and q new tinpan, and,
putting the powder into the pan, deposited
both in his wagon and departed for home
The pan acted as a concave mirror, ignited
the powder, and directly thereafter there
was fatal explosion.
The nationality of the nearly 8. 800 yes-
sells that use the suez Canal annually ia thus
given: English, 2,6l1; German, 1874; French.
l6S; Dutch, l46; Italian, IO3; stro-Hunga-
rian, 81; Norwegian, 4s; Spanish, 80; Russian,
%; Turkish, p; Egyptian, 8: American, 5: jap.
anese, .; Portuguese, l; Belgian, /; Chinese 3;
Danish, 8.
Mark Twain's tobacco account must he
large one, for he consumes over 200 cigars
in year. He is said to allow himself 200
cigars month; that he cannot work well
without continuous smoking, and that when
at the age of "a he made determined effort
and left of the habit for year and half, he
realized that "a weedless life would not be
worth living"
The large organ for the Rev. Mr.. Tai
IMAGES new tabernacle at Brooklyn con-
tains four manuals of five octaves each, and
pedal of 2H octaves, 66 pipe stops (or 10
stops with pedals couplers etc. \ including
one - feet, II Of is feet, and 80 of feet. The
total number of pipes is 4449. Among the
more novel effects are Chinese gong, a
chime of bells, and three drums (Iong roll
bass drum, and drum cheeky.
Robert Packard and wife, of New Hart
ford, Ia, are the father and mother of %
living children. The first of the offspring, a
man now 40 years of age is married and
lives on q farm adjoining his parents The
other % are single and live under the
parental roof. There is only one girl among
the number. The first child was born alone.
The next nve births were triDlets, and the
are sets of twins.
The recent improvements in photography
and its use in astronomy has proved most
Ina tn tudH of hot
dry plate can be exposed for suitable
length of time in the telescope, and the i'm
age thus obtained will contain the details of
q nebula, even where the amount of light
would be impercepttble to the naked eve
thus producing an image far more useful
and accurate than could ever be obtained
by o drawing.
There is mink on Lower First avenue
ut Columbus, Ca, that is getting in some
lively work on the chickens of that portion
of the city. 1t killed 20 of Mr.. Ed Faber's
fine Wyandotte chickens Tuesday night.
They were of all Sizes and eIch OF them
was bitten through the head by the mink.
The citizens have guards ont for him and
his life is in danger. About 60 chickens have
been killed in that neighborhood during the
past few nights.
"A hen in Pike county, Ga, has been set
on II eggs, and for two weeks stuck to her
contract faithfully. But here she quit her
nest on account OF the raVageS OF mites, lack
ing Just one week of the regular time of
Putting some wool in a box the
owner placed the eggs on the wool and
threw guano bag over them. In about
week he carelessly removed the bag and
was surprised to find u pretty little chick
ans in the place of IA eggs.
From inquiries which have been made
1t Paris, 1t appears that last year there were
OIL foreign students there, and this is rep
resented as a fair average. The Germans
amounted to only 49, while the Austrians
numbered one less. There were Isl British
and 29j Russians and Poles. The
Balkan Peninsula sent the large contingent
)f 315-Greeks, Turks Roumanians Ser
Vians and Bulgarians being included in this
The schools of medicine and law
appropriated by far the greater number for
while 729 attended the former, 1s2 attended
vt the latter. The faculty of theology only
lad one foreign student.