Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-03
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS

Fortune telling by the foot instead Of
the hand is the latest.
Calvary Episcopal Church, New York,
has opened the Galilee coffee house.
-Forty-eight languages are spoken in
Mexico-and telephone girls are scarce.
The native population of Alaska num-
bers only 10000, of whom 1900 are Esquimaux.
Uranium was unknown a century ago,
but a lode has been found in a mine in Corn
wall. England. 1t sells for sl2 900 a ton.
"A prize worth winning has been offered
by the East Indian Government. The prize is
81, 900 for practical machine for decorticating
ramie.
The number of telephones now under
rental by the American Bell Telephone Com
pany is 47S.725. an increase of 3s.sS5 over the
same time last year.
Miss Fordham, q well-known English
bicycle rider. has ridden safety wheel ], 30
miles at the rate of 76 miles day. and hopes 70
cover 1000 miles before the season closes.
The city gas works of Berlin brought
81. 80 900 clear profit into the treasury during
the last financial year, despite the unusually
heavy expenditures for new gas houses and
conductors.
The only Chinaman in the regular
armv of the nited States is Edward Cohota, q
private in Company II, of the Fifteenth In
fanrry, at Fort Sheridan, Ill. He served
through the war as volunteer.
-Four hundred out OF every ], ,000, 900 Of
the resid ents of saxony, in Germany. commit
suicide. In Leipsic the proportion Is the
highest in the world. reaching 450 per 900.
In London it is only s. per l,0O0,0O0.
Mrs. Belle Wooster Higgins, of Sulli-
van, Me-, has had l9 years of sea life and has
sailed to every part of the globe. She is an ex-
pert in navigation. and could take a ship to any
port, foreign or domestic, should it ever become
necessary.
"A recent invention is an electric min
eral ore detector, by which it is claimed that
the presence of ore may be instantly detected.
by this means comparatively inexperienced
person IS able to tell whether the sample con-
tains ore not.
New York City has 1857 electric lights
at an annual cost of 500 each; New Orleans has
1,0l0, at $3.50 each: Philadelphia has 800; at SIT
each; Toledo. O., has 400, at sIO0 each; scran-
Mass, has 800, at sSS 80 each.
The phenomenon of latent heat was first
inquired into by DR.. Black, of Scotland, nearly
130 years ago. His attention was directed to
the subject by observing that mixture of ice
and water, though absorbing a measurable
amount of heat, did not rise in temperature
until all the ice had disappeared.
The cotton mill industry is progressing
AZ AAaAhcs as lHuceu, are n6dIly all kluuS Ok
business. Returns OF assessors to the Valua-
ton Commission show that during the decade
from 1880 to 1880 the number of spindles in COT
ton mills has been increased from $40, ,566 to
so9,S9O, or gain of 2l9, ,S4 spindles.
In order to get the beneft of the maple
sugar bounty, So persons have reported to the
Internal Revenue Collector of the Fourth di-
vision of the Fourteenth district in the State
that they are manufacturers OF maple sugar TO
the extent of 500 pounds or more. A large
amount Of maple sugar is made in Delaware
county.
The company for cutting the Perekop
Canal has now been constituted in Russia, and
the work of joining the Azof and Black Seas
between the CrImea and the mainland will be
commenced shortly. The channel will be 20
feet wide and IL feet deep. Ports will be made
at each end. The work has to be finished in
six years.
"A short time ago q band of 20 Arnauts
entered Prisrend and coolly attacked the house
of the Chief Justice in broad daylight. The
Judge and several of his servants were muir
dered, and the house, after being sacked, was
burned to the ground. The Zaptiehs or Turk
ish policemen, did not attempt TO interfere, and
all the brigands escaped
Miss Lillian Baird, aged 9 years, is be-
coming famous as the youngest problem COM
poser in the world. She has a fine instinct for
chess. which has been cultivated by much
composing. Her first problem, composed be-
fore she was s. has been printed in about 20
chess columns in England, Germany ard
America.
The 2-year-old son of Ben Caudell, OF
Banks county, Ga, about sundown on Decem
Der 10 was eating goobers. or peanuts. when
the young sister. who was playing with him.
exclaimed: brother is choke4 He had in
hailed goober with the hull oH into the wind
pipe. DR.. Thomas Hayden was called IN, but
when he came the child was too far gone for
any operative measures.
1t is not impossible to find ladies of not
more than fifty years old who let their pianos
stay unopend because, they say. they are to old
and their fingers are too stiff to play any more.
But the people who pass along Winthrop street,
says the Lewiston, (Me.) Journal, il is reported,
often hear music from piano fingered by Mrs.
Matilda Sewall who though 50 years old, plays
with the skill and energy of a girl.
1t is related of Henry II. Norcross who
died in Somervllle, Mass. last week. that when
a boy in Charleston. Me-, he entered the store
of a Levant merchant as clerk. The second
morning he said to his employer that he could
not remain if he was to be required to sell
liuuor Some men would have told him to go,
but Mr.. Benjamin 3. Vaughan was a man who
could appreciate a conscientious clerk. He
kept the boy and at once went out Of the liquor
business.
Vera Sassulitch has been the cause Of
more alarm TO Lne CSdr all Lno Otuer rus
sian anarchists combined. In her early years
she was a pretty governess in little country
village of Russia, and she still possesses traces
of beauty. She is woman of iron will and
stern resolution. At one time, finding il i'm
possible to conquer her, the Russian govern
ment is said to have offered her a bribe of
10000, 900 roubles to quit the cause of anarchy
and quit the country.
Something new in the line of entertain.
ments is upon the tapis at York Beach Me-a
frost carnival. The hall is to be decorated to
represent the Arctic regions, with grottoes.
snow caves and icicles. The audience are
pected to appear In costume suited to the ap-
parent condition Of things, toboggan, Esquimo,
or snow and frost covered suits. The children
are in training for appearance as snow fairies.
frost spirits, etc, and a sleigh bell chorus and
drill, with 164 sleigh bells, is on the perform
ance. The supper is to match the rest of the
programme. If the weather continues to be-
have as it has done for the last four weeks,
there is no doubt that the outdoor accessories
will be in proper trim for the occasion.