Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-19
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

Cent coins are legal tender only in
sums of 25 cents.
The number of Presidential electors on
the new basis will be 4A.
Eli Terry founded the manufacture Of
clocks in America in 1898. and the centennial
Is to be celebrated in less than Is months in
Terryville, Conn.
The Gar, it is reported from Russia, is
both enraged and depressed by the official
corruption which could no longer be con-
cealed when the famine set in.
Herbert Spencer says 'the first requisite
in life is to be a good animal, by which he
meant, of course, that the basis of all excel
lence in human attainment was good phySi-
cal health.
Seventeen mummies in the Imperial
Museum of Berlin were found by a commit
tee of archBologists to be recent fabrica-
tions of AleXandrian dealers in antiquities.
The museum had paid 100000 for these
forgeries.
1t has been computed that between
100000 and 100000 babies are born into
the world each year, or about 20 per minute.
line of cradles containing them would ex-
tend around the world unbroken, but the
silence would be broken in several places.
The 'Pillars of Hercules" to which
reference is so frequently made in classical
literature, were Calpe, now Gibraltar Rock,
and Abyla, opposite to it, In Africa, at the
entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. A Greek
story says they were torn asunder and sep
Gideon was Judge OF IsraeT. Hercules ac-
cording to popular myth, tore these rocks
or mountains asunder, and hence their
name.
Inauguration day was fixed on March 4,
not by any provision of the Constitution as
Is popularity supposed, but through an act Of
the Congress of the Confederation in 1873,
providing the first Wednesday in March of
the ensuing year as the time for putting in
operation the new Government, and the
date thus became the one for the expiration
of the Congressional term every second year,
and for the expiration of the old and begin
ming of the new Presidential term in the
quadrennial year.
AS to the origin of the meteoric masses
that have fallen from time to time on the
earth innumerable theories have been adj
Fanced. Astronomers are now trying to
solve the problem of their origin in two
wavs. first, by tracing the paths OF the
great periodic star showers, and comparing
them with the paths of the well-known
comets; and, secondly, by examining their
light by the spectroscope. The generally
accepted theory among astronomers is that
they Ire solid masses and are formed by the
breaking up of comets.
Commissioner of Internal Revenue, in
creased in consumption in this country the
last fiscal year 3s7 0o2, 7s4. while there was an
actual decrease Of &c, 740, 729 in the number Of
cigars imported. The sum of these two
amounts may, therefore, be accepted as rep
resenting the increase in the consumption
OF our domestic cigars. 1t is interesting to
note, in this connection, that the consump-
tion of domestic cigarettes is increasing in q
similar ratio, Notwithstanding the outcry
against them the increase being 451. .2S4 ,0S0
In number during the year
Remarkable cases of precocious intel
lectualfty, preceding future power rather
than weakness or early decay were John
Stuart Mill, who read Greek at 8; and Macau-
lay, who read incessantly from the time he
was years old; but ordinary humanity is
slower, and should not be unduly hastened.
1t is found to be undoubtedly the case that
progress in learning is far more rapid in the
great majority of children when they are
left without any systematic ATTEMPT to
teach them until the seventh year at least
has been reached. This rapidly will more
than counterbalance any apparent tardi-
ness in beginning, and there is much less
chance of evil consequences
TO insure pure and fragrant atmos-
phere, 'you must" says a writer on the SUBJ
ject, accept from nature those tall, green
chimneys called trees, which imbibe and
carry aloft into the air those hurtful gases
which, if admitted into the lungs and brain,
might disease the former and obstruct the
delicate movements of the latter" At vari-
ous points in the country may be observed
houses which, in spite of faulty situations,
are yet generally healthy, chiefly because
they are environed with trees which shelter
spfng sa Il fhs preaens E sGd9a
and rapid evaporation which after heavy
rains may generate disease.
With the passing of 1891 there have
ILL
The eminent or conspicuous ones of the
earth. The list includes Bancroft, LOSING
md Kinglake, the historians: Parr ell, Bal
naceda, Boulanger ex-President Grevy ex-
ice President Hamlin, Sir Jonn Mcdonald,
secretary Window and William Henry
smith. in politics; Lowell and WInchell in
.eneral literature: Lawrence Barrett, Marie
Wilt and Emma Abbott, on the stage; Sher-
nan, Won Moltlze and Joseph E. Johnston,
he soldiers; George Jones, the editor, and
lalakaua, Karl l., of Wurtemberg: Prince
Jerome Napoleon and the Ameer of Afghan
stan, kings and the like.
Baron Munchausen, the father in liter
ture of prodigious stories, whose name is
ynonym for exaggeration and wild creation
# misinformation, was Karl Friedrich Her.
nymus, a member of an ancient and noble
amily of Hanover, was born on May II, 172O,
It Bodenwerder, served as a cavalry officer
n the Russian campaigns against the Turks,
nd died in February, 1877. collection of
lis marvellous stories, or stories attributed
o him, was first published in London in
1856, the compiler being Erich Raspe, an ex-
"a atriated countryman of the Baron's. In
1856 the German poet Berger published
lerman version. Several Of the adventures
scribed to the Baron are known to have
ppeared previously in Bebels "FacetiB,"
n the sixteenth century, and others in
.ange's "Delicie Academfce," of 1865.
The most remarkable place of echoes in
he world is perhaps in the old palace of
imonetta, near Milan, which forms three
ides OF a quadrangle. The report of pis-
oil is said to be repeated by this echo go
ines. Addison. who visited the place,
ounted 56 repetitions. At first they were
uick, but the intervals were greater in pro-
ortion as the sound diminished. The echo
t the Eagles Nest, on the banks of Killar-
ey, is renowned for its repetition, of buge
all, which seems to be repeated by hum
red instruments, until it gradually dies
way in the air. At the report OF a cannon
ne loudest thunders reverberate from the
ock and die in seemingly endless peals
long the distant mountains. There is also
famous echo on the Rhine, between Cob
,ntz and Bingen, which repeats a word II
mes, while in the sepulcher of Metella,
he wife of Sulla, in the Roman campagna,
here is an echo which repeats five times.