Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-18
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

| A man in Missouri has q pet rattle
! snakes which come when he calls them.
| "A woman Of Parkersburg, W. Va, has
| her eighth husband. She is 50 and he is 81.
| Governor Knapp estimates the produc-
| tion of gold and silver in Alaska at Sl,OOO,-
| OCO.
| The Michigan copper mines are said to
| be yielding larger amount Of silver the
/ deeper they so.
| There arc said to be more widows in
! New York than in any other city OF the
| world outside OF London. Paris comes next
| to New York
The wettest place in the world is at
| Cherra Poniee, in the Khasi Hills of Assam.
| The fall OF rain for a single month mas
! ranged from 100 to 200 inches.
-Stewartsville, Mo-, reports pumpkin
| weighing 1O5 pounds. By 4 little kitchen
calculation this will make at least 200 pies.
| and these cut into great big quarters will
| make 500 people happy.
AN English lady is reported to have re-
Gently killed in river in Scotland five SAL
mon, which averaged over 20 pounds each.
| The fish were all captured, it is said, with
! an artificial fly and unassisted.
"A flat and clean piece of yellow leaf
| gold, so bright and perfectly etched and
scalloped by nature that old miners could
| hardly believe that it came from mine in
that shape WAS found in Columbia Hill. Il
is about the size. shape and half the thick
ness of a woman's hand, and is worth $780,
The Nikado of Japan has a,palace called
Hakme which is situated on the borders Of q
second Lake Washington in size, but up in
the mountains 500 feet above the sea. The
Mikado's summer palace is built upon an
island. like Mercer Island in Lake Washing
ton. He seldom visits it, the journey over
the mountains being too rough for his
health.
"A German doctor has been publishing
the results of long course of visual ex-
aminations He finds that in only l case of
IS are both eyes in good condition. In
cases out of every 10 people possess one eye
which is stronger than the other. In cases
ont of patients are affected with astigma-
tism. Nearly so per cent possess an i'm
perfect appreciation of colors.
-"Dottv" is used in England as a
synonym for crazy, while 'rbosky' signifies
tipsy. "You must be bosxy or dotty'' is
| therefore the modern English, or at any
| rate LOndonese, for: ''YOu must be drunk or
| crazy" "Oh, sayr' with a rising infection.
is an exclamation of astonishnent combined
| with unbelief. 1t is an equivalent of the
elegant "What are you giving us?" of this
! country.
If things were divided equally the
exact share of some of the commodities
yearly consumed. in England would come
| out as follows:
| 30 oranges. A gallon Of spirits.
| 420 pounds of iron. SO pounds of sugar.
! 90 bricks. % ounces of tobacco.
| 10 pounds of soap. l3 pounds Of butter.
IS eggs. 81 pounds of beef.
S5 pounds of cheese.
The average Atlantic steamer is manned
by about $50 men, as follows: Thirty-two
| deck hands, officers, petty officers, 80 fire.
men, ETC., 8 engineers, and So stewards. The
| master and chief officials-tha5 is, mates
| engineers-are chosen by the owners or man.
| ayers, while the remainder of the crew are
| chosen by the captain. First-clas5 ships
| muster from 12 to Is men in each watch, and
all of these are shipped as seamen.
"A Georgia Judge believes in upholdfng
| the dignity of his position by his personal
powers. The other day he fined a lawyer
| for being late in court, for which the latter
characterized him as no gentleman. Where
upon the Judge stepped down from the
bench and knocked the lawyer down. He
| then resumed his seat, had the LAWYER
| brought before the bar and put HIM under
heavy bonds to answer for disorderly con-
| duct.
The Lewiston Teller, idaho, speaking Of
the many disadvantages of not having =
| railroad into the Camas Prairie country,
| says: 'Freight wagons are now busy haul
| ing supplies back into tho interior towns, to
| the south of Lewiston. Tons of freight are
| needed there, and tons of produce from that
section have to be marketed by the same
slow and laborious process. 1t would seem
that a railroad would find abundant trans
portatfon mere in opening up new line to
Camas prairie.
An interesting exhibit recently on view
at the German exhibition, was that of the
German Imperial Printing Press. There
were to be seen reproductions of the most
noteworthy prints that have appeared from
the time of Gutenberg to the beginning Of
this century: a series of 100 sheets, each
sheet as nearly as possible of the same size
as the original print. Besides pages of text
and RlphabetS, title pages, headings of chap
ters, etc, were reproduced, as well as some
xylographic impressions of the 18th and 18th
centuries, and some excellent reproductions
of copper plate and wood engravingS by old
masters.
In japan dwarf trees are grown ranging
from to "a inches in height. Though these
trees are so small, they are perfectly proper
toned, some of them being 100 and $50 years
old. They are the results of careful culture
and training. At early age they are
planted in small pots; the upward growth is
interrupted continually, ana the tree forced
to grow horizontally, SpirallY and even
downwards, being secured in these un-
natural positions by strings and sticks, the
care of them being handed down from
Toxic may be mentioned an S0-year-old
maple 20 inches high, and some pines 80
years old and a inches in height.
"A widow of Oswego went to Indian
apolis Ind, Overa year agoto have a very
important operation performed For sew
eral years Mrs. Longecker was without a
nose, having lost that important member by
disease. Receiving the glorious intelligence
that certain medical institute, located as
Indianapolis, Ind, could produce for her a
real. genuine fleshand- blood nasal append
age by taking the flesh from certain por-
tions of her body and attaching the same TO
the vacancy made by disease: she went
and passed successfully through the ordeal,
and after year of untiring grit and nerve,
returned home with fine, well-develOped
nose, changing her appearance to such an
extent that many of her most intimate
friends hardly knew her.