Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-27
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

Hres last year.
"A discharged chorister in an Ohio town
took revenge on the congregation by sitting
in pew and purposely singing out OF tune
"A 5-year-old child at Eugene, Ore,
grows faster on one side than the other, and
the doctors are puzzled by the circumstance.
Belfast, Me-, has a unique claim to
notoriety. The Age says that not single
hand-organ man has visited the city this
year.
In Tehama county, California, grass
hoppers have appeared. Three men re-
Gently caught 500 pounds Of grasshoppers i'll
two hours"
I'm the city of St. Petersburg it begins
to freeze at the end of October, and gen
eral thaw rarely takes place before the be-
ginning OF April
"A shower from hose nozzle placed in
side the shirt collar, is proving an effective
treatment for drunkards, instead of the
lookup, at Houlton, Me.
An educated, accomplished young lady
of Petoslxy, Mich, has split 20 cords of wood
with her own hands, and has it piled neatly
to season for summer use.
AT Dunedin, Fla, day or two ago,
James Barnes and Billy Marston succeeded
in landing fish called the nurse, which was
estimated to weigh over 800 pounds
Switzerland, the little mountain democ-
racy, or Federal Republic of Europe will be
800 years old on the 1st of next August. The
Swiss propose to celebrate the event.
of the e7, $50, ,156 gold coin issued last
year by the British Mint, sE221, $50 were in
half sovereigns, the coinage of which has
since 1885 been practically suspended.
"A very large turtle laid 175 eggs just at
the foot of Hotel Coquina's front steps on
Ormond beach, Fla Monday. crowd of 30
or 40 people were standing near at the time.
Charles Mover, of Stouchsburg, Pa,
having found a nest full of quail's eggs,
placed them under bantam hen and now
has the bantam and ten quails roaming over
his farm.
The latest fad in Seattle, Wash, is
paper hats for ladies. They are made in
various styles, and, being usually pretty and
snowy and costing only few cents each, are
apt to become quite popular.
"A notice upon the window of North
Georgia postoff1ce: "when you KUN for
Yore Male have Pashuns Know Shootin
around the Post-offise duren busneis ours by
oardur of the Postmaster his sine and Seal
Chikens bot on Kommission."
Prof Van Benschoten, of Middletown,
Conn, has discovered a new insect, which
attacks and kills currant worms. He pro-
poses to cultivate this useful insect extern
sively, with the hope of exterTninating the
currant pest, which all other means have
failed to accomplish.
F. The Congo States only newspaper, the
Congo Mirror, made its first appearance a few
weeks ago. 1t is a four-page weekly, printed
with lithographic machine. The editor,
proprietor, printer and newsboy are incor-
DOrated in one Englishman. The Mirror is
fighter, and in its first issue accused q Congo
official of murder and scoffed at the king OF
Belgium.
Not far from Columbia, in Boone
county NO., is little church in the middle
of a graveyard. A few years ago, after a
severe storm, man was found dead in the
churchyard. directly beneath one of the
windows. On pane in the window was as
accurate q photograph of the dead mans
face as an artist could have taken. The
picture seemed to be permanently fixed in
the glass.
1t is said to be beyond doubt that Cape
Cod is being gradually eatR away by the
hungry ocean. Not a century ago the Gov
ernment placed lighthouse on the head
land of the cape. The deed to the property
calls for ten acres o1land, but at the present
time the enclosure measures scant six acres.
On n point just north of the marine stations
at Highland light the face of the bluff has
moved in nearly 250 feet in the last seven
years. At this rate it is only a question Of
time when Cape Cod will be a thing of the
past.
The will of General Pike, the late
Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite
Masons, Southern Division, was some what
peculiar. The moneys in the Treasury Of
the United States, arising from the sale
under process of confiscation of his property
in Little Rock. he wills to the United States,
THAT it may have an honest title thereto,
and no longer hold them as the proceeds Of
plundering under the form Of law; and also
the Indebtedness of the United States to me
for four horses lost by me in the military ser
vice of the United States In Mexico"
-Beethoven's Flemish ancestry has been
proved by the discovery in Bonn of history
of the Beethovens since $50 years ago The
composers great-grandfather lived in Ant
werp in 1850 His son Louis, in consequence
of a family quarrel, left Antwerp at about
that time and got position as tenor in the
royal choir in Bonn. His son Jean, Beeth-
ovens father, was singer in the same choir.
The last member Of the Antwerp branch OF
the family was the mother of Jacob Jacob
q marine painter, who several years ago en-
toyed European reputation. She was Maria
Theresia van Beethoven, and she died in
January, 1924.
The largest vessel on record in the old
times was one built by Ptolemy Philopater,
King of Egypt. She is said to have been 40
feet long, 56 feet broad, y feet high from the
keel to the top of the PROV, and so feet to the
top of the poop. She had four helms of 30
feet; her largest oars were IS feet long, with
leaden handles, so as to be more easily
worked; she had two prows, two sterns and
seven rostra or beaks. On both poop and
prov she had figures of men and animals
that were fully Is feet high. She had 400
rowers 400 cabin boys or servants, $3.50 ma
rines to do duty on deck, besides being pro-
vided with immense stores of arms and am
munition.
Mrs John Raymond, who lives near st.
Paul Ind, was recently left a widow. An
old cord-and-weight clock in the house
stopped when her husband died Nothing
was thought of this, and Mrs. Raymond after
the funeral closed up her home and went
with her son-in-law to stay month. When
she returned home she was surprised one
evening to hear the old clock, which she
knew had not struck the hour since her hus-
bands death, strike. This time she was
startled, but after a few days paid little at
tention to it. Now at certain hours of the
night it is heard to strike the hour of 3 and,
as it has not run or has not been wound up
for weeks, it is very mysterious