Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-18
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.


| bers of the Baptist Church.
1t is a remarkable fact that the most
quarrelsome woman in Atchison is entirely
| deaf.
The Missouri watermelon crop will re-
quire 5000 box cars to get it to market. Each
car will hold 900 MELONS.
1t is expected that 100000 bushels of
wheat will be harvested from the Dalrymple
farm, near Casseltown, North Dakota.
Persons with divining rods are search
ing for ancient Spanish gold supposed to be
buried in the banks of the Ohio, near New
Albany.
A banana eating contest at Tarpod
Springs, Fla, ended in a tie between two of
the racers, each stopping on the sixty-frst
banana, it is said.
"A vast number of people take comfort
in the hope of at last reaching Nirvana. The
total number of Buddhists in the world is
estimated to be 75,0O0,0O0.
George A. Avery, of Dover, n. H., has
current bush in his garden which, it is
said, stands &c feet high and is loaded with
large red currants; they are picked with the
aid of a ladder.
There are 900 women to every $40
men In England. Yet the Engl1shmen, says
the New York World will insist on marrying
American girls and so continuing the dis
proportion.
"A man in Oakland City, Ind, boasts
that he never wore a pair of socks until he
was 80 years of age; that ne has made three
overland trips to New Orleans, and that he
has always voted the Democratic ticket.
Speed has its advantages. The ocean
flyers make you sick and keep you so. 1t is
said that old sailors are made seasick by the
excessive amount of vibration caused by the
propellers of some of the high speed
cruisers.
-Crawfordsville boys are seized of the
balloon-parachute business, and cats are
daily sent up, the parachute being arranged
SO that it will detach itself from the balloon
five minutes after the latter is afioat The
cats are not taking kindly to this aeronautic
mania.
The latest invention to attract the
attention and approval of railroad men is
the cushion car wheel. 1t is composed of
two parts-the center and the tire, while be-
tween the two is q thick rubber band which
acts as q cushion to absorb all the vibra
tions.
S. E Pond, son of ex-Mayor Pond, of
San Francisco, and his friends, s. H. Jack
son and M. i. Rosenfeld, visited Shovel
creek last week, after a thrilling visit to
that wonder of wonders, Crater Lake. They
performed q feat few travellers dare TO un-
dertake, creeping down the 2, 2,O00foot wall of
the crater to the shore or that wild, weird
lake and writing their names where few
names Will ever be written.
The chief article of creed held by the
believers in what has been called the
Religion of the Great Pyramid" is that the
pyramid was built for the purpose of reveal
ing number of remarkable truths to the
human race. They hold that it was designed
by direct inspiration of the Deity, and was
and mathematical truths for the instruction
and guidance of future times.
The Health Society of st. Petersburg
has recently appointed a committee to in
vestigate kthe sanitary condition of those
who are employed in the rag business. On
July 10 the committee submitted its report,
denouncing the rag business as highly IN
furious to the health of those engaged in it.
The rags are picked by children, over rs per
cent of whom suffer with contagious dis
eases, and less than half attain mature age
"A pest1ferous insect may retard eivili-
zation. One of the greatest obstacles to the
settlement of vast regions in Africa has
been the tsetse fly. Although harmless to
men, all civilized animals die from its bite
in two or three days. A man of Natal has
discovered a remedy for the poison, in
which he has such confidence that he has
contracted to carry the Portuguese military
stores through the tabooed districts on bull
locks.
A spider is the novel pet of Laings-
Hr
and carefully fed, positively refusing to
begin meal until three or four flies have
been trust into his apartment. These he lets
walk all around him and even over him,
allowing them to think him pefectly HARM
less, until in some of their trips under his
nose he apparently wakes up and grabs
them. After one of these meals he loses his
appetite for about 4S hours. He seems quite
content with ten flies week.
The latest discovery in the vegetable
Iii o,da q hu Dir CuIvpr nf
Atchison, Kan, in the propagation of q vine,
which he has christened potamatO, that will
grow potatoes under the ground, in the
usual fashion, and bear tomatoes, as does
the tomato plant, at the top. DR.. Culver has
spent 81 years in experimenting, and with
the present season he feels assured perfec-
tion will have been reached, SO that next
year he will be able to distribute seed in
limited quantity.
According to several colonists who have
returned from Topolobampo, it is not the
Utopia its promoters have represented it to
be- Mr.. Ezra Comfort, of Delphos Kan,
says there are about 400 deluded cOlonists in
the little valley. A common store and COM
mon fund supplied all the water IS SO hot
is unknown. The flour, which is furnished
by Kansas concern, is of the poorest grade
There is no market for fruits. The COM
munity deals in spiritualism and has implicit
faith in the teachings of Hoffman Owen and
other receivers of the colony money. The
Utopia is the dream OF farce, and the farce
numbers many victims.
When it comes to a show down between
Mr.. Tennyson's Enoch Arden and the fol-
lowing true story from the Paris Nercuyit
will be seen that granG old Missouri is still
in it: "Oliver Smith left this country in the
spring of 1850 for California during the gold
excitement and was not heard Of here until
last spring. He worked in mines there for
q year. and upon hearing that his wife was
dead, he drifted away to the gold fields of
Australia He wrote several letters back
home which miscarried for some cause, and
receiving no answer, he gave up the idea of
returning contenting himself to live in his
new home. He left four children, all of
whom are dead, they leaving two children.
His wife is still living at the age of 81 years.
He was 25 years old when he went away.
Mr. Smith will return home next month,
and no doubt will meet a hearty welcome
from his wife and relatives as well as old
friends, many of whom have long thought
him dead"
RHYMES AND RHYNkLES.