Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-10
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.
,sonimonx have women taiIors.

| Watches in use number lot, 6,9I3,6I3.
Votes sell. for 1S cents each in Guate-
mals.
Americans are great for coaching, but
as a rule they use the bicycle.
| -Anthracite coal has been discovered in
the District of Alberta, Canada.
-California has 246 banks of all kinds,
with capital surplus of ssi, 5264-
Baltimore has donkey only 80 inches
high, but it seems to have the strength ofan
| OK.
The schoo1boys of Maiden, Mass, will
hereafter be taught to sew during school
| hours.
"A New York clergyman has married
Il, ,OcO couples and received over $4,000 we'd
ding fees.
One hundred million bushels of grain
were received in Buffalo this year up to Sep
| tember 30.
There are 527 members of the British
House of Lords, and SO members Of the
| House of Commons.
| AT Paderborn, in Westphalia, every
topical song has to be sent to the Chief Of
| Police before it can be sung.
-RainfaIIs have been exceedingly fire.
| quently in the mountains of Southern CALI
fornia since the formation of Salton Lake
"A nugget of gold weighing 2O2 ounces,
| and valued at about 81, 500, was found in the
Ruby mine at Forest City the other day
Forty refractory convicts in Connecti-
| cut's State prison are in solitary confinement
+ for refusing to eat baked beans, the delfcacy
| of Boston's -Four Hundred
There is railroad in Kansas so dilapi
dated that but one train day can be run
| over it at the rate of IL miles an hour. This
| is the Kansas Central, q branch of the Union
| Pacific.
South Jackson, Mich is having lively
time dodging yellow jackets, with which the
! town is swarming. Many of the towns
| people are getting move on them that sur
| prises the oldest inhabitant.
In the towns and cities of Chile all the
| shopping of any consequence is done in the
evening. In Santiago the stores are open
till midnight. and during the hot afternoon,
| when everybody taxes a siesta, they are
| locked up.
"A Swiss doctor is reported to have sue
ceeded in getting photographs of painted
windows in their original colors. They were
sent to Dusseldorf. and the Photographic
| journals speak favorably of them. They
were taken by the midday sun.
The Russian nobility are in compara-
| lively as wretched circumstances as the peas
antry. In October there will be nearly 800
| &t the instance of the State Bank that has
loaned them money on mortgages.
One of the relics preserved at Inde-
Dendence Hall, in Philadelphia. is the yoke
and frame OF the old Liberty Bell. The Gus
todian recently counted the names and
| mOnOgrams cut in the old wooden relic
| by visitors, and found that they numbered
| 1916.
Some cattlemen in South Dakota, in
| vub hoo olr haa,
as pious cowboys want to pay the rain
| sharp Melbourne, 500 a shower until he
| creates food and fills up all the ponds and
| hollow places and makes the place famous
| for its lakes.
The San Diego Union says it is rumored
that Carlos Paches will soon sail for Gunda-
loupe Island with party of Frenchmen
| who have secured permission from the Mex
| ican Government to shoot goats on the
| island. There are said to be some 10000
goats on the island and the animals are null
! tiplying rapidly.
Delaware still retains the old Anglo.
| Saxon term "hundred" to designate town.
ships, and the names of her hundreds are
| ancient and often picturesque. Some are
called for streams. as Murdprkill, Mispillion,
| Appoquinimink, Indian River, Whiteclay
Creek. Others are named for old taverns as
I Red Lion and Black Bird.
1t is easy to trace wheat back for nearly
1000 years, or indefinitely earlier still, for
| it was known in the neoIithic period when
| men lived in dwellings built on platforms
! supported by piles driven into the lakes OF
! Switzerland. Near the remains of these
| dwellings wheat has been found, together
with mealing stones. hearth stones and
sickles, the wheat almost identical in char
acter with that OF the later Egyptian or
even with that which has gladdened the
fields of Dakota or Minnesota during the
| season of 1891.
The Gaelic chieftain's oath before going
into battle has been discovered in an Irish
| text of the second century and deciphered
rs follows: "The heavens are above u.s. the
land below MS, the ocean around us-every-
| thing in q circle about us. If the heavens
| do not fail. casting from their high fortresses
the stars like rain on the face of the earth,
| If shocks from within do not shatter the
land itself. if the ocean from its blue soli-
tudes does not rise up over the brows of all
living things. |, by victory in war, by COM
bats and battles. will bring back to the
stable and the fold the cattle and to the
| house and TO their dwellings the women that
have been stolen by the enemy.
Some of the oldest human beings on
this continent inhabit the islands of the
Chesapeake. Spe5utia Island usually pro-
nounced Spesootha, is far uD the bay, and
serves chiefly as a landing place for gun
ners. Further down are Wye and Kent
islands, long settled and highly cultivated,
the former once the home of the Paca fam
iIv the subject of many romantic traditions.
Still further south is the archipelago called
TanCier Sound. HereabOuts the coast is
lined with multitude of small islands in
habited by a h~rdy race of amphibians
whose lives are given up to the business and
pleasure OF fishing. These islands are the
scenes of the famous oyster wars, and the
islanders have much the same attitude to-
ward the oyster laws that mountain moon
sinners have toward excise legislation.
Here is the method employed by the
hunters of British Columbia who poach upon
the sealing grounds: When the schooner
sights seal the little boats are lowered
hunter armed with two shotguns and n
rifle and two sailors to pull the boat take
their places and the hunt begins. The seal
may be swimming at the surface, or per-
chance he is sleeping. The boat is pulled
quietly toward the animal In nine cases
out of ten the seal takes alarm and dives
out of sight before the boat is brought close
enough to use the guns with effect, and in
no case does the hunter shoot unless he feels
sure of his quarry. The seal when shot at
once commences to sink, and the boat has
to Oe pulled rapidly uD to it. when the
body is "gaffed and hauled aboard. This
is repeated as long as seal can be seen. In
many cases only one or two will be killed
during two davs' hunt, while at other
times as many as 20 will be taken.