Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-09-24
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.
saIvador has a telenbone scbool

1
Russia has % ironclads and monitors
building.
In SO years $50, ,OOO 600 has been ex-
pended on London's drainage system.
The fruit output of California increased
fully thirty-fold during the past ten years.
Our copper output this year fell short
| of the usual amount by more than 10000
| tons.
Thirty barrels of incense were burned
during three days ceremonial in Siam re-
Gently.
Dates are grown at Phoenix, Ariz. A
| cluster weighing over IS pounds was re-
| Gently picked there.
"A French Baron has won 81, 900 by
crossing the ocean in the steerage. He got
the worst of the bet.
The gauge of the Roman chariots 1000
years ago was 4 feet s1H inches-same as
standard railroad gauge OF to-day.
"A French electrician has gotten up
device by which he can send $50 typewritten
words per minute over single wire.
-Bounties were paid for 81 bears, 30
wolves, 40 lynxes, 6,O16 foxes, 739 eagles and
., 4,339 hawks in Norway last year. The supply
is not exhausted
The recipe for Roman punch was long
kept secret by the chefs of the Vatican, but
was given to the world when Napoleon in
vaded Italy in 1896.
Peru has been making wonderful prog
ress during the last three years owing to
the wonderful amount of English capital
that has gone into that country.
"A Partisan electrician has succeeded in
forcing violets by the aid of his battery and
recently sent bunch of these f1edglings
only four hours old to the Empress Eugenie-
And now cottonwood comes to the
front as a sugar factor. A Southern grower
says its saccharine qualities are Is times
greater than sugar cane and 20 times stronger
than bects.
"A letter sent from Mauch Chunk, Pa,
to Calcutta, via Queenstown, Immediately
mailed back to Mauch Chunk, via Hong
kong and San Francisco made the circuit
of the globe in sc days.
The Oldest mule in the United States is
a venerable object of interest in Ray county,
Mo. Its name is Julia and it is 36 years of
age. And, by the way, its voice is in per-
feet state of preservation.
"A resident of Antelope Valley, New,
tells the Reno Gazette that the valley is full
of grasshoppers depositing their eggs, and
suggests that unless the ground is burned
over there will be trouble ahead in year or
two from these pests.
"A seemingly miraculous cure of malig-
nant cancer has been made at Chattanooga,
Tenn, the victim having been pointed out
in dream to a certain herb, which he gath
cred and ate and is now well. The story is
Vouched for by men of veracity.
"A spring that gushes forth soda water
and in reality forms a huge natural soda
water fountain has been discovered in Ore
gon. The water is sparkling and efferves-
cent and when favored and bottled cannot
be distinguished from the artificial bever-
age.
They are telling of family of 100 per-
sons who lived up in a little village in Onta-
rio few years ago. Eighty-six of these now
reside in the United States, II are dead and
two still live in their native village. And
yet Canada is astoDished at her dwin-
ding census returns
French ingenuity has contrived an i'm
proved stone-cutting saw of remarkable
efficiency-a circular saw having its edge set
with black diamonds in the same wav as the
straight blades, but as the strain on the dia-
mond is all in one direction, the setting can
be made much hrmer.
The Salton Sea still exists, but the
''spell of weather. which Southern Califor-
mia has been so disposed to attribute to it
has disappeared, and the Southern papers
will have to admit that the hot wave was,
after all, merely manifestation Of Califor-
MAS glorious climate"
Miss Mary White, of Munith, Mich,
has completed the ninety-fourth day of her
prolonged nap. 1t has been discovered that
she can be reused by passing the fingers
along the spine until some certain sensitive
center, which is never twice in the same
place, is reached. Her physician kept her
awake four hours Saturday.
The biggest blast IN the history of Cou- :
necticut touched off at a quarry in Meri- !
den q few days ago. The Dlasters drilled
many holes into one side of the quarry, i'm
planted 500 pounds of dynamite therein and
weighed 5000 tons was sent rolling down the
side, and the detonation was heard
many miles.
All Esquimau1 are superstitious about
death, and although they hold festivals in
of departed friends they will usual
ly carry dying person TO some abandoned
hut, there to drag out his remaining days
without food, medicine, water or attend
ance. After the death of a husband OF wife
the survivor cuts the front hair short and
faStS for % days.
Further tests of fibrelia, the product Of
common fax straw, show that to a certain
extent it has not only valuable textile prop
critics of itself, but also as q substitute for
cotton or wool; it is claimed in fact, that 25
per cent of the fibrelia. with IS per cent of
wool, made into broadcIoth gives a product
wool alone-that is the real strength of the
cloth is enhanced. it is more imDervious to
water is warmer and on account OF it's ten
acty and f1eXibility its cementing property
and electrical adheSiyeness, hbrelia not only
lmparts preServative qualities to the wool
and increased durability to the cloth, but
imparts to the whole gloss and finish not
otherwise nttainable.
"A correspondent of the London Daily
Graphic, writing upon the locust plague in
North Africa, says: "1n reference to the
liet of st. John the Baptist, who lived on
locusts and wild honey in the wilderness,
there are Sunday school teachers who can
not believe that any one would voluntarily
i've on such food, and, therefore, say that
The locust bean,' the fruit of the carab tree,
IS meant by the writers of the New TeSta-
nent. / can only reply that the locust
,ricket the Acridum Pelerinum, order Or
.hoptera, variety Saltatoria-the flying Saut-
srefle of Africa-is sold at half penny per
pound in the market place of Biskra (which
s the second oasis from the north in the
Sahara), and that there it is cooked by boil
ng with salt and water, as shrimps are
1oiled here. / myself have little doubt that
& is more nutritious than the latter, because
n March, when the insect is gathered and
Tried, it is as full of albumen as an egg."