Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-29
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

AN average man of 80 has spent 5000
days, or nearly 20 years, in sleep.
There are now 400 electric roads in this
country; three years ago the number was
only l3.
Prom 81, 900 to $1,000 is the cost of
the electrical outfit on one of our new
cruisers.
-Spectacles were invented in the year
1920, but were not in general use until nearly
2t0years later.
There is place called Helps Half
Acre in the Ozark Mountains OF Arkansas,
about 81 miles east of Hot Springs
The largest steam shovel in the world is
at work digging phosphate out of the mines
at Johns Island, near Charleston. s. T.
If you write much adopt the practice
OF using green-tinted paper for manuscript
1t is less hurtful to the eyes than white
paper.
The glassmakers of Thebes, 40 centuries
ago possessed the art of staining glass, and
they produced the commodity in the utmost
profusion.
The German army next year is to con-
tain 2O524 officers, 4s6 9ss men, 1887 surgeons,
s93 paymasters and eronauts, $50 veterinary
surgeons, $50 gunsmiths, SO saddlers and
93, $50 horses.
If the finding of four-leaf clovers brings
good luck a young woman living at Sauga-
tuck. Mich, ought to be especially blessed.
During the past two years she has gathered
over 500 of them.
Santa Fe, which was the seat of Gov
ernment in New Mexico as far back as 164o,
is the Oldest capital in the United States,
and yet it's population is only 6,lS5, accord
ing to POrter's census.
The benefit of the electric light in the
factories of Germany is said to have been so
marked that it is proposed to make its use
compulsory in all works where artificial
light Is employed during working hours.
On the anniversary of Lord Nelson's
death, every October, his flagship is elabor.
white ensign is freshly displayed as it was
all the night long prior to che battle Of
Trafalgar.
The polar night at Hammerstein, Nor
way, begins on November Is and lasts until
January %, but hereafter the 1000 inhabi-
tants will enjoy the benefits of electric light
during that period. Each house in the
hamlet has an electric light.
The six largest cities of the world in
order of their population are as follows,
London census OF ls9O), 4,42l .661; Paris QSS6l,
2,3A $50; Berlin (1s9O), 1,514, ,sS5; New York
| (1s9o). 1,515,301: Canton. China (estimated),
l,50o,O 900: Vienna QSss), 1,35O,O0O.
The Mormons who fled to Mexico about
ive years ago are fourishing in their new
homes a little east of the Sierra Madre
Mountains, in about 800 north latitude,
where the fertile Casas Grsndes Valley gives
them plenty of rich land to till.
To tell mushrooms from toadstools
without eating and waiting for the result)
peel an onion and put with it the fungi
while being cooked. II the onion remains
white, eat with confidence. If it turns
black, eat with an emetic or stomach
pump at hand.
The Shah of Persia Is described by the
opposition in his country as nearly played
ont. He drinks bottle of brandy day,
and uses much hashish and opium. The
child that he brought to Europe with him,
the son of his cook. is now his sole and
irresponsible Grand Victor.
1t begins to be noised about that whales
In the South Pacific are not SO nearly ex-
tinct as they were reported to be, and that
there is profitable employment of steam
| whalers. A whaling bark which left Tas-
| mania on August II captured in two days
| two large black whales, which yielded am
bergris valued at s20,0O0
John Jacob Astor left an injunction in
his will that the family should always con-
| tinue the investments in the English funds
| and in English securities that he had him.
self commenced. The sons and grandsons
| have always respected this command, and
| the family has now ian anchor to wind
ward" amounting TO s1,O6O00o.
Many of the electric roads in this coun-
| try and Canada have electric heaters upon
their cars, and express satisfaction with
| them. The points which call forth the great
est comment are their neatness and the
economy of space, labor and money which
attend their use. No room desired 1or other
purposes is required by the heaters
The act of February %, 1873, authoriz-
| ing the coinage Of the silver dollar specified
that it should be of the weight of 4l2115 grains
| troy of standard silver. Standard silver
| signifies silver COOL 900 fine. as specified in
| the mint laws enacted by Congress in Janu-
| ary, 1887 The silver dollar, therefore, con-
| tains 371L grains of pure silver and 4Iz
grains OF alloy.
An old powder horn, supposed to be
relic of Benedict Arnold's expedition to
| Canada in Revolutionary times, has been
found In a deserted house in the Dead river
| region, in Maine. The horn is elaoorately
carved, being completely covered with de-
bears the inscription: "John: shannan, his
| horn. Made at Ticonderago, sept. ye n
| 176O"
The potato was introduced into Europe
| from the Western Hemisphers. History has
| It that Christopher Columbus was the first
| European who ever tasted a potato, but the
vegetable that he ate at Cuba in 1892 and
brought to Genoa was the sweet potato; The
| first potato grown east OF the Atlantic Ocean
was planted by Claudius in the botanical
gardens of Virginia in 1885 Sir Walter Ral-
eigh found the potato in Virginia, and took
specfmens back to England. The original
home Of the popular tuber is Chile. and it
was brought North by the Spaniards.
A railway IS about to be built across
Siberia by the Russian Government, to
bring its provinces on the Pacific into closer
relations with the empires center. 1t is to
be finished in 1895. to cost SIS 900 and will
be 5000 miles long The motive OF this great
outlay is chiefly political. There is to be
in the East, and the railway is required to
enable Russia to meet China on equal terms.
Vladivostock, the eastern terminus of the
railway, is to be made frst-class fortress
a second Sebastopol. From that port Rus
xuit