Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-16
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

CVh1OUC VONDENSdllUNS.
I'm Spain there are only 3,231 children in
the Sunday schools.
There are 23o, 900 singers in the choirs
Of the Church of England.
The rent of land in England 800 years
ago was about a shilling an acre.
The people of the United States con-
sumo. it is said, 200, 900 bottles Of pickles
annually.
1T is estimated that in the United King
dom no fewer than 1000 girls are employed
In public houses and drinking bars.
The amulets of the Tasmanians are COM
posed of sacred stones suspended from the
neck, to prevent the malignant influence OF
witchcraft.
The value of the fish already caught this
season on the northeast coast of Scotland is
estimated at about $500, ,OOO or considerably
more than the average. IEsf.
The italian army contains nearly 2, ,o00,-
900 men, or to give the exact figures, ,92s, ,972
Among them are $4,000 Alpine soldiers,
trained and Injured to the hardships OF
mountain warfare.
HOLSTERS often travel in regiments, seek
ing new feeding grounds. Their migrating
armies are always led by the biggest and
strongest ones, while the MANNED ana weak
ly struggle along behind.
of every 100 persons who travelled on
English railways last year ss1l went in third
class carriages Tor, should we say paid for
third-class tickets?), while ~ were second,
and only 81 went flrst-class.
"A Galician priest has been warned that
If he goes on persuading people to give up
intoxicating drinks he and the Mayor of the
village may be made responsible for the loss
suffered in consequence by the publican.
No animal has more than five toes,
digits or claws to each foot or limb. The
horse is one-toed, the OK two-toed- the rhin-
oceros is three-toed, the hippopotamus is
four-toed and the elephant and hundreds of
other animals are fve-toed.
In popular histories of the SevenWon-
ders Of the World we read that the Pharos,
the first lighthouse. could Sc seen at dis
tance OF 100 miles. In order for this to have
been possible the Pharos must have been
mile and quarter In height.
There are 536 authorized guides in the
Alps. One hundred and ninety-four of them
have taken regular course of instruction
In their profession and have received
diplomas. Thirty-five of them are between
6o and 20 years of age, and six are over TO-
PAS, ,o47, $50 quarts of milk, 5,4o6,6s0
quarts of cream, and 5000, ,A0 quarts Of con-
densed milk were received In New York last
year for consumption. Each inh bitant of
the city, according to these figures. used on
an average l52 quarts of milk. 81 quarts OF
cream, and quarts of condensed milk last
year.
There are naturalists in this day and age
who believe that horse hairs will turn TO liv-
ing snakes; that toads will live for thousands
of years in the cavity of a rock without food
or water. that the barnacle goose was de-
veloped from the shell fish of that rame, and
that the bird called Sora is q species of
winged frog.
The City of London is put down by geo.
grsphers as the center of the landed hemis-
phere. In other words, radius Of about
g. 900 miles on the curved surface of the earth,
with London as a center, would describe a
enclosing more land than any
8 000-mile circle that could be drawn from
any other city in the world.
The following are examples of nine-syl-
liable words in the English language: An
thropometamorphis. misrepresentation,
MISUNDERSTANDING, anhydrohepsiterion,
incomprehensibility,
fndivfdualiZation, syncategorematical, un-
nstitutionality, unintelligibility, yaletudi-
narianism and yicissitudinality.
One of the most singular looking Great
ures that ever walked the earth or SWAN
the waters under the earth" is the world
famous man. faced crab of Japan. Its body
is hardly an inch in length, vet the head is
fitted with a face which is the perfect coun-
terpart of that of a Chinese cody: a veritable
missing link, with eyes, nose and mouth all
clearly defined.
AN upright stone in Iona Istand is said
to confer the power of steering well to any
one who will stretch his arm along it; and q
of Notes and Queries describes
q stone at 1nnisken, near Mayo Island,
which so recently as the year 1851 was
brought out and importuned to bring wrecks
wrapped in flannel.
Burke, in his letter on Natural So
,iety," says that Sylla destroyed 100000 men
N each of three battles, one being at Che
-onea. The Persians are said to have lost
80 900 men at Plataea. II. Chronicles xiii,
u. records 100000 slain on one side, which,
however. may not have been in a single bat
lie. !. Kings, Xxx, 26, tells of 100 900 men
being killed on one side in single day.
Russian photographers who are unable
TO get q settlement from their sitters hang
he portraits of the latter upside down in
he showcases before their studios. The
ignificance of this position is of course, un-
ierstood by the general public, and, it is
aid, the photographers debtors, in many
instances, hasten to place themselves right
gain in the eyes of their fellow-citizens.
Asia means morning or east; Europe,
,ventng or west; Australia means lying to
IT in the south. Hence we may consider
hat these names mean Eastern Land, West
m Land and Southern Land. Asia is
ireek word, Europe is the Hebrew oreb,
australia is Latin word. The origin of the
vord "Africa'' is uncertain. Some conjec-
ure that it isa Semitic word meaning Land
Il Wanderers"
One of the most famous and fatal poi
ons used in Japan and Java is obtained
rom the bamboo. The young shoots Of the
ane, when they first push through the
round, are covered with fine, brownish
airs, which, under the microscope, appear
Hex, infinitely sharp and hollow. Small
uantitfes of these hairs administered daily
q the food bring on liberation OF the whole
limentary canal, Stimulating malignant
ysentery, which eventually causes death.
RHYNKLED RHYMELETs.
Clara-You know Cora has been taking