Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-27
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

1t was once believed that hares'changed
their sex every year.
The magazines now in course of publi-
cation number LIS
"A fish with two tails is the leading
curiosity at Madison, Ga. 1t is alive and
doing well.
Africa is now completely encircled by
submarine cables, whicnmake up altogether
length of 1900 miles.
!; -Chicago's postoffice is credited with do
ing more registered letter business than any
other postoffice in the Union.
DR. Luderitz says that coffee acts as a
germicide and destroys the baccilli OF
cholera, anthrax and typhus in a few hours.
In the city of st. Petersburg it begins
to freeze at the end Of October, and a general
thaw rarely takes place before the begin
ming Of April.
| The New Jersey man who secured a
patent on his idea of placing rubber on the
tips of pencils is said to have realized
500 900 from it.
The man who invented metal plates for
the heels and soles of shoes worn on the feet
on rough shoes is said to have realized $780,
OOO in ten years.
Trains on the Brooklyn bridge make
faster time (by two miles an bour) than did
the first railway train that ran between New
| York and Albany.
| According to the most recent census re-
turns London has a population of 100000,
| Paris of 245OOOO Berlin of l574485 and Sc
Petersburg of 100000.
| Two human skeletons of giant size were
unearthed Thursday at Lakewood, N. Y, by
| workmen engaged in grading The thigh
| bone of one was 30 inches long.
| -Newington, Conn, poul try raisers are
| having hard time of it. Foxes are unusu-
ally abundant in that vicinity, and chickens
are snapped up almost as soon as they are
Matched.
Two gum trees which tower over 100
feet above little church in Guatemala, are
| so feet in circumference, and their strong
| roots have pushed the foundation of the
| church out OF place.
An unusually large number of bears are
noticed this summer in the neighborhood Of
| st. Petersburg. This, according TO the ex-
| perfence OF old peasants, prognosticates the
| coming of a severe winter.
The apparent fattening of the vault of
the heavens has been found to have an an
seems least fiat with misty horizon, and
less by night than by day.
The most extensive camphor raiser in
Formosa, the beautiful island where that
| precious gum is grown in large quantities,
Is named Butler, and is generally called
/ III WIG I-1SI tnS CdInpnOr count.
| A tax is imposed on Viennese ladies by
the Supreme Sanitary Committee because of
| their trailing skirts, which are said to jeop-
| ardise the public health by scattering and
disturbing the disease germs in the dust.
"A farmer near Yuba City, Cal, COM
plains that 80 tons of hay that he had cut
was drenched by heavy rain, while on the
opposite side of his farm there was a large
| field of grain needed rain but did not get a
| drop.
A new lake has been discovered in Cam
eron, Africa, by. G. BoIdau, swede. The
discoverer, thinking to honor the German
| Governor, named the Water Soden Lake. It
lies 700 meters above the level of the sea and
is about two miles wide
The tomato is native of South Amer
ica. 1t was known in England as early as
1885, but its Introduction into North America
Is credited to the French families who were
eItled by the revolution of San Domingo
and settled in the eastern part of the United
States.
Stock pens and poultry yards in and
around Franklin, Conn.,, are being raided by
wild animals, supposed to be wildcats. In
some places torches are kept burning near
the stock pens to keep or the marauders
Women and children are afraid to 20 out
alone in some sections even in daytime, and
even men go armed.
Strictly speaking, the only precious
stones are the diamond, ruby, sapphire and
emerald, though the term is often extended
to the opal, Notwithstanding its lack of hard
ness, and to the pearl, which is not q min
eral, but strictly an animal product Popu-
larly, gem is precious or semfprecious
stone, when cut or polished for ornamental
purposes.
One of commonest forms of supersti-
tion is that which makes beasts, birds, rep
tiles and insects the means of communica-
ting information with respect to future
events or of prognosticating by their actions
good or bad fortune to the individual thus
put in communication with the unseen
world, or which clothe them with peculiar
and supernatural qualities.
The longest bridge across the Danube is
1900 feet in length, the Waterloo bridge over
the Thames is 1,24O feet, the Westminster
bridge over the Thames 1,22O feet, the Sara
toy bridge across the yolga ts72 feet, and
half million dollars is to be expended in
improving and extending the approaches to
the Brooklyn bridge on the New York side.
In usefulness 1t exceeds them all.
Weighing machines and scales of some
kind were in use 1900 B. c., for it is said that
Abraham at that time weighed out 400
shekels of silver, current money with the
merchant to Ephron, the Hittite, as payment
for piece of land, including the cave and
all the standing timber Gin the field and in
the fence" This is said to be the earliest
transfer of land of which any record sur
wives, and that the payment was made in
the presence of witnesses.
An enthusiast on the subject states that
each head of clover is composed of about 60
distinct flower tubes, and each of these con-
tains sugar not to exceed the five hundredth
part of q grain. The proboscis of the honey
bee must therefore be inserted into 900 clover
tubes before one grain of sugar can be OBJ
tanned. There are 1000 grains in pound,
and as honey contains three-fourths of its
weight OF dry sugar, each pound OF clover
honey would represent the insertion of the
proboscis into 2, 500, 900 clover heads.
"A Baltimore freak is frog of good
size and trife light in color, but apparent
1y not different from any other frog. The
developed when his frogship
was worried, when, instead of hopping or
or giving utterance to the deep, sonor0us
note usually heard from frogs, he simply
opened his mouth and cried. The frog is
nothing if not human, and suggests both in
tone and volume a bad, peevisn child. The
cry is not q single note, but several, and is
even after the annoyance ceases.
"A snake, with marked climbing ability,
high grape vine in Waterbury,
Conn.,, and then entering bedroom window
that was open managed in some unaccount-
able way to get into bird cage that was
suspended from the ceiling. There were two
in the cage, and one of them the
reptile had eaten when the head of the house
appeared on the scene. The other poor bird
lay in stupor on the bottom of the cage.
The snake endeavored to escape on hearing
the noise of the footste ps, but it didn't sue
ceed, and was dispatched. 1t measured, it
is said, several feet.
SIFTINGS FROM LIFE.