Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-14
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.
nina has Of American uarobonts


The human heart beats 3OO, 600, 900
| times in 80 years.
| There is not native born white grand
mother in all Colorado.
Berlin street ear conductors only re-
| ceive 6214c for n davis work OF Is hours, but
they can live there for about 20c per day.
The interesting fact has been developed
| in the case of table glass that the much-ad-
mired iridescent film in slightly soluble in
water.
Bank notes in Austria Hungary are
printed on one side in German and on
the other in Magyar for the benefit of the
Hungarians.
Berlin, too, has its chrvsanthemum ex-
hibition. The flowers were arranged by a
japanese firm in exact imitation of a Japan
ese flower show
Dakota has an artesian well from which
the water shoots into the air 160 feet. 1t Is
estimated that from 5000 to 10000 gallons per
minute are discharged
1t would keep a man busy for II wears,
counting eight hours per day and 200 dollar
piece= minnie. to count the silver money
in the United States Treasury.
1t took 60,00O cars to transport the
grapes of the United States to market last
year. The vineyards i'm this county repre-
sent an investment of sl55, 600 900 and over.
piled upon each other, the s40O, 900, 900
in the Treasury would reach a height of 675
miles. and placed side by side they would
carpet room 80 feet wide and "a miles long
Lake Ontario is now lower that ever be-
fore since IL was known to white men. 1t is
estimated that it would require 2.541 900 900
tons of water TO bring it up to its normal
level.
Tho
river, above Monroe, WASH. is said to be 400
yards long, and the logs are piled up 20 to 40
feet high. Unless a steam windlass is put to
work on it soon navigation to Sultan will be
closed for the winter and possibly for years.
Russia has been visited by eight ma
tional fnmines during the present century, in
1901 1sos, 1911. 1872 1888. 1s4O 1850 and 1891 In
addition to these there have been several
provincial famines as severe, If not as ex-
tensive. as those which affect the whole
population.
Along the Columbia river a kind Of
bread is made from n moss that grows on
the spruce-fir tree. This moss is prepared
by placing it in heaps, sprinkling it with
water and permitting it to ferment Then
it Is rolled into balls as big as q mans head
and these are baked in pits.
-Workmen digging the Harlem ship
canal, at the upper end of Manhattan Island
level. in an fnciptent peat formation, have
found the tusk of a mastOdon. It is feet 8
inches in diameter at the butt. 1t must have
lain where found through many centuries.
Lieutenant Maxwell, of the United
States army. says the Dakota climate adds
to ones stature. When ordered to that
country he was over 81 years old and had
reached the age when growth IL supposed TO
stop, but during residence there of over a
year he grew three and on e-half inches. Da-
kotans ray the climate often has that effect.
Indians of the Northwest coast subsist
largely upon cakes of seaweed prepared by
pressing and drying in the sun. Theyalso
cut this seaweed very fine and mix it with
the grease of the candle fish, thus comnos-
ing repulsive oily mass, which they relish
greatly, Seaweed cakes OF the sort de-
scribed are also made by the Chinese and
shipped in considerable quantities to China.
The first iron mined in this country is
generally supposed to have be en- in Saugus,
Mass, about 1913. Iron ore and smelted iron
have just been found in North Beverly.
This puzzles the "oldest inhabitant," as no
person living ever knew that iron existed
there. The smelling must have been done
at an early date, very possibly before 1643,
as there were settlements there as early as
l640.
"A volume recently published on the
industries of women in Paris states that
tive employment, albeit somewhat danger
ous Women clerks are to be seen more fire.
quently in France than in any other conti-
mental country, and another important fact
as good salaries as u man in the same posi-
tion would have.
Marriage among the Ocloes of Sumatra
Is celebrated by curious ceremony. In
front of the brides house is an immense pair
Of scales, one of which is filed with fruit,
rice, fuel and little kid by the brides
parents and the other by the bridegroom
W hen the bridegroom'S scale Overbalances
the other the bride leaves the house and the
is performed by the eating of
meal in common and q dance together.
"A Bakersfield Chinaman recently traded
potatoes for a COW and the cow was brought
TO him before the potatoes were delivered.
That night the COW broke in upon the pota-
toes anda gang of animals helped her. SO
that by morning the potatoes were all gone.
The mysterious part of it is that the cow is
zone too and John cannot find trace of it,
He is praying to his biggest joss, for he is
afraid that the potatoes have eaten up the
,ow-
According to Nh. Hunt, in his 'Ro-
nances of the West of England" fishermen
Tread to walk at night near those parts OF
he shore where wrecks have taken place.
It is affirmed that the spirits of the drowned
ailors haunt such localities, and many
fisherman has declared that he has heard
he voices of dead sailors "hailing their own
,amesD This idea is not confined to this
but Is found in various parts of the
world.
One of the biggest rocks ever moved in
he course of railroad construction in this
ountry was recently excavated on the lire
# the Mexican Southern by Colonel Lamar.
The Loaoer Californian says the giant
,oulder was 100 feet in height and measured
OGO cubic meters Six dynamite cartridges
we're placed under the rock after the men
lad excayated as much earth as possible,
nd were fired one after another. At the
fxth explosion the big fellow rolled over
ut of the way.
AN ancient legend says that the virtues
t tea were learned by accident by Chi
ese monarch, King Shen Kung, 'the Divine
who hourfshed centuries
go, and who, in boiling water over a fire
lade from the branches on which the leaves
fIl hung, allowed some of the latter to fall
ito the pot. During the reign of King Shen
lung She (2737 to s696 B. C.) he not only dis
overed the curative virtues of plants, but
lso first fashioned timber into plows and
lught the people the art of husbandry and
,stituted the practice of holding markets
,r the exchange of commodities.