Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-09-13
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.
Ten torpedoes, costing $4,000, were
lost in the late British maneuvers.
There are 2,OS4, ,SO3 hogs in Kansas
awaiting transportation to Germany.
There are considerably over hundred
thousand acres devoted to tobacco in Vir-
ginia.
-Third-claSs passengers are increasing In
England at the expense of the first and sec
ond class.
Michigan mines employed 1891 men
last year. OF this number "a met with fatal
accidents.
New Bedford, the sleepy New England
town where dramatists now launch their
new plays, is called the Dramatic Founding
Hospital.
There are so anti-vaccination leagues
in England and Scotland, and determined
opposition is also being organized in Ire
land and Wales.
AN AtchisOn girl was compelled to
make trip to Kansas City to get pair of
% gloves. As a rule the hands of Atchison
girls are as big as their hearts.
There is radish in a garden near Ben
ton, Mo-, that has a circumference OF
22z inches and is Overt feet long, and it
IS still growing at the rate of an inch week.
In Eastern New Mexico nearly 900, 900
acres OF fruit and farm lands have been re-
claimed by the construction of storage res
ervoirs and irrigating canals during the
past two years.
School education in Louisiana is very
deficient. The recent school census shows
school population of 10000 Of whom but
5000 attend school, and may of these at
tend but one month.
The woollen mills in Mexico are clos
ing Indefinitely because the Government has
revoked the concession whereby manufac-
turers were allowed to import their wool and
dyestutrs free of duty.
"A lad only years old died in New
York this week of alcoholism. He had been
intrusted by his father to carry home bot
tie of whisky, and on the way tippled until
he became dazed and finally unconscious.
An Italian publisher got the opinions
of 100 writer's and scholars as to who are the
best authors The replies placed Darwin at
the head of foreign writer's, Shakespeare
next and Schiller, Goethe and Humboldt
following.
The national Japanese gambling game
is barra or Flower" The cards are 43
oblong slips of pasteboard, divided into y
series, each representing q month. Six
players, with four cards each, play q sort of
combination of casino, euchTe and poker.
DR.. George G. Matthews, of Jackson
vile, Fla. has a very intelligent horse.
Tied in front of hotel near the water pipe
he turned the faucet with his teeth, and,
holding his mouth under, got a drink. He
then turned the water off in the same way.
The wealthiest insane asylum in Amer
ica is said to be the Sheppard asylum in
Baltimore. 1t was endowed in 1851 with
$3.50, 900. Since that time the trustees using
the interest alone have expended $3.50 900 in
hnil1inOa and land ST a N
5000, ,0OO
"A clergyman in New South Wales COM
plains that out of III marriages which he has
celebrated within the last year % called him
out of bed between II at night and 6 in the
morning. He never knows when he is to
have peaceful night, and all on account OF
q freak of fashion in his parish.
Johnny Abbott, 8 years old, of Battls
Creek, dreamed the other night he was
slaughtering whole tribes of Indians. Get
ting up in his sleep and his night clothes he
went upstairs, passed out q window onto
roof, slid TO the ground and walked 30 rods
through the cold, wet vegetation before he
awoke
Chicago has a child that possesses a
mania for remaining out of doors. Often in
order to satisfy it she runs away from her
home, staying away for days. Up to two
years ago the family lived in Dakota, and
there the girl would wander into the woods
and live for days until found on herbs and
berries.
"A marvellous illustration of the patience
of the Chinese is found in the salt mines in
Central China. Holes about six inches in
diameter are bored in the rock by means of
q primitive form ofiron drill, and sometimes
a period of 40 years elapses before the COW
eted brine Is reached, so that the work is
carried on from one generation to another.
The following will prove valuable to
parties interested in mines who desire to
know how much ore there is in sight at q
mine. One cubic foot of lead ore weighs 4Tl
pounds thus vein of gelena or lead ore
foot wide, feet high, and feet long will
produce 1852 pounds, or a vein IL inches
wide will net one ton, 3 inches wide four
tons, etc.
Another relic of the Rebellion has been
discovered in Virginia. A few days ago
while a log two feet in circumference was
being cut in two near "Bloody Angie" in
Spottsylyania county, the saw went through
the butt end of 12pound shell which was
in the log out of sight. 1t is sup
posed that the tree was about 19 inches in
ut the time the shell was fired in
1863, as these trees grow about quarter OF
an inch year.
Two doctor books are heirlooms in the
family OF n Clinton, Mo-, gunsmith. They
are dated 1877 and 1913 and contain old-fash-
ioned remedies for all ills and aiIs of the
flesh The title of the index says: "This Is
the index of two books for King Charles ye
First. His book 1t is said they were
taken from the palace of the unfortunate.
monarch shortly before his execution.
To test melons is difficult matter, and
1 Georgia farmer, who has been annoyed by
mistakes made in attempting to determine
when melons are ripe by humping them,
now judges by scraping of the thin rind
With his thumb nail. aft the edges of the
skin on each side Of the scar are left ragged
Dr. granulated, the melon Is ripe, but If the
edges Of the scar are smooth and even, and
he skin does not come off clean, then the