Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-12
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

The output of whisky last year was 12o,-
1900 gallons.
There Is duty Of 20 per cent on queen
bees while the drone Is admitted free.
Electric cars are now making daily
trips between the United States and Mexico.
"A woman at Augusta, Me-, has brought
suit for remuneration for the board OF
rooster.
China will hereafter use no coal for
Governments purposes that Is not mined in
that country.
The youngest travelling salesman in Illi-
nois is in the employ of drug house at
"A Florida woman has just buried a A.
year-old cat over which she proposes to
erect monument
"A Philadelphia dude carries cane $50
years old that has been in almost every
country Of the globe.
Soho, W. Va, has a unique railroad
station. It is built around giant elm tree,
and the roof is shaped Like an umbrella
"A magistrate in San Luis, Obispo
county, Cal, recently sentenced a man to
half an hour in jail for smoking in court.
ATen years ago Tennessee potatoes were
unknown in the Northern markets. Now
the crop annually brings into Middle Ten
nessee from 81, 100000 to 100000.
An Alabama poultry raiser has q
chicken with three perfect wings The extra
wing is in the middle of the back, and when
the fowl is In hurry serves as q sail.
"A citizen of Greencastle, Md, has
trained his rat terrier to hatch out spring
chickens, and the little fellow does it thor
oughly. He is now sitting on goose eggs.
Water has been discovered in the
Sahara Desert at about 12O feet below the
surface. This is the first time that a supply
of water has been found in that locality at 80
slight depth.
Lightning played a queer freak in
New Hampshire town recently. 1t took of
the tail feathers of each of twenty hens sit
ting on a roost and affected rooster so that
he has not been able to crow since.
"A Hagerstown, Md, man owns parrot
that is known to be at least IS years old. The
venerable bird is just learning to say the
Lords prayer, but it has been an accom-
plished swearer since it was fiedgling.
The water of the central basin of the
Mediterranean has been found to be warmer,
denser and richer in dissolved salts than the
western. While white disk was only
visible at 43 meters Photographic plates
were affected at 500 meters.
The river at Linlxville, Ore, was so
empty the other day, as a consequence of
the heavy, steady south wind blowing across
the lake, that the trout could be seen every
where Hopping in the water holes. The boys
went a-fishing with clubs.
The first shipment of iron pipe ever
made in the South left Birmingham, Ala,
for Baltimore on Saturday. It was made by
Bessemer, Ala, firm. A solid train of Is
cars composed the shipments, and it is the
first of n 5,0O0-ton contract.
"A Fayetteville, n. c., man who is IS
years old claims that he never smoked or
chewed tobacco, never voted anything but
the Democratic ticket, never was drunk,
never was u witness, Juror or suitor I'm court
and has sat upon seven of the thrones of
Europe.
Recent developments in chemical
science promote belief in the existence Of
elementary forms of matter not yet actually
observed. Certain peculiarities In the spec
much>of it's matter is still in such elementary
for1ns owing to its intense heat
Charcoal is now exported from Sweden
much to the dissatisfaction of the IRON
masters there, who claim they will have to
give up making the fine charcoal pig iron
owing to the greater cost of the fuel, the re-
suit of the increased demand to satisfy for
eign trade.
The ancient Firms believed that mys-
tic bird laid an egg on the lap of Vaimainou,
who Matched it in his BOSOM He let It fall
into the water and it broke, the lower por-
tion of the shell forming the earth, the
upper the sky; the liquid white became the
sun and the yolk the moon, while the little
fragments of broken she'll were transformed
into stars.
In the year 400, or thereabouts, work.
men were employed to put choir stalls in the
Lincoln Cathedral, England, and were told
to hurry the job up. But the workmen
struck and the stalls were left unfinished.
At last, however, dean and chapter think
they see their way to complete this fifteenth
century job, and are now calling for estf-
mates from woodcarvers.
"A st. Paul, Mimi, druggist has a thrifty
fig tree years old and perhaps five feet
high, which came up spontaneously in tub
which contained an oleander. The only way
in which its voluntary appearance is ac-
counted for is that it grew from seeds of figs
which had been fed to a canary whose cage
hung over the tub. But the most perplexing
part of the problem rests on the fact that the
figs were preserved.
Among the many objects of interest in
the University of Pennsylvania archeologi-
cal collection are kohl pots and kohl sticks,
with which the women holived in the days
of Joseph or of Moses sought to enhance
stibium. There are also ancient combs, one
4, 900 years old, and hairpins of wood and of
ivory and spindles $500 years old, one of
which retains a shred of the original thread
last spun.
"A Richmond, No., hunter recently got
after a gang of didaper ducks in the lake.
These birds are said to be able to dodge q
bullet. The hunter shot away all his cart
ridges without hitting duck. When the
the didapers saw puff of smoke from the
gun they would dive before the shotreached
them. The hunter was determined not to be
outdone, so he lit cigar and began to puff
as fast as he could. In this way he kept the
ducks under water until he drowned the en-
tire flock.
The other day planter near Benevo-
lence, Ca, discovered a curiosity. Having
been planting cotton in one of his fields, he
discovered what he at first thought was
sack of cotton seed which had been left by
the hands under the shade of a green oak,
but upon investigation found it to be
growth of some kind protruding from the
trunk of the tree about foot from the
ground. He thinks it must have grown with
mushroom rapidity, as being daily in the
field he would hardly failed to observe 1t.
He saws however, instead of being brittle
like things of quick growth, it is very tough,
and would easily be mistaken for q large
sized meal sack.