Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-03
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

| The big Worlds Fair building viii be
q mile around.
The Jeanette drifted through the Arctic
Ocean at the rate Of two miles day.
! Texas has Fat Mans Association, the
| Initiation fee of which is a cent pound
| Men who weigh less than 225 pounds are
ineligible to membership.
The old-fashioned Russian wagon
driver, who carried passengers and freight
! long distances in his rude, selfcontrived
| vehicle is still competing successfully with
/ the steam horse in the land of the White
| Czar.
| AN Amager farmer has been arrested
and fined for assault upon the Danish army
/ While entering town with load Of cab
bage, the war horse of the artillery took
| fright at his outfit and broke up the whole
army.
| "A fly caused the death of a man at
Vienna. He was walking the street when
the insect suddenly took a position on his
| forehead. As soon as it left q swelling ap-
| pesred and the man soon afterward died OF
! blood poisoning.
1t has been found impossible to keep
ostriches alive in the London 400" Their
| omniverous throats discriminate against
nothing, and poisonous coppers which mis-
chievous people feed them are as eagerly
devoured as any other delicacy.
on the lakes recently and was stunned by the
II. Consequently he remained under
water for half an hour without inconven-
fence so far as drowning was concerned, and
was in q few minutes after his rescue as well
as usual.
I'm the United States oranges and lem
ons are produced only in California and
Florida. The orange crop of the latter is
practically out of the way before that of the
former is ready for the market. The Cali
fornia orange is OF slower growth than the
Florida product and does not decay so soon.
M. Grebault, French Psychologist, is
busy opening LEO sarcophagi, recently dis
covered at Thebes. The first mummy that
he uncover d is peculiarly beautiful Only
two or three mummies have been found
which have been so carefully embalmed as
this one. The body is that of royal prince
belonging to the family of the high priests
of Ammon.
The Government has been for nine
years digging up and putting together the
vast collection of fossils that will occupy
fully one-half of the National Museum in
Washington. In the collection are the
gigantic skeletons of prehistoric reptiles 100
feet in length, flying dragons with 25foot
spread of wings, and other curiosities well
worth seeing.
AN English clergyman has found out
the best way to inculcate total abstinence.
The church band used to go out every even
IlS III DdIISil, DIln2lnS III NUMEROUS VII
layers. When they came into the church
|. teetotal drinks were provided free of charge.
The mission lasted four days. during which
| time the saloons realized very little and
| drunks were OF rare occurrence.
MIR. ROmanes, of London, has an ape
that he has taught to count-not very far
up. indeed, bnt as high five. He knows
| the numbers and the words that indicate
| them Ills method is to take stravs one by
| one into his mouth until one less than the
| required number have been collected;
| then, taking up an additional straw he
| hands it over, together with those in his
mouth.
An Austell, Ga, man boasts ofthe most
wonderful squash of the day. He has been
planting the same variety for the past five
years with the same unvarying result. From
any one seed comes up an ordinary looking
squash vine of the bunch variety. Now upOn
this vine, when in full bearing, can be
counted seven distinct varieties. Easily can
distinguished the Patty Pan, Hubbard Greg
cry, etc.
"A number of bees selected the garret of
California church for hive, storing in it
many tons of honey. The recent hot
weather caused the wax to melt, which
IooseDed the store OF sweetness. The
weight was too heavy for the church rafters
to hold and the whole partition of the roof
caved in over the pulpit. The church pews
and pulpit were completely buried in honey
and wax.
1t appears that in Scotland there is
company which pays certain amount
yearly to number of iron works for the
privilege of collecting the smoke and gases
from the blast furnaces. These are passed
through several miles OF wrought iron tuo-
considerable weld of oil: one plant is re-
ported to yield $4,000 gallons of furnace oil
per week.
In New York one day a newsboy, rum
ming at full speed, with a big bundle Of
papers under his arm, stopped short to pick
up an umbrella that he had seen drop on the
sidewalk. THANK you, sonny" said, in big
bass voice. a man behind him. "Hellor' said
Mike, with surprise. 'I thought it was
lady's" And dei,iI9,erately, iIi,e as as II II it was a
on the sidewalk.
The two elephants in Che geological
garden at Copenhagen were made the sub
jeet of a medical inquiry a few weeks ago.
They were charged by rumor with having
the diphtheria and with having given the
disease to children who had fed them ginger
snaps The investigation failed to develop
any sign of the diphtheria, or Of the chill
dren, but some evidence was found of ginger
snaps. so that there was truth in the story
after all.
"A new kind of stamps will soon be in
troduced in the postal telegraph service Of
Russia with view to securing the inviola-
bility of the privacy of letters. The new
stamp is printed on very thin paper, and
cannot be used again il it Is once put upon a
letter. When used wet and taken off the
envelope it leaves an indelible impression
upon the spot where 1t was attached, so that
if new stamp is put upon the same spot the
impression of the first stamp can be seen
through it.
Darwin used to say that the most pow
erful worker we know is the earthworm.
Without the earthwornf we could not live.
Earthworms make the soil fertile. Accord
ing to Darwin's calculations, each particle
of the earth to q depth of two feet is brought
up to the surface at least once every hum
dred years. But this estimate is too low. It
has been recently calculated that this reno
vation of the soil takes place every 81 years.
There are from 80 to 200 worms in each
SQUARE yard of earth, 10 inches in depth.
"A negro entered Macon, Ga, street
car a few days ago, and just as he took his
seat a flash of fire and cloud of sitting
smoke issued from one of his pockets. He
was so badly scared that for a few seconds
he sat motionless, while the smoke filed the
car But there was half n dozen ladies on
board who thought that the negro was being
by a current from the overhead
wire and they all ran screaming toward the
door The cause of all the trouble was box
of matches which the negro carried in his
pocket He sat down on the box and all the
matches were ignited.
LITTLE LAUGHS.