Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-10
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

-Canary DiruS nave Oeen knoNn " hfo
81 years.
In Russia, no Polish Catholic is per-
mitted to acquire land.
The famous blarney stone is about five
miles west of the city of cork.
The fall of snow this year in the Andes
is greater than has ever been recorded.
The Indian chiefs on the Umatilla
reservation have been reduced to the ranks.
The fuzz found on hogs this winter. is
said to indicate that the cold will be very
severe.
1t would take 14j, 900 cars of 400 bush
els each to haul the wheat grown in Kansas
last year.
The Bowery is a mile in length and
reaches from Chatham square in New York
to Fourth avenue.
The hen so common in these days orig
mated in the Bankiva jungle, where wild
chickens are still to be found.
The Lombards were the first money
chan gers in Paris and one of the historic
streets in London was named for them
Delaware still preserves its whipping
post. Recently batch of chicken thieves
received doses of the cat at New Castle
--''The size of a tower" saws a Chinese
proverb, sis measured by its shadow, and
The European leech has driven the ma
tive American ont of the market. The for
eign are said to be the better blood suckers
The Philippine Islanders smoke cigars
a foot in length. The Burmese natives de-
lights in loose rotten cigars from 6 to Is IN
ches long.
The priests of P'tah at Memphis were
great glass makers. They not only had
factories for common glass but they i1ni-
tated precious stones.
"A locomotive has Just been built at the
Crewe works of the London and Northwest
ern Railway which is capable OF drawing q
train au the rate of 100 miles an hour.
I'm the Austrian army suicides average
II, 900 a year This does not include foiled
attempts and it represents 20 per cent of the
general mortality among austrian soId1ers-
-Esops fables were not written by their
author. They were related and handed
down until the fourteenth century when
they were collected and published by q
monk.
In Europe red hair is associated with
deceitfulness. a German proverb printed
in 1872 says: s'The short in statue are natur-
ally proud; the red-haired are untruss-
worthy"
"A cribo snake is one of the interesting
pets at the Central Park, New York, menaS-
erie. 1t has taste for devourinE other
snakes. and it is feared by them all, even
the poisonous.
The florin, one of the most famous Of
modern coins, originated in France. 1t was
called "forin. =" however, not from the name
of the city, but from the fact that-it had on
it fleur de lis.
There are more coral reefs in the Gen.
trail Pacific Ocean than elsewhere, though
they abound in the Indian Ocean, Persian
gulf, Red Sea, Madagascar and Maur1taS anu
near the shores OF Florida.
There is rock in Mexico which foretellS
the weather In fair weather it wears q
neutral tint, but when it is about to rain it
turns to q dingy red. Its temperature IN
crea ses and it appears if it were being
heated by an internal fire.
"A South American proverb says: ga
cocoanut tree is BRIDES dowry," and really
the many uses to which the palm and its
products are put are wonderful Tney pro-
vide family with food, shelter, fuel, house,
utensils and, if need be, clothes.
The famous salt lake of Aalia' Paakai,
near Honolulu, occupies the crater OF an inn
mense tula cone, whose ejecta covers sew
eral square miles, and are especially re-
marka bic for containing numerous aggrega-
tions of crystalline grains of pure olivine.
1t was custom among the heathen Of
observing days, good or bad. They were
called dies atri and dies abb. The atri were
pointed out in their calendar with black
character, the dies abb with white; the
former TO denote it q day of bad success, the
latter day of good.
-Gipsies have been q wandering race
ever since history first noticed them At
one time they were supposed to have come
from Egypt, but new scholars have ascer-
taided that they were originally an Indian
tribe or group of tribes, making their first
appearance in Asia Minor early in the Mid
die Ages.
A popular notion is that the whereabouts
of drowned person may be ascertained by
floating a loaf weighted with quicksilver,
which is said at once to swim towards, and
stand over the spot where the body lies.
This is Il very widespread belief, and in
stances of its occurrence are, from tine to-
time, recorded.
A recent traveller in Morocco saws that
for people who dress in white and love to be
very neat In their personal appearance the
MorcccanS are very Indifferent 90 the clean
illness of their towns. Around the most
beautifully furnished houses are heaps OF
refuse and the bodies of dead 2nimaIS. All
the care of the people is centercd uDOn tho
interior of their hoases. The, furnish them
as eXpensivcly as their means permit: bu5
what is outside their walls does not trouble
them.
The female wasp spends the winter in a
torpid condition, and when spring arrives
she hunts mp some sort of sheltered spot ap-
propriate for n nest. Having selected tho
retreat, she proceeds to lay within it tho
of a home. For this object earth
will not serve her turn. The substance OF
which the walls and chambers of the house
are to be composed must be none other than
the finest paper. made OF wCod pulp, mixed
with Il sort 0f sizing. worked TO Il paste and
finely spread into sheets
In Southern Utah grape seeds are
ground into meal for food, and pIlEl seeds
are similarly treated by the Indians of
Southern California. The Quaprw Indians
in Arkansas extract the meats OF black wal
nuts and mix them with corn for bread
Gourd seeds are parched Drowned and
made into mush by the Indians of Arizona
Pine nuts contribute Importantly to tho
foods OF many tribes of Indians. The Dig
gers, who are the LATEST of s;,vares, savo
themselves trouble in the collecting OF theSa
'pinions" by kindling fires against the
,reeS, which causes Che nuts to fIl1 out OF
The cones, while sweet gum eNudes from
,he bark, serving their uses tOr sugar.
PUALANGES OF PIIS