Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-19
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

| -IHeIe are nearly OJOVV PlCOCS III q AiOu-
| ern locomotive.
One of the gardeners of Bayou Sara, in
Louisiana, has produced a potato that
weighs 27 pounds, and he now proposes to
rest on his laurels until his competitors
| catch up with that
"A carrier pigeon, which had been bought
at Charlottenburg near Berlin, and taken to
| London, has reappeared in its old home,
| having most likely escaped and successfully
undertaken the long flight back.
Apples are as profitable a crop in Cali
fornia as oranges. A grower whose ranch is
up 4 900 feet in the Sierra Nevadas figures
out return of s., l06 per acre gross at the
rate of 81 cents per pound, which he re-
ceived
"A resident of Monroe City, Mo-, has re-
covered 500 from man who tied his mules
to q handsome maple shade tree belonging
to the villager, letting the mules bark and
Kill the tree, it being one his grandfather
planted.
Writing by telegraph, now so much
talked about, was tried in France 20 years
ago. Signatures were sent from Pau to
Paris, and the experiment was considered
entirely successful. After that the whole
matter was suffered to fall into allegiance.
An 11-year-old Polish girl passed
through Scranton, Pa, last week. She was
from Poland and had travelled the er tire
distance without a care-taker. Across her
shoulders was strung a tag on which was
written: "Direct this girl to Shickshinny,
Pa" She could speak no English.
Arrangements have been completed
with the Spanish legation at Mexico, where
by pension shall be paid by Mexico to the
heirs of the Duke of Montezuma He repre-
sented the Spanish branch of the house OF
Montezuma. to which the various Govern
ments of Mexico, without interruption,
have paid pensions for 36J years.
Near the old cemetery in West Alex
ander, W. Va, a big tree is growing, which
forks at feet inches from the ground Ap-
parently it is white oak. but on examination
1t appears that above the fork it branches
into two species, one a white oak and the
a white cherry, with the follage pecuitnr 10
each. The oak is about 65 and the cherry IS
feet high.
"A discovery more curious than any
other yet made with the Lick telescope is
the recent one OF a new moon. Since the
first hint of the discovery many observations
have been made, all of which tend to con-
firm the original impression, to wit: That
this particular satellite of the greatest of the
planets is double-a dot of q moon revolving
around the main moon.
The origin of ''windfall f" in the sense
of good luck,r dates from the time of
William the Conqueror. 1t was then a GRIM
inal Offense to cut timber in the forests.
Only such could be gathered as the wind
mad blown down; hence heavy windstorm
was hailed by the peasants as so much good
luck, and from this comes the modern appli-
cation of the expression.
-"On an average 800 bears year are
killed in Maine," said a Lewiston fur buyer.
81 buy 70 year. and yet the trappers an
nounce every year that the bear in Maine is
becoming extinct. The bear is quite crop
all in all. The trapper who gets big bear
gets $50 to $50 for the skin and s. bounty.
Five hundred year, averaging half as
much, makes $40, 900 A year from our profits
from Names widest beast"
The working classes of Italy are very
poorly fed. The consumption of meat is
very scant, except on feast days, and but
little wine is drunk. Living is almost ex-
clusively confined to cereals (wheat, maize,
rice), with vegetables and other green herbs
cooked with bacon. The food in general in
very deficient in heterogeneous qualities. the
bulk of which is derived from vegetables
rather than from animal food.
The Biz Chloride of Gold Club at Dwight,
Ill, composed of graduates and undergradu-
ates of the Keely Institute for the Cure of
Drunkenness. occupies and has fitted up
handsomely for its use the abandoned Pres
byter ian Church in the village, which was
mainly built by funds presented by the
Prince of Wales on his visit to this country,
when he stopped four days at Dwight to
shoot prairie chickens The club now num-
bers 500 members.
"A story of the trying times of the war of
1879 comes from an old Bath (Ae.) saiImaker.
Money was unknown commodity along
the Maine coastand barter the invariable
rule. By and by when the skies began to
brighten, skipper offered to pay in cash
for lot of fish purchased of Phippsburg
party. 1t was great novelty, and the
fisherman shook his head doubiously, ex-
claiming: "No, you can't have them, must
Il
have the fishl'
-'T never carried watch in my life,"
said New Yorker of So ga watch is a
habit, not a necessary article. No man who
carries q watch can be any more regular in
his habits than am. 1 can get up at a cer-
tain minute, and do so every morning. 1
can tell the time of day by feeling my face.
The beard grows exactly so muc h, and you
can come within a reasonable time of the
hour by passing the hand over the chin.
Not that it is often necessary, because regu-
lar habits soon become second nature and
you never think of wondering about the
hour OF course, the man who lives on
trains and boats q good deal has to wear
timepiece and a time table,"
"A wonderful example of patience in
the Chinese is afforded by consular report
dealing with the manufacture of salt in Gen.
tral China. Holes about six inches in dame
ter are bored in the rock by means of
primitive form of iron drill, and sometimes
a period of 40 years elapses before the COW 4.
cred brine is reached, 50 that the work is
carried on from one generation to another.
During this time the boring, us may be i'm
agined, goes down to immense depth.
When brine is found it is drawn up in bam-
boo tubes by a rope working over a large
drum turned by bullocks. The brine is
evaporated in iron caldrons, the heat being
supplied by natural gas, which is generally
found in the vicinity of the salt wells.