Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-14
CURIOUS CONDENS SATIONS.

| OO4NDHANOA - AO4NOs
| There are 1880 miles of water pipes in
London.
The world uses 3,5OO,OOO steel pens
every day.
-Twenty-two Kansas newspapers are
| edited by women.
-Cubas sugar crop amounts to S27, 200
| tons this year; an increase of over 25 per
cent over 1890.
1t takes nearly one-half of the entire
revenue of the Slate of Oregon to run the
State Insane Asylum.
The Courier, of Hanover, has this adver-
tisement: "For Sale-A piano of superior
quality; played upon for some time by
I'm some countries the leaves of trees
are still used for books. In. Ceylon the
leaves of the talipot tree are used for that
purpose.
an average s25 per month. Nurse girls are
paid from SIS to $40; and good cooks from $50
upward.
In many villages of the Tyrol the au-
thorites have prohibited the use of red
parasols which have been found to irritate
the grazing cattle.
In Ellensburg, Wash. the other day
Chinaman walked down the street whistling
Annie Rooney" and was followed by an
indlan playing Home, Sweet Home" on the
harmonica.
California shipped cargo of her native
wines to Europe last week One of these
fine days it will come back to US with French
labels on 1t. Then it will be eagerly drank
by people who really can't quite go native
wines, you know.
In Mississippi recently three interest
ing events happened on one evening in
family: An old lady and her husband cele-
brated her golden wedding n daughter and
son-in-law their silver wedding and grand
daughter her wedding.
The baya bird of India spends his nights
catching fire-fies, with which he plaster3 his
nest. The baya does not kill the fly, but
simply attaches it to his nest by means of a
piece of moist clay. On a dark night baya's
nest has the appearance OF an electric street
lamp.
"A yeritable curiosity has been captured
in Africa. 1t is an elephant larger than the
late lnmented Jumbo, pea-green in color,
trunkiess, and has tuSks that branch out
something like the horns of deer 1t is in
possession OF native king, who will not
part with it.
-Manuela Fimbres, the only female con-
Vict in the Arizona Territorial prison, was
pardoned by the Governor and discharged
recently. She was provided with plenty of
comfortable clothing and sent to Tucson,
where the Sheriff of Pima county sent her
on to Mexico.
"A recent discovery of old English
weights and measures includes the two
stardard yards of l75S and I760, supposed to
have been destroyed by fire in 1884, The
most important missing weight-the stand
ara Troy pounds not among those now
brought to light.
The most famous gold-bearing rivers of
California are the American, Yuba and
Feather. This latter, whose current has been
turned into new channel by Major Frank
Mclaughlin the noted Pacific Slope mining
expert, is said to have been so named in
early times because its swift current whirled
nuggets along like feathers.
Twenty years ago the 8th of this month
fire in Chicago burned over :, 100 acres, de-
stroying II, ,45O buildings valued, with their
contents, at $3.50, 600 900 and rendering 98, 500
people homeless. The insurance companies
were liable for $95, ,533, 72I in damages, of
which about one-half was paid and 81 COM
panies failed in consequence.
The process of whitening sugar was
never known until hen walked through
clay puddle, and then strayed into the sugar
house. Her tracks were, of course left in
the piles of sugar, and when it was noticed
that the spots where she had stepped were
whittier than the rest the process or bleach
ing sugar with clay was adopted.
An alchemist, when experimenting iu
eafths for making crucibIes, found that he
had invented porcelain, and watchmaker's
apprentice, while holding a spectacle glass
between his thumb and forednger noticed
that through it the neigh boring buildings
appeared large, and thus discovered the
auaptaoIlity OF the lens to the telescope
"A Nuremburg glass-cutter one day, by
accident, dropped little aquafortis upon
his spectacles, and finding that it corroded
l@kx,z
etching upon it. He drew figures upon the
glass with varnish, applied the fluid and cut
away the glass about tnc drawing; when the
Varnish was removed, the figures appeared,
raised upon dark ground.
Oysters do not appear to thrive in the
Thames. Out of 600 900 laid on flats in the
lower reaches of the river in 1887, no fewer
than 80 per cent died. In the following year
the same number of oysters were placed on
the beds and the mortality increased to IS
per cent Matters were still worse in 1889
when 10000 oysters were laid down to fat
ten and nearly half of them died.
An English stationer once adopted q
fanciful mode of dressing his window by
placing in it piles of stationery SO arranged
that pyramids should be formed In order
to finish these piles accurately he cut some
cards to bring them to q point. Some of
these cards were sold for writing paper,
and as they we're too small when folded to
be addressed the stationer invented en-
velopes to contain them.
The wife of an English paper maker one
day dropped blue-bag into one of the vats
of pulp. When the workmen saw the colored
paper they were astonished, and their en-
ployer was so angry at the mischance that
his wife did not dare confess her agency in
bringing it about. The paper was stored for
years as damaged lot, and finally the
sent it to his agent in London,
telling him to sell it at any price. Fashion
ut once marked it for her own. 1t was rap
idly sold at an advanced rate, and the manu-
found it difficult to supply at once
the great demand for colored paper.