Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-01
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

/ Wild Strawberries are now ripening in
Washington.
| Salvation Army women have been for
hidden to wear ear rings.
| IT is said that the first newspaper adver.
tisement appeared in l64s durine,an English
| civil war.
Productions of the typewriter or imita-
| tions thereof are not admissible through the
post as circular letters.
Sometimes the colony of bees in q
single hive will gather from IA to Is pounds
of honey within "a hours.
1t is estimated that bees in this country
produce a value of s10,000000 yearly in the
shape of honey and wax.
Statistics show that eight times as many
murders are committed in Italy as in any
other European country.
"A reasonably populous hive Of bees
will contain about $4,000 workers, all Of
whom are of the gentler sex.
South Americans believe that IL is un-
healthy to eat fruit after midday. It Ia
always an accompaniment to the breakfast
table.
About the year 45o the Ionians first in
troduced the present system of writing from
left TO right: previous to that time from right
TO left prevailed
Let the wary householder keep his eye
upon stray cats that prowl about his prem.
ises. 1t has been shown that they are capa-
BILE of transmitting disease.
Among the Beethoven relics collected
for the museum at Bonn are the ear trunn-
pets made for the deaf composer by Maelzel,
the inventor of the metronome.
I'm Hungary, where the railways have
not been paying, the fares were reduced
from 40 to so per cent, and in consequence
the number OF passengers rose from aQOO, 900
to 0,000 and the receipts 18 per cent.
"A cave has been discovered in Kansas
which Is rather curious. The temperature
of the air inside Is such that it will freeze
water in few minutes. It is so cold that
no one has yet explored it to the innermost
end.
Very delicate and beautiful knitting
work has been produced by the women Of
the Shetland Islands A long shawl that
weighed only two ounces and three-quarters
is obtained by rueing-pulling out the fleece
by the root from the live sheep.
Corn husks boiled in caustic soda are
being utilized for the manufacture Of paper.
The cooking process results in the forrna-
ton Of a spongy, giutinous paste, which 10
subjected to heavy pressure so as to elimi.
nate the gluten, the hber remaining being
"A Mantua physician, who took the
trouble to bottle the air of some cemeteries
in calm weather, found it to contain an or
ganic corpuscle, which he called septopneu-
ma. This corpuscle, administered in q solu-
ton to a pigeon, developed putrid fever,
and destroyed the bird on the third day.
"A California pear raiser says: 'I pick
my pears at four different times, and each
picking select the largest ,fruit-" He goes
= - Az
nearly double the number OF pounds of fruit
that he would by taking all at single pick
ing, and besides gets much handsomer fruit.
The Government of Liberia has found
the temperance societies to be somewhat Of
a nuisance. These societies, established in
1884. had great vogue, and gained so much
influence that they fairly compelled the
Government to impose upon spirits an i'm
port tax which was practically prohibitory.
The sentiment that in Eastern States
clusters about the beautiful morning glory
does not prevail in California, where the
plant is regarded as a most troublesome
weed. Ventura county Is legfslating against
it, and Tulare and Santa Clara county farm
ers are being greatly troubled by its persist
ent growth.
"A clock is rarely seen in the farm houses
of Liberia, and many of the town residents
have no tfmepiece of any sort. There are
few civilized countries whore timepiece
can be dispensed with so conveniently. The
sun rises at 8 A. NJ. and sets at P. NJ. almost
to the minute the year round, and at noon it
is vertically overhead.
Mosquitoes which have filled them
selves with human blood weigh three times
as much as they do when empty. Some
genius, with nothing better Co do, has
weighed some mosquitoes on a sensitive
baIan ce and finds the average weight of one
was LIZ milliQra rammes-- that IS 1T
WOuld $50 weigh n nOuu1
Mrs. George Swearinger, of Buchanan,
Mich, although but 80 years old, has been
grandmother for four years, and has been
four times, twice to the same man.
She married George Swearinger first, was
divorced and married a second husband,
who died; married q third and was divorced,
and then welded her first husband again.
Her maiden name was Matchett.
-Engineering, of London, in commenting
On some of the fast time now being made on
American railroads, acknowledges that the
best performances of British railways are
now regularly equaled in this country, and
yives the figures to show that the run of the
Royal Blue express from Jersey City to
Washington, which is made at the rate OF
2.3 miles per hour, is slightly better than the
" est Coast Scotch expresses.
"A statistician in Paris had the patience
% count the number Of words employed by
he most celebrated writer's. The works Of
Iornei1le do not contain more than 1000 diff
erent words, and those of Moliere 5000
the most fertile and varied of
English authors, wrote all his tragedies and
omedies with 1000 words. Voitaire and
ioethe employ 10000. Paradise Lostp only
ontains 5000 and the old Testament says
IL that it has to say with 5,64s words.
Fort Leayenworth is said to have
host. The apparirion is that of,a woman
rho was murdered on the Fort Leayenworth
by little Benson, and appears at
he scene of the murder precisely at noon
very day. She dresses in white and some-
lines carries her dismembered foot and oc-
asionally the bloody saw with which the
Dot was cut or A blush vapor surrounds
he apparition and in a few seconds it dis
ppears TO return at midnight, when it keeps
n a shrieking rncket.