Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-09-29
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

Men of science say that the chemist
will dominate coming inventions
"A swarm of flies cannot travel at any
greater pace than ii miles an hour.
Nicholson has calculated the velocityof
light TO be ls6, $50 miles per second.
The actual length of the new st. Clair
tunnel is 6O26 feet. 1t cost 81, 100000.
The first thing entered at the colored
fair at Moberly, Mo-, was a watermelon
"A syndicate has offered to buy the
Washington Monument for shot tower.
There are over 100000 railroad cars
and 80 900 locomotives in the United States.
In the year 1885 a tulip bulb was sold
in Holland for 5000; it weighed but 200
grains.
The California raisin crop is this year
estimated at 1880 carloads, $50 more than
last year.
Fashionable men in Paris and London
are now using electricity as cure for exces-
sive tippling.
"A temperature of 22Oo below zero has
been produced bv a bath of carbon bisul-
phtde and liquid nitrous acid.
"A cubic foot of newly fallen snow
weighs 81 pounds and has II times the bulk
OF an equal weight of water.
railroad from the Amazon to the Madeira,
connecting Brazil with Bolivia.
The largest steer in Illinois, and prob
ably in the world, weighs $500 pounds and
belongs to Macoupin county farmer.
I'm certain portion OF the Ural district
camels are the only working cattle used,
. some large farms possessing 100 camels.
Clear summer sunlight is said to pene-
trate the Mediterranean Sea TO a depth OF
1000 feet; winter sunlight to only 900 feet.
"A cabbage stalk on which IA heads Of
cabbage are growing is on exhibition in the
office Of New Bedford, Mass, newspaper.
The largest farm in the world is said to
be in Louisiana. 1t is 1OOx25 miles, and en-
braces 1600, 900 acres. tcost $500 to fence
it.
"A wild goose killed in California had
grain of wheat in its crop, which, when
planted, produced variety hitherto un-
known.
The Constitution of the United States
has been published in New York in the He
brew language, with explanatory notes in
Hebrew.
"A farmer in Jefferson county, Wis, dis
lodged a huge rock at the bottom of his well
when it sank ont of sight, revealing a SUBJ
terranean lake.
COTTONWOOD trees which sprouted from
"slips" in the Missouri bottoms near Atchf-
son, Kan, in 1881, now measure t2 inches in
circumference.
of the 80 young women in Milford,
Mass, who 30 years ago formed an old maids
club, only Is attended the annual dinner this
week, all the Others having married.
Waves exert a force of one ton per
square inch when they are only 20 feet high.
At Cassis, France, granite blocks of Is
cubic meters have been moved by wave
force.
I'm the village of Rio Grande, six
miles north OF Cape May, n. j., there are
two weeping trees, from the limbs of which
rain falls to the ground daily, and the hotter
the day the heavier the fall of moisture.
An examination of Washington patron
age statistics shows that of the 5000 Gov
ernment employees at the capital 24O0, in
round numbers, are negroes, and their sal
aries and wages aggregate nearly sl4O0,OOO a
year.
-Rattlesnakes are said to have natural
antipathy to white ash leaves. Some natur-
alists assert that a rattlesnake placed in a
circle of half ash leaves and half hot Goals
will cross the Goals rather than encounter
the leaves.
Very satisfactory results are now being
obtained by some of the English paper
manufacturers in bleaching paper by cleo
tricity, the process rendering the paper per-
fectly white without in the least injuIing
its strength.
1t is stated that at the lower end of the
Salton Lake the stream is not over p feet
wide and not more than two feet in the mid
die and that the water is subsiding One
of the largest mud volcanoes, or geysers, has
ceased activity.
During the year 1890, 1S2, 1886 men were
recruited for the German army. Out Of
these 5,9l6 were not permitted to enter as
they were in excess of the number provided
for by the army budget. The volunteers
numbered 1886, making the total of l95,503,
Of whom 4, ,l2l are destined for the fleet.
Growing apart has its disadvantages,
and even trees may tire of it and join them
selves together. There is a curiosity near
Cordele, Ca, in the shape of pine tree. It
begins from the ground as two separate and
well-developed trees and continues so for n
distance of IA feet when they join and go
upward as one.
Coal is not what it seems. 1t is dia-
monds, and also other color than black.
Chemists say the amount of coloring matter
stored in coal is such that one pound of the
mineral yields magenta sufficient to color
500 yards of flannel, aurine for l20 yards ver-
million for $50 yards and aliZarine for 255
yards of turkey-red cloth.
"A Chinaman in Jail in Tucson gave an
explanation of the attempted exodus Of
Chinese from Mexico into the United States.
He said that one Chinaman who was
Gently arrested for illegally entering the
United States from Mexico and was taken
to San Francisco had first sent home all his
savings of several years work in Mexico
and then deliberately crossed to the United
States that ha might be captured and sent
home to China at the expense Of the United