Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-11
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

/
Virginia owns ], SOC, 900 acres Of oyster
| beds
Child marriage had its origin at the
time of the Mohammedan invasion Of India.
"A Birmingham, England, man called
White collected $4,000 pennies during his
| lifetime.
1T is claimed that the Chinese invented
the mosquito net. 1t was in use in China for
many years before 1873.
"A lobster has been captured at Eastport
that measured 40 inches in length and nearly
as much across the claws.
-Twenty-seven families named Smith
recently held reunion in Kansas town,
and then few were missed.
Official statistics show that Colorado
has over 10000 square miles of coal, and tho
product of 1890 was 5000, 900 tons.
"A milestone set by BENJAMIN franklin
is still standing in New London county,
Conn. 1t is old and mossgrown.
-Meerschaum is now found in the United
States. A vein of it eight inches thick has
been found near Silver City, N. M. p.
"A man in Connecticut has invented Q
machine which will feed chickens with mar.
vellous punctuality and regularity.
All the varieties of the tame duck arc
descended from the wild mall, and which,
though timid, is easily domesticated.
Coyotes are more numerous than ever
this year in Oregon. Frequently packs cun-
tanning 100 are seen near civilization. t'
1t is claimed that land that was pur.
chased in the West for sl2 per acre produced
$500 worth of straw berries last year on each
acre.
The grave of st. Patrick is said to be in
q neglected state. The matter has been
brought up before the Royal Society of An
riquities of Ireland. ."
"A family in Milwaukee is endeavoring
to monopolize the law business. All of its
members consisting of father mother and
three daughters are practicing at the bar.
1t is figured that 81 ZOO, 900 babies are
born each year in the world. This means
about 70 each minute: line Of cradles con-
tanning them would stretch around the
world.
There are now 81 pupils in the Catholic
Indian school on the Umatif1a reservation,
and the worthy sisters are kept very busy
looking after the education and temporal
needs of their charges.
Each public school in Los Angeles,
Cal, floats the United States flag every day
the pupils are in attendance. The youths
take a great interest in keeping their flag in
the best shape possible.
Der as many as 80 900 in one season. Novem-
ber is the fatal month which kills them all
of, except two or three females. on whom
depends the perpetuation of the race.
1t takes a loug time for the cocoanut
tree to attain its full condition of bearing
seven years-but when this time has passed
IL is q mine of wealth, and happy he who
can call a plantation of 100 acres his own.
in previous years in England the great
est number of suicides occurred among the
old soldiers, but since the conditions OF the
service were changed the number of sui
cides of young soldiers have been the greater.
Three thousand acres of wild land were
recently fenced in to a height of Is feet in
closed without their knowledge and tits
lives. ~ ~ ~
A Wyoming rancher is very anxious
for wife. He says in his advertisements
that he is not particular about her looks, her
age or her fortune, and she need not be o
good cook, as he is something of an artist in
that line himself.
in Java live sheep is thrown into the
water, and is supposed to indicate the posi-
tion of the body by sinking near it. A
curious custom is practised in Norway,
where those in search of q drowned body
row to and fro with q cock in the boat fully
boat reaches the spot where the corpse lies.
For several hundred years, and down to
q comparatively recent date, money was
coined at from 25 to 80 different cities in
France that had inherited the privilege.
Now all French money is coined at the Pnris
Mint and bears. instead of the effigy OF s6rrfe
distin uished person, head representing
the Republic, or liberty in the more general
sense.
The Gypsies of to-day are divided up
into the full-blooded, or tent Gypsies, and
the Katrengroes, or house-dwellers, who
keep their Gypsy blood secret. This di-
vision of the race shows that they are
side Influences and the complete extinction
OF their national identity will simply be
matter of time.
There is no accounting for tastes, even
in music. Criclxets are bought and sold in
various parts of Africa. People capture
them, feed them and sell them, as the natives
are very fond OF their music, thinking that
it induces sleep. Superstition regarding the
cricket's chirp are varied: some believe that
it is ominous of sorrow and evil, while
others consider it a harbinger of joy.
-Savages find many sources of food sup
ply where civilized people would starve. In
Utah the flowers of the cat-tails, which
bloom in the spring, are regarded as n del
icacy either raw or cooked. Boiled they
make n very good soup. California Indians
make bread from the pollen of cat-tails,
which they collect in large quantities by
beating it off from the plants and catching ft
on blankets. r-
-Pulque, the famous Mexican beverage,
is said to have been discovered in the latter
half of the eleventh century by Toltec
noble named Papautzin, who sent some of
the liquor to his chief, Tepaucaltzin. by the
hand of his favorite daughter, Xochitl,
called the "Flower OF Tollan." And It Is
related that the chief became enamored of
the drink and the maiden and kept both.
IL is further related that these ilEstarred
loves caused the beginning of the tropbles
of the Toltecs, which resulted in their over
throw.
Among the noteworthy things DR..
Oscar Lenz saw when he travelled through
while ago, were two little rivers
that once year, at the time of the greatest
heat, are filed with red water. 1t is sup
posed the color comes either from a stratum
Of red clay, through which the stream may
pass, or from myriads of little red organ
sms. Another curious stream was large
creek with waters almost as salt as those Of
The ocean. This creek comes from great
beds of salt, of which it carries off very
quantity in solution. In the
1ry season the creek bed is exposed and iS
found to be covered with u thick incrusta-
ton of salt.
LrDnIz pTrE