Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-23
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

Billiards were invented in the reign Of
King Charles TX in France.
Death records show that married men
live longer than bachelors. -- 1
Two blue gum trees in Australia meas
ure 435 and 45O feet in height.
I'm Austria women are employed as hod
carriers and are paid at the rate of Is cents q
day.
Cricket was PLAYED und er the name of
CLUB balr' as early as the fourteenth CEN
tury.
The greatest plague ever known visited
Naples in 1855 and carried of $4,000 people
in 2s weeks. r..
Tiger bones are used as a medicine in
China, where they are supposed to possess
tonic qualities.
st. PauPs Cathedral will hold $4,000
people and st. Peters in Rome has accom-
modation for 81 900. 80
Nearly an average of 5000 patent med
icines are put on the market every year, but
less than 100 survive.
The trip up Pixies Peak is said to be
too much for one out of every 200 people on
account of the rarified air.
The Irish Parliament existed for over
300 years. 1t was extinguished in 1901 at the
time of the union with Great Britain.
There is strong flow Of natural as in
the Ventura river. When lighted, it is said,
the flames extend over q space eight feet
wide. -.
London contains about 900, 900 foreign
ers. The Germans number s.. .OO0 Americans
$4,000 French 30 000 Dutch is, 900, Poles Il, ,00O,
Italians 5000 and swiss 5000.
American travellers have become so
numerous in Portugal that some of the shop
Keepers in the cities display this sign in their
WINDOWS: american Spoken Here"
The total number of clergy of the
Church of England is about q, ,O0O If we in
clude the clergy in the Colonies and those
engaged in missionary fields, the total is
swelled to 1900. s
"A country parson in England has writ
ten l25, 600 begging letters His wife has sent
as many as 900 and his children few
thousand more. About one person in so re-
sponded, one to the amount of $4,000.
1t is estimated that 100000, 900 of the
Chinese people are engaged in the culture.
preparation, sale, carriage and expectation
of tea. and their interests are adversely af-
fected by the rivalry OF other countries.
With the aid of compressed air, Ger
man military engineer drives cement to the
bottom of q stream, the water at once
hardens it, and the bed of the stream be-
comes stable enough for foundation pur-
poses.
Previous to July, 1871, when the system
was abolished, commission in the British
army could be purchased at the following
prices: Cornet or ensign, f4jO: lieutenant,
f700; captain, 500; major, E3, eco; lieutean-
ant colonel, f4,5OO.
"A peculiar animal was killed in Oregon
fbo nfh fhor dox. IL ie al
cat. neither is It 9 wildcat or a cougar but
it looks like mixture nor combination of
all OF them. Its teeth are long and sharp
and its tail somewhat resembles hogs ear.
One of tie wonders of Australis and
one of the greatest natural curiosities in the
world is the Mount Morgan gold mine in
Queensland. The precious metal contained
in this mine, which has paid dividend of
not less than Sc, OOO, 900 in a year, was depos-
tied by hot spring. ... ..-.-.
The latest fad in the West is shoe
party. They stretch sheet across the
room and the ladies stand behind it and
stick their feet under it so you can only see
their shoes. Then you go along and pick
out pair of shoes and the lady who is in
them you take down to supper.
The Burmese women are great person.
ages and play great part in their house
holds. They choose their own husbands
and divorce them when they like, retaining
their own property and all that they have
earned: they are ut liberty to marry again
whether as widows or divorces
In the new works of the Pireus-Athens
Railway station the marble head of a woman
has been found, of good workmanship. 1t
wears a diadem, and the features are very
finely carved. 1t is thought to belong to a
headless statue found on this site in the
city little time ago.
There are 1000 Italians in London who
serve in the Italian cafes and restaurants.
In some of these they have to pay for the
privilege, and in others they receive nothing
in direct wages, but they are fed at the cost
OF the proprietor and recoup themselves in
the tips. A smart man in well-frequented
street earns about $50 a week.
The Municipal Commissioner of Baroda
has published pamphlet, in which he adj
vocates the incubation of the blood serum
of the common weasel as a cure of snake
bite. This animal is, he contends, proof
against the poison of snake bites, from
which it never suffers in the slightest de-
gree, and attacks and kills any snake it
comes across.
For several years pair of storks built
their nest annually in the park of the Castle
Ruhelebin, in Berlin. A few years ago one
of the servants placed a ring with the name
of the place and date on the leg of the male
bird in order to be certain that the same
bird returned each year. Last year the
stork came back to its customary place, the
bearer OF two rings. The second one bore
the inscription: "India sends greeting to
The Spaniards are the most expert
smokers in the world. Spaniard takes
heavy pull at his cigarette, inhales it, takes
up a wine skin, or wine bottle, pours a half
pint down his throat, holding the vessel a
DOT from his mouth and not spilling a drop.
and then with sigh of satisfaction closes
MS eyes and exhales the smoke from his
nose and mouth in clouds. He will also in
hale the smoke, converse for a few minutes
N a natural manner, and then blow out the
smoke.
There are 1,5Oo, 100000 cigarettes
smoked throughout the United Kingdom
,very year. The paper used for rolling
hem is exceedingly thin, the quantity re-
Iuired to make 800 only weighing one ounce.
,i1 1teen medium-sized cigarettes weigh one
,unce. Twelve cigarette papers can be cut
,ut of sheet OF ordinary note paper-or 4S
,ut of folio sheet-which in bulk would
epresent 3l250 000 or 80 20s quires, or 50 l4
cams of imperial folio, as the annual con-
of paper for cigarettes.
RHYNKLES AND RHYMES.