Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-09
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

There are said to be 16 men to one
woman in Buenos Ayres.
Electric headlights of $500 candle
power are in use on the Indiana railroads.
A soldier on trial for murder in New
York is descendant, it is affirmed, OF Poca-
hontas-
England and ireland together drank
A. 100000 gallons more beer than Germany
last year.
English partridges have been turned
loose in Oregon to increase the amount Of
game there.
Experiments in London show that the
atmosphere is the purest about 30 or 40 feet
above the street.
There is a sweet potato at Fresno, Cal
that weighs 43l pounds. 1t is believed to be
the largest ever raised.
-Hammerfest, the most northern village
OF Europe, now has electric lights to dispel
the gloom of the polar nights.
The ST. Andre de Poirier mine Of
France is the deepest in the world. 1t is now
worked 1000 feet below the surface.
1t is proposed to raise black cats for
their fur in Washington. An island has a
ready been purchased for that purpose.
"A storage dam to hold 5000, 600, 900
gallons of water is being built near Acton,
Cal. 1t will be 150 feet high and 900 feet long.
-Soapstone is used in various ways. It
gives color topruDber goods. is used in paper
to gain weight, and in making fire-proof
paints.
The planchette was in great favor in
Japan up to year or so ago. Some of the
old instruments will be put in the National
Museum
The Indians in Washington raise oats
nowadays. A few weeks ago they sent four
PACK trains OF oats to Ruby to exchange for
winter supplies.
Caves have been discovered in Tas-
mania which are perfectly lighted by
ABOUT four miles long.
The experiment of grating pumpkins
ana water melons upon peanut vines and
growing their crops at will has been sue
ceSsfully tried in California.
Shell fish are dying by the thousands in
Coos bay for the want of being thinned out.
Becoming too thick they die off and grow
thicker than they were before.
A lump of coal weighing d ton has been
sent to Denver from Rock Springs, wyo.,
as an advertisement. One lump broken up
there last week filed seven cars.
The Cars Government now allows its
Hebrew subjects to leave Russia without
passports. but it has not yet announced that
the emigration of Hebrews is permissible.
The curious complication of divorced
woman suing a former lover for breach of
promise made while she was still wife was
!ateIy submitted to a court in Manchester
England.
When gun is fired absolutely in the
vertical, the ball will fall few inches south
and west from the gun in Northern latitude.
due west at the equator and northwest in
Southern ATTITUDES
-Salton Lake, the "great inland sea of
Arizona," which was formed by the over
flowing of the Colorado river, and caused so
much excitement and talk last summer, is
again said to be fast driving up
Wolf hunting ispopular in Wyoming.
Near Fort Lawrence there are a pair of i'm
ported hounds that recently killed eight
wolves in one day. The cowboys will 90 Is
miles to attend q wolf hunt with these
hounds.
The result of the recent attempt to raise
tea in North Carolina indicates that the soil
and climate are favorable to such an indus
try, but that, owing to the expense OF pick
ing and curing, none but the highest grades
could be produced profitably.
-Sunfower seeds of several species
afford staple article among the Indians of
ground and sometimes mixed with greasy
marrow from the bones of animals for
baking in the ashes.
The areas.of the country's chief cities
are: Chicago 17a1a square miles: PhiladeI-
phia, 12911; Washington, p; st. Louis, 621I;
New Orleans, so; San Francisco, 4s1l: New
York. Al; Boston, S71l: Baltimore, 81; Brook
lyn, 2619, and Cincinnati, "a.
The number of adults in the United
fnc hau uIe of
population of 81 500 900 (62 622 s50 in 1s9o. are
calculated to be AZ, 500 900. Of these about
81 600 900 NAV be supposed to be adult
women. q, 100000 adult men and the rest
(22, ,OOO, 0O0) minors.
The Lipan tribe of Indians in Mexico
are to the other Indians in the Republic
what the Parsees are to the Hindoos-
saving remnant. Though an off-shoot of the
barbarous Comanches, they have noble
traits of character, not the least of which is
their dignified courtesy.
"A stony. waterless region of France
has evolved a race of animals that do not
drink. The sheep, feeding upon the fra
grant herbs have altogether unlearned the
habit OF drinking, and the cows drink verv
little. The much-esteemed Roquefort cheese
is made from the milk of the non-drinking
ewes.
Silk worms of breed satisfied with
satisfy rs a food, have been produced in
Germany, and this will enable the Germans
TO enter profitably upon silk culture. As
the climate of our Eastern and Middle States
IS about the same as that of Central and
South Germany. American agriculturists
can avail themselves of the result.
In Southern California the Indians
make bread from the pods OF a leguminous
plant called mesquite" A squaw pounds
The pods fine in a wooden mortar. Then
she takes from her head her conical hat
md sprinkles little water in it. Next she
'prinkles little meal in the hat, then
title more water, again little more meal,
md so alternately until the hat is full.
This accomplished, she exposes the hat and
is contents to the sun until the mixture is
,alled into solid loaf.
The time can be approximately told at
tight by the position of the dipper. Ifpo-
ition OF the pointers is taken at any given
lour, say o'clock in the evening in winter
ime and as soon as 1t is dark in the summer,
he hour can thereafter be pretty accurately
measured by the eye during the night. Fre-
Iuent observations of positions will have to
,e made at the given hour, as, owing to the
constant changing of the earth's position in
pace, the position of the ''poin ters'' in rela-
ion to our point of observation and the star
lso change.
RHYNKLED RHYMELETTS.