Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-02
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

OUhlVUO CONGRATULATIONS
in Munich, which consumes more beer
than any other German city, the family al
lowance amounts to 565 quarts year for
every man, woman and child.
"A Wichita woman has had q servant
girls within less than year. and the last
one she employed had worked for 81 differ
ent mistresses during the year.
The English royal princesses have set
the fashion for sisters not only to dress alike
when they are unmarried, but to continue
to do so after becoming wives.
"A Bar Harbor man is such a devoted
worshiper of Dickens that he reads from
| one of the great novelist's works every
night before retiring, no matter how busy
| he is.
There are exceptions to all rules. AT
st. Helen, Cal, there is q book agent who is
50 years old and who was never shot at,
thrown through window or worried by
dog in all his long experience.
Owing to an ailment that is "puzzling
the doctors" Swedish patient in Milwau-
kee puffs up enormously about the body
every night, so that the clothes he wears in
the daytime don't begin to fit him
The 13 superstition has had another
boost. During the first half of the present
year the number 13 figured in Cincinnati's
violent deaths. There were 13 suicides, l3
hOmicides, and 13 children died violently.
For the year ended June 80 there was
collected at the port of Vancouver, B. c., as
duty on Cinnamon entering Canada, $l5, ,96S,
as compared with 1868 the previous year.
The amount exacted from each Chinaman Is
S120.
One hundred and seventy head of cattle
are ordered to be killed in Yorkshire, Eng
land, where pleuro- pneumonia is raging. 1t
rrrin foty Hotrc 70 al
and the loss to the owners will exceed
81, 900.
There is a post at the corner of the pub
lie square in Fairmont No. which gets a
bolt of lightning from nearly every thunder
storm that comes along. Three men, 5 horses
and 20 or 80 sheep have been electrocuted at
the spot.
1t hailed so hard in Cheyenne county,
Kan, one afternoon this week that 16 men
working at threshing machine were cut
about the face and hands SO badly that they
were unfit for work the rest of the day.
Their clothes were literally riddled.
The other day an old buck belonging to
flock of sheep which were being driven
down street at st. Joseph, Mo-, happened to
catch sight of his reflected image in plate
glass window and charged upon it, shivering
the glass and scattering a display Of gold,
silver and bronze goods in all directions
Statistics of the Kelley Institute at
Dwight, Mass, show that the physicians are
more usually addicted to the opium and
morphine habit than to whisky. One reason
1s that drugs give less evidence by their i'm
mediate results than alcohol and are less
onenslVe to the noses of the patients.
An overly-careful physician in New
Haven washes all the greenbacks he receives
from patients for fear they might contain
disease germs. He first uses soap then
rinsing the notes off in cold water and he
reports that the treatment gives a clean,
crisp look to even the most dilapidated bill.
"A novel method of ''beating'' the Post
office Department has been detected at Los
| Angeles, Cal. A young man rented a box,
| taking two keys, one of which he gave to a
| through the box. The letters have been
held for postage and one key has been taken
up.
One section of the historical collection
at Dresden, Germany, is literally museum
of boots and shoes, being, it is believed. un-
equaled in the world as q repository of the
foatwear of celebrities Among the things
of interest shown are pair of shoes worn
by Martin Luther at the diet of Worms,
and the toilet slippers of the great Maria
Theresa.
All Boston was dazzled the other day
by the dress of a variety actor who appeared
upon Washington street wearing a suit of
sky blue clothes, except his waisteoat,
which was of purple velvet, and he had q
new black, shiny 'beaver." His necktie was
a profuse one of white silk: and it is needless
to say that his face, and likewise his neck,
were smooth shayen.
"A contract marriage took place at
Fresno, Cal, recently, the bride being under
age and unable to obtain the consent of her
parents. John Hoffman, the man, is % years
of age, and Florence Rice, the girl 1515 years.
They agreed to take each other as man and
wife, entering upon that relation at once If
she so desires the woman's contract may be
Voided when she attains majority.
AT Rocky Hill, Conn, the other day,
lightning shook hands with Farmer W. H.
Stevens in the most cordial manner. He was
in the shed at S. T. Wright's house and had a
piece of scythe in his hands. The thunder
bolt took the iron out of his hands, threw it
into one corner of the shed, and jumped
Stevens into an opposite corner Mr.. Stevens
says that when the lightning took hold of
him he felt as if a fountain had burst inside
him and spouted pins and needles into every
part of his body.
Between Lebanon and Waynesville, o.,
lives a family consisting of Mr.. and Mrs.
Yazel and eleven children, ten of whom are
sons and one daughter. There were IA chill
dren, but three have died. The mother has
II fingers, six on each hand. The daughter
also has II fingers, and one of the sons has IL
toes. Agriculture is the occupation of Mr.
1ustry of his sons is Indicated by the fact
that sIr. Yazel went to town the other day
and bought several hoes for home use.
The heaviest modern ordnance is the
English 110-ton gun. Its charge is $50 pounds
of best prismatic gunpowder, and the cylin-
drical steel shot weighs 1,sOO pounds. At the
last test this enormous shot penetrated en-
tirely through compressed armor (steel-
faced iron) 20 inches thick; then through
iron backing five inches thick; then it
pierced wholly through 20 feet of oak, feet
of granite and IL feet of hard concrete and
feet into brick wall. No existing fortress,
much less armored vessel, could Withstand
such shot.
The Boone county, Ind, Circuit Court
has decided question of ecclesiastical in
terest. Some members of the Mount Tabor
Baptist Church, wishing to admit to church
membership certain class of persons whose
objections to the creed were apt to cover
minor and unessential points of doctrine,
appealed to the courts to determine whether
the creed could be disregarded in any par
ticuIar or whether it must be accepted in all
its verbal rigidity. The court, considering
the creed in the nature of a legal contract,
decided that it must be accepted, if at all,
for just what it says in plain English.
THE BAZAR'S HAPPY THOUGHTS.