Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-19
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

| There are 13 miles OF DoOkShelVeS IN
! the British Museum.
The sugar crop of the Island of Cuba is
| s27, 600 tons this year.
"A gold coin loses per cent of its value
in 16 years of constant use.
Only one couple in II, 500 live to cele-
brate their diamond wedding.
twenty-five hundred women in the
United States possess medical diplomas.
in India the Army Temperance Asso-
c1ation has 141 branches, with over 1000
members.
"A house in Dedham, Mass, built in
1886 is occupied by the descendants OF the
original builders.
Bridgeport, Conn, has a ghost, in the
shape of a dark man of gigantic stature in
shirt sleeves, who carries pistol
Field TASKS of aluminium instead of the
ordinary glass TASKS are being introduced
e1perimentally into the German army.
Out of 2,700 Congregational ministers
in England and Wales, at least 1,6O0 are ab-
stainers; of 36l students 800 are abstainers.
According to Colonel Rockhill, the
devils are driven-out of the towns in Corea
on New Years eve by firing of guns and
crackers.
"A valuable find of skeletons belonging
to the fourth dynasty was recently made in
Egypt This is the earliest known data Of
Egyptian remains.
"A smokeless fuel called "massute" is
being used on steam rollers in Vienna. The
fuel is composed of the liquid residuum Of
petroleum refneries.
1t is a noteworthy circumstance that
all the men elected to the speakership since
the first Congress were born in one or an
other of only Is states.
Mature assumes curious shapes when
left to itself. A gouro, with a neck eoiled
like serpent in the act of striking, is a
boasted curiosity in Mount Holly, n. C.
In 1889 there were in Russia 312 match
manufactures with aggregate produc-
ton of 139, 704, 600 matches. OF these works
u per cent manufactured phosphor matches.
Photography of speech, or rather of the
feeting expressions and movements of the
human countenance during speech, is the
latest of the many triumphs of the instanta-
neou5 process.
There is no machinery in the Sierra
Leone Islands except the sewing machine.
The colony is 103 years old and contains 5O-
900 people without a sawmill or any other
kind of mill to do any kind of woodwork.
1t has been found that dog in Salem,
Mass, is responsible for the mysterious dis
appearance of articles from a grocery. He
was watched and seen to carry off the arti-
cles one by one to the house of his master.
The number of passengers carried on
Egyptian railways in the year 1890 was $685.
2s6, as against 4.37S ass in 1889 being an in
crease of 81. 1888 The number OF miles of
line open in 1880 was $50, as compared with
945 in 1889.
An electric device for clearing track
of obstructions is among the newest ideas.
1t consists of a triangular steel folding
frame, over which net is stretched. This
is placed on the front of q locomotive and
can be opened at will, catching the Obstruc-
tion upon it.
The extraction of oil from grape-stones
promises to develop into a permanent in
dustry. For long time it has been known
that oily matter was present in considerable
quantities in the stones of various descrip-
tions of grapes, but only recently has the
question been definitely investigated.
There is a very strong dislike to the bat
among the peasants OF South Germany \
feeling of disgust and fear takes possession
of the farmer who finds bats in his CHM
ney, not only because he believes the
creatures will feed upon his pork that hangs
in the smoke, but because bats are regarded
as unlucky and bring poverty and mis-
fortune.
"A countryman in Tennessee, where for
ests and game are plenty, found that his
boys, who all have a gun apiece. became
short of percussion caps few days ago and
the first thing he knew they were shooting
with match heads as substitute. How
many boxes of matches he had lost in that
way he did not say but he found they fired
as clear as the cap itself.
Among the curious taxes levied on
trades people in Corea, according to Colonel
Rockhill, is one on sorceresses arriving at
the capital where they had to pay the Board
OF Revenue certain number of logs or
cfi ro of nnH. fnr. hat = ic
said, but certainly not to burn them with
later on, for they are an influential class
in the community. The tax is no longer
levied.
I'm the course of the last 80 years con-
siderable number of European song birds
have been turned loose in the woods and
gardens of the New World, but with rare
they all disappeared before the
end of the second winter. Only out of 80
English larks brought to Maryland in 1873
were seen the next spring, and no ntghtfn-
gale has as yet managed to survive an
American blizzard.
"A Jersey farmer came into Philadelphia
the other day with 10 pearls, which he sold
for 500. 1t is not an unusual thing to find
pearls in New Jersey. They are often OBJ
tained in large and valuable specimens in
the she'll known as the unio. In 1851 pearl
Of fine luster, weighing % grains was found
at Notch Brook near Paterson. 1t became
known as the .'Queene Pearl" and was sold
Oy " TO- TO the Empress Eugene Oh
France for s., 500
All birds seem to have an instructive
that if they once surrender to the
'orce of the wind and allow themselves to
lrift like leaves, there are unknown dangers
n store for them. They will hardly ever do
10 unless to escape pursuit, and then only
or few minutes, when their pace is so
rapid that, in the case of land
)irds q few minutes is sufficient to carry
hem out of the district they know into
,thers from which they WILL perhaps, never
,e able to find their way back to the fields
yhich are their native home.
"A very curious phenomenon is reported
rom Florida. The Vamona Lake, which
les across the Florida line, about 20 miles
rom Thomasville, Ga, has suddenly run
ry through a hole in the bottom. The lake
ras about l3 miles long and from one to two
niles wide, and over most of the surface
OF over two or three feet deep. Near the
liddle was q basin where there was 30 or 40
eet of water. The escape of the water has
eft thousands of terrapins, turtles, alliga-
DIS, fish, and all sorts OF denizens of the
Ike to die or seek other quarters, and the
esidents OF the neighborhood have been
uSy gathering nm SUch of these aQuatiQ