Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-18
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

"A convict in the Missouri State Peni
tentiary has donated 81 to be sent TO the destt.
ture people in Northwestern Kansas.
Over 100000 miners, metal workers and
other organized workmen will strike in Belgium
on May to gain the eight-hour workday
For the first time in the history of the
State. white men are now doing house plaster
ing in Georgia. Heretofore the work has been
done by negroes.
"A Yale student, while walking along
Court street. New Haven, recently, was at
tacked by thirty shopgirls and kissed until he
screamed for help.
For every five miles of the Georgia,
Carolina and Northern Railroad murder has
been committed. with which the gangs at work
on the road have been connected.
1t has been suggested that the phono-
graph shall be used as cash register. Every
sum the cashier receives might be called in the
phonograph and there recorded as check on
the accounts.
AN English officer whose health breaks
down in India must pay his successors passage
out before he can return home. 1t is asserted
that every year men die in India because they
cannot AFFORD to comply with this rule.
AT Habelschwerdt, Silesia, linen
weavers earn 10 and II cents per day. The food
of SiIesian weavers consists of oatmeal. bread
and potatoes. There are thousands OF families
eating meat hardly once in whole year.
The Government expenses in 1902, when
Thomas jefferson was President, exclusive OF
payments on the public debt. amounted to
3737,OO0 By the same ratio the Government
expenses should now be about s40OOQOOO per
year.
The average temperature Of weave
s1f T. IN Fall
River the temper ature is kept SO high tharitI IS
known as Little He'll" Even in mills OF mod
ern build the only provisions for fresh air are
the crevices under the doors.
The process ofmaking soap from corn
has Just been discovered by a Chinese chemist.
This discovery promises to produce an entire
change in the art of soap making. His produc-
ton is said to be absolutely pure, and better
than the finest soap now made.
"A strange coincidence happened re-
Gently in Clayton county, Ga. As one of its
oldest residents expired the old clock stopped,
which for 40 years had faithfully kept time in
the house. Two days after his demise the
clock mysteriously disappeared.
There is law on the statute books of
Massachusetts, requiring that any person find
ing property to the value of So or more shall
have the same recorded at the office Of the
town or city clerk. 1t is an old colonial law,
present.
More than 100 female teachers in the
public schools of Boston are officially recog-
nized by the Boston School Board by their pet
names which has led member Of the board,
who is a woman, by the way, to offer resolu-
ton that hereafter the baptismal names only Of
teachers be recognized.
The census estimate of the lumber,
shingles and other forest products of the
Southern States for the census year 1880 was
s46g79, 600 But il 1890 the annual value Of the
same product has expanded to sl02, 122l In
the same time the average value of Southern
pine land rose from 81 % to 90 per scre.
"A Russian statistician and scientist
recently published q book from which it ap-
pears that from 1907 to 1881 over 642. 900 men,
women and children have been sent to Siberia
by the different Cars of Russia. About $1,000
Of these exies have died upon the roads during
their transportation TO the mines and deserts
of Siberia.
Not long ago ship laden with oil was
sunk off the coast Of Folkestone. England.
This has produced a strange effect upon the
wild fowl-duck, teal and other wild game are
easily caught, as they seem to be unable to ny
because of their plumage being saturated with
the oil which covers the water in the vicinity
of the ship.
An Atchison man took his girl to the
show the other night. They wanted to get
there early and went about o'clock. The girl
had never been in the opera house before.
After looking at the picture on the curtain for
half an hour she said: Say, Bill, let's go. I've
seen enough of this show" She thought the
picture was all there was Of it.
The locality IL miles above Hawkins
Vile, Ga, was visited by a strange phenomenon
last Saturday night. Between and o'clock
something having every appearance of small
he of WA 0bcarvad m he falling from
the clouds. IL came down and drifted about
like snowfakes. and when caught in the hand
was found TO be phosphorescent So Distance OF
some kind.
People who are fond of taking medicine
may crafty their taste and put money in their
pockets at the same time. A homeopathic
college pays persons to take drugs and keep
record of their effect. These drug takers
must be sound in health and not haDitual users
of tobacco, tea. coffee or alcoholic stimulants
For converting their stomachs into laboratories
the "provers," as they are called, receive S. q
week.
Among the arrivals at the Barge Office
recently was little old woman of wood. It
was an automaton figure of an old lady knit
ting, and the mos. curious part of it was that
it was actually knitting machine. 1t ran by
clockwork, and to all appearances had every
movement of life, The machine attracted
great deal of attention. and one man offered
round price for il, but its owner, French i'm
migrant, refused to part with it.
"A man in England can vote in whatever
locality he may have vested interests. In the
good old Wing and Democratic days in Vir-
ginia most OF the voting was done on land and
Jealous members of either party would fire.
quentlY buy land in several counties which
could be reached in one day by hard travelling.
and they would vote all the law allowed at
every election even if horsefesh did suffer In
the attempt to get around to the polls
There is a little machine which turns
out fish hooks in six strokes. Stroke number
one bites off a morsel of steel wire; number
two makes the loop where you fasten your
Der four hattens and benus back the barb:
number five makes the point; number six
bends the wire; and your fsh hook drops into a
little bucket, ready to be finished. Then 10 ID
either iapanned-these are the common black
fish hooks-or they are tempered to the deli
cate blue you sometimes see in cutlery For
this finish they are heated red hot and then
cooled in oil.
There is an old man in Manchester,
England, who goes by the name of Gagadis
Gigadab. His original name was John Smith,
but many years ago he began to brood over the
possibilities of mistaken identity involved in
such a common name. The name figured fire.
1uently in the criminal records, and he became
apprehensive lest he might be con-
fused with some of these bad John Smiths. At
asst what he feared so much actually happened
One day the papers recorded the capture of an
accountant in bank for embezzlement and
through some blunder Of the reporter the iden-
ity of the embezzler was confused with the
subject of this paragraph, who was also a bank
accountant. Then and there he determined to
assume q name like unto no other name ever
borne by mortal man; and in Gagadig G1gadaD
most people will agree thar he has done so.
Dickens, in his most erratic flights of nonlen-
;lature, never invented anything like it.