Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-14
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

4 III Is Sdlu IDaL Llere are now - WOUeQ
preachers in the United States.
"A snake with q rattles was killed on
Hickory creek, Oregon, the other day.
Japan has 1000 newspapers. Not a
single Journal existed there 25 years ago.
| There are more ducks in the Chinese
| empire than in all the world outside of it.
| I'm one business establishment in LON
don no fewer tina n 400 Cornishmen are en-
ployed.
AN Ashland, Mo-, physician has on his
office wall this touching motto: patients
| are virtue"
Five marriages in ten minutes was the
record made last Monday by Judge Nc
| Carthy, of New York.
The largest ship-yard in the world is at
Christiana In Norway. Forty ships can
load at its docks at the same time.
w. E. Simmons, of Vale Vista, San
Diego county, Cal, has raised O tomato
weighing II ounces and measuring inches
in diameter.
From the summit of Mt. Rose, in Ne
vada, 10000 feet above the sea level. the
waters Of 2i lakes may be seen glisteninS
among the forests of the sierras.
"A jumbo strawberry of Maine growth
was examined closely by the Bangor COM
n'ercial, and found to consist of IL straw
berries, which had grown together.
Whatever be the state of colored pho
Biography, process for photographing i'll
colors has been patented in London, and the
company is about to begin business.
An ordinance prohibiting by law the
painting white of any building In san Diego
Cal, either public or private was handed to
San Diego Councilman the other day for
action
The most violent thunderstorms in the
world occur In French Guiana The thunder
there in an ordinary storm is almost deaf
ening, while peal follows peal in quick sue
cesSion.
The greatest manicures in the world ap-
pear to be the Sakanis, of the KongO region.
Among their tribal customs is the pairing of
the nails down to the quick with an instru-
met designed for that particular purpose
The largest pine tree in Massachusetts
is said to be on the road between Shrews-
bury and Holden. 1t is % feet high, and
midway up its trunk its circumference is
l515 feet. The tree is thought to be $50 years
old
In person and attire the scrupulous
cleanliness of the Malay women is pro-
verbal throughout the Orient. Twice
daily she bathes, changes her garments
and washes and rinses her luXuriant black
hair.
George Holmes, of Cincinnati, is the
owner of peculiar diamond. In the morn
in It is beautiful sky blue, at noon it is
perfectly white. and at o'clock in the even
ing it iegins to turn black, and after sunset
is hae piece of coal.
"A tremendous PLETHORA of novels is re-
ported in Paris. For example, $500 copies
of the last production of popular writer
have been returned TO the pubIisbers IL il
fiaf nn hRr Nuhl .hpr has n lKTf,I-
umes on hand which are unSaleable.
-Mackerel are reported to he plenty in
Belfast Bay, on the coast of Maine, and peo-
pie are having fine sport catching them with
hook and line. The mackerel are large and
boats catch as many as 500 in Il mornings
fishing. The ladies join in the sport.
"A veritable curiosity has been captured
in Africa 1t is an elephant larger than the
late lamented Jumbo, pea-green in color,
trunkless, and has tusks that branch out
something like the horns of a deer. 1t is in
possession of a native king who will not
part with it.
"A Norwegian living In the sixteenth
century was accounted a master hand at
minute contrivances. In proof OF this 1t is
recorded that he made II, 900 dishes of turned
ivory, in every respect without u 1iaw, and
so tiny that all of them could be safely
cradled in o pepper-eorn cup of usual size.
There are said to be 16 species of Amer
can trees the wood of which, when well
seasoned, will sink into water. The heav-
lest of these is black ironwood, which is
80 per cent heavier than water A species
of oak grows in Texas and New Mexico
which, when green, will sink almost as
quickly as iron.
The Guelph question is not by any
means the only indication of trouble with
the Kaiser's empire. Particularism, as they
call it in Germany, or separate State sover-
eighty, as they would call it in America, is
asserting itself in Bavaria, in Mecklenburg-
Strelitz and to some degree in other States
of the federation
1t seems that the Oldtown Indians of
Maine have Il law which forbids white
people to be on the island after q certain
hour at night, and if they are found they are
locked up. An OldtOwn young man who
violated this regulation, the other night
performed the feat OF swimming to the
mainland with his clothes on to dodge the
red constable.
Vegetation in the Alps recedes down.
ward from year to year. Formerly Alpine
roses grew at an altitude of 1900 feet. Now
they are seldom found higher than g. 500 feet,
and are at that height stunted. Beeches
have gone down to l2O0 feet Various ber-
ries, which once fiOurished 7,j00 feet above
sea level, do not grow in higher attitudes
now than $500 feet
1t has been claimed that the seeds
taken from ancient Egyptian tombs are
capable of growth, but proof of the claim is
lacking 1t has been demonstrated, how
ever, that seeds of very great age are capa-
BILE of development. Raspberries have been
raised from seed taken from the stomach of
a man who died during the time of the En-
perOr Hadrian. who reigned in the second
century of our era. Think of 1t, a seed
springing into new life after lying dormant
10 centuries.
An interesting proof of the distant
travels of the storlt was discovered this
spring in the neighborhood of Berlin. For
q number of years n pair of stOrks built their
nest annually in the park of the Castle
Ruheleben. few years ago one of the
servants placed q 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 re-
turned each year. This spring the stork
came back to the customary place, the
bearer of two rings. The second one bore
the inscription: India sends greetings to
Germany.
"A book belonging to the family of the
Prince de Lignc, now in France, is said to be
the most curious book in the world, because
IL is neither written nor printed. The letters
of the text are cut out of each folio upon
the finest vellum; and, being interviewed
with blue paper, it is rs easily read as print
The labor bestowed upon it was excessive.
H.. of Germany, offered for 1t in
lG40 ll,0OO ducats, probably equal to $50 600 at
this day. A remarkable circumstance con-
nected with this literary treasure is that it
bears the royal arms of England; but it can
not be traced to have ever been in that
country.
PICKINGS FROM PUCK.