Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-19
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.


England.
Telephones are now being introduced on
board men-of-war.
"A Wichita man offers the Government q
big price for Alaska.
The daily surplus OF births over deaths
in the United Kingdom is 1,5OO.
Cork, ii sunk 20 feet in the ocean, will
not rise, on account of the pressure Of the
water
"A society has been formed in England
to abolish capital punishment for female muir
derers.
Women of fortune are starting the fash
ion of carrying purse and card-case set in dia-
monds.
Cigarette smoking has become alarm
ingly prevalent among Boston's fashionable
women.
Some New York mothers have organized
school at which their children are taught
good manners.
A prophet has arisen who says that the
world will be densely oyercrowded before ii
is 200 years older.
"A horse died the other day at Atchison
of lockjaw. A dozen or more nails were found
In the feet OF the animal.
Cincinnati has passed an ordinance pro-
tism within the city limits.
"A London matrimonial agent boasts of
having arranged 40 900 marriages between MEM
bers of all classes of society.
Athletic girls have a tendency to swing
their arms when walking and TO initiate the
chest in ridiculous manner.
"A Kansas statesman who wants to sue
ceed Senator Ingalls, blew his nose on a napkin
at Topeka hotel the other day.
The fad of the hour at Grants Pass,
Ore, is to watch the salmon go over the fish
ladder at the dam in Rogue river.
Some of the possibilities for crime
offered by the practice of mesmerism-or
hypnotism as it is now the fashion to call it
were shown recently in Paris, when a hypnotiss
secured check for 10000 francs from the
victim.
1t is claimed for the State of Missouri
that she has three of the largest springs in the
world. One in Dent county is so large that 1t
was proposed to supply the whole city of st.
Louis with its water by running an aqueducs
from Its neighborhood to the city reservoir.
1t has been estimated that the recent
Australian strikes cost the colonies there over
FL $50 900 sterling. The loss to labor in Victoria
New South Wales and South Australia is reck-
State, in maintenance of military and police
and loss of wharfage and customs due, at
ESQ, 900.
The fastest mile single man has trav-
elsd by various methods of locomotion is, to
date, as follows: Swimming, 1852: walking,
e:23; show shoes. 5:3y51: rowing, SOL; running,
4l973; tricycle., l;4S 70; bicycle zzS 4o skating,
2:l2 30; trOtting horse, 2dSA; running horse,
LBS: railroad train, 40H seconds; balloon. pneu-
matte tube and electricity records are yet to be
made
The people at EssexviIIe, Mich, got all
mixed up in their notions of the Indian war
and decided they were needed ont West to help
kill off few squaws and red children; SO a
man organized a company of so volunteers and
has been drilling them daily. awaiting a reply
to letter to General Miles Offering to come to
his rescue at once. The General is silent upon
the offer.
"A little boy in Utica thought it would
be a pleasant amusement to play being letter
carrier. He accordingly secured secretly a
bundle of old love letters that bis mother had
kept since her courtsnip days, and distributed
them from house to house throughout the
What befell Tommy when his
enterprise was discovered can be readily
imagined.
A strolIing surveyor happened along
to a certain farm house in Illinois and offered
to run the farm lines for SO. He was put to
work, and he found the lines all wrong and
got seven farmers into fights and lawsuits be-
fore the county surveyor came along and dis
covered that the stroller couldn't run straight
line for 20 rods u save his neck. Then he
strolled again.
"A "poor white trash" girl from the
mountains of North Carolina was received bya
Raleigh lady into her home for s-ainIng She
was taught at first to be orderly. second to be
clean, and third to be neat. Suddenly she fed
to her mountain home. The lady found her
there. why did you leave me?' she asked.
"Why, MIS- Blank. just couldn't stay. 1 was
Just cloyed with neatness."
A man who was in the car with Sitting
Bull when the latter set out upon his first rail-
way ride, which was from Bismarck to WASH
ingtou, says the chief shivered and gazed about
in wonder as the cars few over the rails The
train is running very last sad a gentleman
out of the window. Fire wagon stay STILL
White mans medicine make earth move heap
fast
1t has been thought that lightning could
not strike train. The theory has received
complete contradiction. At Dischsu. Prussia,
an express train running at the rate Of go kilo-
meters per hour into the station, broke down
the bufing apparatus, ran into the interior
facade of the station, and broke up against
neighboring house. An investigation estab-
lished that the accident 1s to be attributed to
the effect of lightning. which fell upon the
train.
John Bull has the smallest, most
tue great powers. and yet 1t costs the most, the
snug sum of SIT, 7,O0o.0O0 annually. His sum
total of regulars, volunteers. militia, etc, is
765 900. The German army costs Sl67. 10000.
and the French s140. 100000. and each of them
could put in the field within the 2lst day Of
000, 900 men and about 1000 field
guns. Within that time England could not
muster more than one complete army corps.
The Atlanteans, mystic organization
recently formed at New Orleans with the pur-
pose of adding to the pleasures of the carnival,
has issued invitations for their inaugural ball
and tabaeaux February 8. The artists skill
has been called into requisition and the hand
some missive conveys an idea Of the beauties
Atlantis and his court will unfold in tableaux.
From the unfathomed depths where Atlantis,
the lost continent, lies submerged, comes At
lanta on his throne surrounded by his cavaliers
and born upon the wings Of thought, and mid
the wonders of the deep and the beauties OF
his realm he holds high revel to which his loyal
subiects are accorded welcome.