Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-06
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

1
| The average height of the clouds from
the earth is about one mile.
| There are TO women lecturers in this
country who charge admission, to say moth
| ing of the thousands of eurtain lecturers.
| The king or horseshoe crab ehews its
food with its legs; the little animal grinding
| its morsels between its thighs before it
passes them over to its mouth.
The story comes from Quitman, Ga,
that recently, while q number of persons
| were fishing near there the fish, blinded by
| the light jumped into the boat and many
were caught that way.
-Rumsellers in Portland, Me-, are said to
be selling lager beer disguised as "Uno.'
It's an old dodge An Auburn man sold
| lager in sarsaparilla bottles Tor years and
| escaped without a scratch.
"A small eolored boy in the Cherokee
nation was very sick and the doctors treated
him for consumption. The other day he
had severe fit of coughing and vOmited up
a snake about six inches long. He is now
getting over his attack of consumption.
"A Brooklyn citizen who was attacked
and bitten on the arm as he was passing
along public street in that city has been
fined sl5 by local magistrate for cruelty to
animals, as he managed to deal q couple of
telling blows on the head of the attacking
animal.
-Fraulein Lepper made considerable
sensation at a convention of lady abstainers
at Melbourne from all the Australian col
onies by making a vigorous attack on tea.
In her opinion, next to alcohol, the greatest
master of the human will and destroyer of
vitality is tea.
1t was long thought that the water from
melted snow was the purest of all water
This idea has been proven incorrect as the
reverse is the case. Snow is really purifier
of the atmosphere, attracting from it, as it
falls, various impurities; and these are
found IN the snow-water.
"A shop sign in London reads: "Plots
for novels or short stories. Prices reason
able" The occupant of the shop is said to
have q rare talent for devising plots, but no
great powers of narration, so he Is supposed
to make his living by selling skeleton plots
for stories in cheap papers.
AT Portsmouth, O., last week an owl
entered the chicken coop of Mrs. Long, and
when she attempted to drive it away with
club the bird turned upon her savagely, and
it was with the greatest difficulty that she
succeeded in killing it. The owl measured
over five feet from tip to tip.
BY novel device heavy guns can now
be aimed and fired with the greatest accu-
racy, without exposing the gunners and
without their even seeing the object to be
ureu dC. 1ne prlnclDI0 uSeQ Is LnaL OF SO
training the gun as to cause the object to be
fired at to be reflected upon q screen at the
rear of the gun.
Shells for firing high explosives have
been patented abroad, in which a receptacle
is made containing compressed air. By
| suitable appliances this air is released sud-
denly thus furnishing the propelling power.
| any noise, and no smoke are thus obtained,
| combined with great rapidity of fire.
The Rutland division of the Central
Vermont Railroad crosses the mountains at
| Mount Holly, Summit station being |, 40 feet
| above the sea. Near that station, when the
| railroad was building, the tusks of large
elephant were g aug yp up, ana a. they are pre-
| and so is the skeleton of whale, 14O feet in
length, which was discovered in 1549 in the
town Of Charlotte While h,s some s5e excavations
| sea level and 60 feet above the level of Lake
Champlain.
Eugene Footer, of Bath, Me-, has a dog
| that he values highly. Footer was at work
tearing down building the other day, made
| a misstep, fell 20 feet and lay unconscious.
His dog, Spot, was near at hand and at once
trotted on after help. He went directly TO
| the house of Mr.. Footer's grandfather, found
his old gentleman and commenced tugging
| at his trousers leg and then running OF g
short distance and barking. He repeated
this several times before Mr.. Footer thought
that an accident had happened. When he
did understand, he followed the dog to the
house and found his grandson.
"A report has been made by the desig-
mated committee upon the question of pro-
viding suitable accommodations for young
nien, clerks and others living in London on
moderate incomes. 1t proposes to erect q
series OF dwellings like the Peabody build
ings properly situated with an eve to busi-
ness, to accommodate 45O tenants, each to
have q sitting room with bed alcoye, for
from 10 shillings to Is shillings week.
rooms, library, reading, writing, lecture,
smoking, billiard and recreation rooms.
In July, 1888, Captain Joseph Lowe, of
York, Me-, filled his bed with grass which he
had cut for that purpose. Soon after Mrs.
Lowe thought she felt something moving
under her side of the bed, but the Captain
told her it was imagination. Captain Lowe
was afterward sick and laid on that side of
the bed, when he felt the same motion. In
April, 1889, he died, but not till Tuesday OF
last week was the bed opened and emptied,
when out came a live, healthy, but terribly
hungry turtle. He was ravenous and would
snap at anything offered him, it is said. The
straw or hay for two feet across was "chewed
very fine"
Milo, the island of the Cyelades in
which the famous "Yenus OF Milo was dis
covered, has! again been the scene of the un-
eartn1nS OIL Splendlu example OF anc1ent
Hellenic art. The new "find'' is the marble
statue of boxer, somewhat above life-size,
which is almost as perfect after It's burial
under the dust of centuries as it was when
it came fresh from the hands of the sculptor.
The statue has been shipped to Athens,
where a commission of Greek arch9olOgists,
aided by some members of the German
Archaeological Institute in Athens, will re-
port upon the period of its origin and its
probable creator.
Frank S. Kinney was business man to
begin with, but he mad nothing to do with
tobacco in his early life. He was interested
in railroad building, and his business took
him to South America There he learned to
smoke cigarettes and he became very fond
of them. He was a prodigious smoker, and
when he returned to New York the habit
was communicated to some of his friends.
They kept him busy rolling cigarettes for
them After little while he made q ma
chine to turn out the cigarettes for himself
and his friends. There was such demand
for them that the idea struck him that it
might be good scheme to start a cigarette
factory and introduce the cigarette to
America And this is how he came to be
worth anywhere from 81, COO, 0C0 TO s5,OOO,OO0.
1t is said that he can raise 500 900 at "a
hours notice.