Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-18
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

English sportsmen.
There is an enterprising young chicken
in Marion, o., that has gone regularly into
the egg laying business at the age of four
months.
A new use will be put to the waters Of
the Dead Sea. 1t has been found that they
will kill microbes, and they will be used in
French hospitals.
The San Francisco Honolulu cable can
not be landed at San Francisco on account Of
the irregularities of the harbor bottom.
Monterey Bay may be selected as the landing
place.
I'm the pockets of clothing discarded by
a burglar at Charlottesville, Ind, was found
a translation of Caesars Commentaries and
an example in Algebra, indicating tnat tile
night prowler was a student.
Among the Egyptians coffee was
favorite drink, but was allowed only twice
a week, in campaigns especially assembled
for the purpose, the greatest solemnity
being observed on such occasions.
Havana has about 1900 cenveyances,
and the drivers are the most INSCRIPTIONS
men in the business. They could give the
old-time hackmen at Niagara Falls points
and then beat them in getting fares.
The telephone line between Manitou
and Pixies Peak has just been completed, q
distance of about nine miles. tits the high
est telephone line in the world. The peak
is IA, lis feet in height, while the village Of
Manitou is 6,563 feet above the sea.
1t costs so much to support the 200, 900
priests in Thibet, which has only 1000, 600 in
habitants, that q man can not ordinarily
afford the luxury of wife all to himself
and so polyandry is general. Any one who
is able, however, may keep several wives.
Coffee was introduced into Constanti-
nople in the early part of the seventeenth
century, andPwriters Of that time inform US
that the inhabitants of that city drank it as
hot as could be endured, the. decoction be-
ing as black as SCOT, and, as PurchOS puts it.
mot much unlike il.
Mr.. Theodore Bent, who went to South
Africa to ascertain if possible the origin of
the great stone ruins at Zimbabye, writes
that he has not vet been able to discover any
inscriptions, but he has found the debris of
green pottery of Persian origin, and sculp-
tured vases representing scenes of the
chase.
DIR. Sheldon jackson, the Government
Agent of Education in Alaska, is making
the experiment. of introducing reindeer
into this country. He has already imported
Is from Siberia at a cost of Sl60, and intends
next year to establish a herd in the neigh
borhood of Fort Clarence, beginning with
100 animals.
of 300 journals published is Asin, Japan
alone has 200. Two hundred journals appear
in Africa and three in the Sandwich Islands.
In the principal languages there are pub
l1shed 1000 newspapers in English: 1900
newspapers in German; $500 newspapers in
French; 800 newspapers in Spanish, and
1,5OO newspapers in Italian.
The assav of some rock from mine
short distance from Dayton, Wash, was s149
to q ton, but the news of the strike was that
the value was sl49 pound. Miners hurried
Il -
siderable excitement was created before the
actual facts could be believed Besides lime
stone and granite nothing of value has been
discovered.
Some pious Mohammedans thought
coffee might be included among the intoxi-
eating beverages forbidden by the Koran,
but Alhambali, in an able pamphlet entitled
1.-THE Support of Innocence" proved that 1t
was not in the prohibitory section of that
book. As a consequence, the followers of
the Prophet once more returned to the de-
lights of coffee.
There has recently come from Pata-
gonia announcement of the discovery of
monkey of the Tertiary, which was the
geological period before the present or
Quaternarv, which is the last needed link
between the lemur and the man like apes.
1t only remains now, in order that the
chain shall be complete, to nnd the link
between the anthropoid apes and man.
European ladies are often invited to
visit the barems of the rich Moors in
Morocco, and some time ago one of the in
mates-a beautiful young girl-fainted at the
tight OF one % Of the lady visitors removing
removing a thick skin from her hand, and
the sight frightened her so much that it wns
some time before she could regain conscious
ness.
Few of our native trees have odoriferous
szru
the Indian Ocean; but few of the conifere
on the Pacific slope have sweet scented
woods. The fine church at Metlakatla, built
by the civilized Indians of Alaska, is as
fragrant as if incense was continually float
ing through the air, from the wood of the
great Arbor Vitae-Thuja gigantea-of which
it is built.
1t is often said that the old Phenicians
discovered the purple dye in tine murex
shell by observing dog which had eaten
one of the molluSks, and thus colored his
chops with a rich purple satin (E- Curtius
observes that the ancients were accustomed
to hunt the murex by the assistance of
pointer dogs). Some of the myths say that
Heracles, by the aid of his dog, first discoy-
cred the purple murex.
-"Young Holsters are called in the neigh
borhood of Nantucket 'grasshoppers.' In
the swimming stage of their being they can
often be dipped up in quantities from the
surface OF the sea on calm days. w nen IL Is
stormy they descend. 1t is the very ex-
ceptional specimen that lives to grow up.
Lobsters are exposed to many perils. If
they are so fortunate as to survive infancy,
they must go through numerous pariOdS of
danger incident to the shedding process"
How long coffee was in use among East
ern nations before being introduced into
Europe is not known. Aljeziri Albambali, a
noted Arabic author, states that it was first
made known about $40 OF the Hegira, and so
quickly did coffee houses and booths multi
ply throughout Arabia that the Government
several times made strenuous attempts to
suppress them, fearing they would lead the
people into idlenesS. Notwithstanding
these efforts the coffee habit took such a
strong hold on the people that the beverage
was made and drank i'll secret. They even
went long distances into the desert and
there prepared the seductive concoction
without fear of moleStation.
A subject of the Queen left his wife in
London and went to Naples, where he fell in
love with an Italian woman. Persuading
her that he was a single man, she consented
to follow him to the altar. To his great re-
lief he received word on the day of his
second marriage that his English wife had
lied Easy oil heart, he returned to London,
but was at once arrested at the instance of
mis- English relatives, on a charge of bigamy.
He insisted that the charge was groundiess,
Is the English wife had departed this life on
The day he had been united to his present
better half. The relatives, however, were
,ble to prove that, taking into consideration
5he difference in time between London and
Naples. he was the husband of two wives for
3 minutes.
HUMOROUS HITS