Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-15
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

than 1000 years before it was known else
were.
There are A, ,0OO, 600 square miles of
land in the Northern Hemisphere against
5000 900 in the Southern
AT Americus, Canada, there is q peculiar
species of rat. 1t is of several colors and
hundreds of them can be seen about the
! streets.
"A Belgian, who cannot speak word Of
English, was fined at Muncie. Ind. for pro-
! VokIng man who could not understand
| what the Belgian said.
"A resident of Saratoga, Ark, unearthed
what are supposed to be the bones OF a mon
| strnus serpent. There were 80 joints, and
some of them weighed nine pounds.
1t is a sign of fair weather if the cluster
or small air bubbles formed by the sugar
collect and remain in the center of the cup.
II ehey rush to the sidesft will surely rain
| before night.
/ "A strange illness has broken out in the
! Geological Gardens, Amsterdam. among the
peasts OF prey. In three days 16 creatures
have died, including several Of the finest
| lions ana tigers.
The sapphire and emerald are credited
with properties which rendered them ca
pable of influencing ophthalmic disorders,
ana there is superstitfous belief that SER
pents are blinded by looking at the latter
| stone.
| The latest scheme for room decoration
adopted by the girls is to accumulate
| enough love letters to cover the walls Of
their sleeping apartments. They make the
oado OF the envelopes and the general dec
oratlon of the letter sheets.
Divers who helped to lay the founda-
I tion of the great Eads bridge found that
| while they were under q pressure of four
''atmospheres,' or 90 pounds to the square
men, the ticking of watch was absolutely
painful to the ear. They also found it i'm
possible to whistle.
The tornado whirls at a rate variously
| estimated from 800 to 1000 miles an hour
Though ephemeraI and diminutive, it has
vastly greater violence. To class it a
| "cyclone" is to beittle its terrors True
cyclones are exceedingly scarce while tor
nadoes are numbered by the hundred every
season.
"A curious marriage custom is recorded
by Dr.. Post as existing in Southern India
among some Of the more primitive nom
Arynn tribes. This consists in wedding a
girl to plant, a tree, an animal or even
to an inanimate object. the notion being
that any ill-luck which NAV follow an actual
marriage will be ayerted by union Of this
kind.
Squirrels and gophers are great scatter
ers OF seed They carry nuts about in their
cheek-pouches and bury them here and there
in the ground an inch to an inch and a half
deep. They remember where a good many
OF them are hidden and dig them up again,
but they are sure to forget some, and these
have an excellent change to sprout and
grow.
The constellation of Lupus, or the
Wolf, lays low down in the South only few
of the stars in the group being visible to us.
According to the beliefs of the ancients,
this group of stars figure man, Lycaon,
King of Arcadia, who lived $500 years B. C.
10 1roC rhar go -rvrlf1 Trr- fknn. ha-
cause he offered human victims on the altar
of the god Pan.
If you want to know how many years
will elapse before you may expect to De
married balance your spoon on the edge of
your cup, first noting that is perfectly dry;
fill another spoon partly with tea, and hold
ing it above the balanced spoon let the drops
of the tea gather to the tip of the spoon and
gently fall into the bowl of the one below.
Count the drops-each one stands for
year.
In London, the greatest commercial
city of the world, only Is persons in 1000 use
the telephone. The telephone is used most
in countries where the service is owned or
controlled by the State. In Germany. Switz-
erland, Norway and Sweden from 100 to 400
persons in every 100 900 of the population are
subscribers. In Great Britain only So per-
sons in 100000 use the telephone. In Berlin
H. and in Paris 4. 2out of 900 inhabitants use
the telephone.
Among birds that have the power of
imitation the parrot is supposed to talk the
best: but, matter OF fact, its voice is de-
cidedly inferior to that of the mynah, a
species of starting, of which there are ex-
amples at the London Geological Gardens.
Curiously enough the male bird speaks in
high, clear tone, like that of child, while
the female has gruff voice. The mynahs
are fond of showing off their vocal powers to
visitors to the gardens.
Ladies and waiting maids among the
ancient Greeks and Romans wore plain
hoops of gold or silver in their ears, and as
time progressed these became more elabo-
rate, precious gems beng set in them. Many
Roman matrons possessed earrings of the
most costly and gorgeous description. One
of the most fashionable patterns affected by
those of rank and wealth was modelled in the
form of an asp, with golden body shaded
with gems of the first water.
Giant squids or calamaries are eaten.
They are ferocious creatures, and it is of
them that so many stories are told as to
their attacking boats and even ships. They
weigh sometimes many thousands of pounds,
having two enormously long tentacles with
which to seize prey and eight shorter ones to
hold il, all armed with enormously powerful
suckers These animals possess an approach
to a brain inclosed in a cartilaginous skull.
One of them would furnish food for frigate.
To ascertain the productive power Of
weeds the seeds upon single plant of diff
ferent species have been counted with the
following results: Wild carrot, 200; dande-
lion, I,5OO; chickweed, 1000; cookie, $500:
ca,rpsion. 8 42J: chess, $500; dock, 300;
ragweed. 4,372: groundsel. $500; ox-eye daisy,
o 600: maIIow, is, 500: motherworJ, Is, 900; fox
tail. 49, 500: sow thistle l9,O00 mustard, 1000;
Canadian thistle, 42.000: red poppy, $1,000:
burdock. 4OO.32S; pursane, 100000; lambs
Quarters, $4,000.
A few years ago the owner of a river
side farm in Southern Indiana published
report which seemed to prove that, for
few weeks at least, birds OF certain species
are apt to hibernate, like bats and squirrels.
A number of 1aDorers had been clearing a
patch of wood at the river shore, and came
across several martins or chimney swallows
that had taken refuge in a hollow sycamore
tree and appeared numb or half dead with
cold, but on being brought to warm room
revived and fiuttered about the windows as
st,;,n l,uef h.aV,y r,od