Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-11
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

shave non-union men.
Chicago has burglar who destroys, but
does not carry any plunder away.
A pctrif;ed ham of large hog was re-
Gently found in n field on the poor farm,
Salem county, Ind.
1t is said that a very satisfactory fla
ment for an fncandescent lamp can be made
from the root of the rice plant.
From an ancient account book found at
Eastport, Me-, it appears that i'll 1871 tobac-
co was sold by tie yard in that settlement.
Blanche King, aged Is, was married in
st. Louis last week for tho second time, hav-
ing been married and divorced in 1890, when
she was but Ii years old.
"A New York colored man cleared him.
self of a charge OF larceny by proving th at
at the time OF the alleged offense he had his
hat in one hand and u cane in the other.
The largest shipment of apples ever
made from the United States left Portland,
Me- last week in the steamship Labrador,
which carried more than Is, 1000 barrels OF fine
fruit to England.
"A bright New York boy has set him
self up in the business of exercising fine
breu dogs for rich men, whose time is too
much taken up with money making to prop
erly look after their canine property.
John Haines, of Danville, ILL.,, was
troubled for some time with sore throat.
He gradually grew worse until he finally
lost his voice. Last Friday he coughed upa
brass pin, and soon afterward recovered his
voice.
-Flatbolme, an island in the British
Channel is only mile and halfin eircum-
ference, but, consisting mostly of rich
pasture land, supports farmhouse besides
tEe lighthouse, with a revolving light 156
feet above the sea-
The Boston Herald is responsible for the
statement that new law phrase has come
ont of recent events at Albany, and that
when a New York lawyer cannot find docu-
ment which should be at hand, he says it
has been "Maynarded-' The phrase is likely
to stick.
There are about 100, 900 islands, large
and small, scattered over the oceans. This
country alone has $500 around its coasts,
there are 565 in the bay of Rio de JaneirO,
Is 900 between Madagascar and India, and
some 200 off the Eastern coast of Australia,
between its mainland and New Guinea.
John Hopkins, of South Bend, oldest
inhabitant of the northern part of Indiana,
celebrated his 10Th birthday recently. He
vet does manual labor about his house, and
is as well preserved as the average man of
20. He has three children living over 50
years of age and l5 great-srandchildren.
From an ancient account book found at
was sold by the yard in that settlement The
limited purchasing power of days wages
at that period is shown by the price of nails
is 21zd pound. \ days ordinary wages
would pay for about four pounds of nails.
-Gertha NJ. Prior, of Bristol, Me-, 2&
years old, knows the alphabet entire, what
State county and town she lives in, what
the largest city in Maine is, who is President
of the United States can tell her name and
how old she is and can count to 12, and spell
nine words, four OF which contain four let
ters each.
The smallest inhabited island in the
world is that on which the Eddystone Light
house stands. At low water it is 30 feet in
diameter; at high water the lighthouse,
whose diameter at the base is 2S3< feet COM
pletely covers 1t. 1t is inhabited by three
persons. 1t lies nine miles Off the Cornish
coast and IA miles southwest of Plymouth
breakwater.
Suspension bridges which were built in
the time OF the Han dynasty (2O2 B. c. to 22O
A. d. are still standing striking examples
of early Oriental engineering skill. These
crossings, appropriately styled ''1ying
bridges" by early Chinese writers, are high
and dangerous-lookfng in the extreme. At
the present day bridge may still be seen in
Shense which is 400 feet long and is stretched
over chasm more than LOCO feet deep.
Meg Dodge's injunction, ''To roast a
passed into proverb, was not the fruit of
her caustic wit, as seems generally supposed.
but is q very necessary clause of her recipe
for hare soup. Blood forms an essential
part OF Scotch hare soup. If the animal is
shot, the blood is wasted, but If caught In a
snare then it is saved for use. As hares eat
only during the night, it Is very easy to
catch these most prolific destroyers OF crops
in this way.
Prof. Helm, of Zurich University, has
for some years past been investigating the
subject of death by falling, says a London
special, and has arrived at the surprising
conclusion that it is probably tine most
pleasant way of quitting life Whenever
this curiously inquisitive professor has
heard of sombody having tumbled off q roof
or fallen down a precipice and survived he
promptly set of to interview the sufferer,
spot to do so.
Among the curiosities preserved by the
Minnesota Historical Society is litho-
graphed copy of an engrossment of the
emancipation proclamation. The engrossef,
one w. II. Pratt, of Davenport, To-, was so
very skillful in his manipulations of the pen
that he succeeded, by careful and exact
excellent portrait of Abraham Lincoln, the
author of the famous document, in the GEN.
tire of the copy. In other words the letter.
ing itself is made to form portrait of Mr..
Lincoln.
Long heads are usually associated with
the possession of great intellectual strength
and mental capacity. Herr d. Ammon,
however, who made examination of the
cranial capacity of coo soldiers at Baden,
the results of which he communicated to tho
German men of science at Heidelberg. Is of
the opinion that the size of the skull de-
pends almost invariably on the proportions
of the body. Tall men he found TO always
have long skulls, skulls OF medium
length whereas the short, fat men, as a rule,
had round, fiat heads.
"A petrlfed Indian cigar from Oregon
was laid before the members present at the
meeting of the Academy of Sciences dt San
Francisco last week. 1t had been lit and
partly smoked and thrown away. The ashes
remain ed intact 1t was u perfect and very
specimen, and was considered
by the assembled scientists great find.
There were also two immense earrings
weighing about three pounds apiece and
petrified portion of the human body was
also placed on exhibition. The specimens
had been collected by q number of men who