Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-16
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

The street cars in London, Ontario, run
on runners in winter.
1t is related that Georgia dog re.
Gently swallowed q silver fork without in
jury to itself.
Japan has baseball nine composed Of
Michigan, Harvard. Yale, Princeton and
Columbia men.
Denmark is the most drunken country
toxicants is double that OF Germany.
Returns just published show that the
population Of the colony Of Western Austria.
la on December 81 last was 53.2so-S22ss
males and q, 067 females.
Missouri is the first zinc-producing
State of the country The nations total
production was 234, sos tons last year, and
", I3l tons came from Missouri.
"A Chinaman reached ST. Stephens, N.
B., last week on his way to Calais, Me-, hav-
ing come from the Pacific coast I'm bond. Il
Is the first case of the kind ever known in
New Brunswick.
Blood travels from the heart through
the arteries ordinarily at the rate of about
u INCHES per second; its speed through the
capillaries is at the rate of three one-hun-
dredths of an inch per second.
The Patagonian lights his pipe, throws
ground, and swallows several mouthfuls of
smoke in manner which produces a kind
of into1ication lasting several minutes.
The City Marshal OF Corvallis, one of
Oregon's most thriving cities. the busy me-
tropolis of a seaboard county, issued notice
recently that "in the future no cows will be
allowed staked out In the city limits.''
1t is known that the hoofs of horses
were protected by boots of leather at very
early period in the worlds history-ata q time
which at least antedates Pliny and Aristotle
both OF whom make mention of the fact.
The ancients firmly believed in monster
serpents OF all kinds and of both the land
and marine species. During the wars with
Carthage great snake is said to have kept
the Roman army from crossing the Bagrades
river for several days.
This is the way a Texas reporter began
his written account of u wedding, to which
he had been assigned: "a cloudless sky,
ruled by the radiant moon and gemmed
with millions of stars, arched grandly the
nuptial night"
"A man, when detected in the act of
burglary in Piedmont, Ala. recently, began
crying, and requested to be fiogged, saying
that he deserved 1t. His request was granted
by his captors, after which he was ordered to
leave town and never return.
Two little islands furnish four-fifths of
the cloves consumed by the world. The
islands are Zanzibar and Pemba, and a little
while ago Arabs found it very profitable to
bring slaves from che African lake region to
the coast and SmuRgle them in the night
over to Pemba to work on the Glove planta-
tions.
The record of the immense wheat crop
in the Dakotas last year is incomplete yet.
Because the elevators were full to the roofs,
and n st enough cars could be had to carry
the grain out of the State, thousands OF
bushels of wheat were piled up IN the streets
OF several North Dakota towns during the
winter.
a thin slab of stone three feet long, has been
by the British Museum. In the
upper corner there are holes for cords to
pass through, so that 1t might be hung up
outside the theater, and 1t bears this inscrip-
tion in Latin: "Circus full. Immense ap-
plause. Doors shut"
The French crown jewels are said to
have once included among their NUM- Der a
perfect dragon, two inches in length, carved
from ruby of the first water When the
Summer Palace at Pekin was sacked head
of Buddha, carved from q magnificent ruby,
fell to the Duke of Brunswick as his share
of the spoils. After his death it sold for
5000.
Many travellers have described the
famous "rain tree" of Padradoca, Isle of
Ferro, the most notable accounts OF it ap-
in Peter Martyrs "Indie Occiden-
tale" and Ramusio's "Hist. dele Indie.n
John Cockburn. 1875, describes tree at Vera
Pas, Central America. from which pure
water continually dripped from every leaf
and branch.
The Liverpool bark Mary Mark, bound
for Rio de Janeiro, has been SO days on the
way and has got only as far as Cardiff. She
tod nan n
put back twice to Liverpool in a disabled
condition. Then she went ashore on the
Welsh coast. She returned again to Liver
pool leaky, and afterward she put into Car.
iitf in a damaged condition
One of the most celebrated opera sing
rs of the past generation, at whose feet
half of Europe lay at one time, was buried
asst week as pauper in Vienna She was
Rosa Czillag. She was particularly great in
The Prophet" She died aged 5s having
ost her voice IS years ago. and having been
or the last two years q cripple. When quite
young she married Hermann, the conjurer,
whose brother survives him.
"A Georgia farmer is raising two calves
hat are being brought up to help them
elves. and, as a consequence. require less
are. They are kept in the barn, near a well,
rom which water is taken by means of
common cistern pump. The calves have
earned to operate the pump, and whenever
hey want q drink they pump it. Ono
Jumps while the other puts his mouth un-
er the spout and drinks, and they take turn
bout.
A late scientific authority states that by
aturating q bullet with vaseline it's flight
nay be easily followed with the eye from
he time it leaves the muzzle of the rifle
ntil it strikes the target. The course of
he flight Is marked by q beautiful ring of
moze, caused by the vaseline being ignited
n leaving the muZzle of the gun. This
moke ring will remain suspended in the air
Or some little time after the bullet Strikesif
be day is not too windy.
Evidence increases that the universal
,nguage will be English. 1t has already
aken the place of French in Germany and
ussia. All the deliberations of the recent
difference concerning Samoa were con-
ucted in English instead OF French. A
entIeman in Liberia says that English has
riyen out every other foreign tongue from
,e west coast of Africa, where once Po-tu-
uese was dominant. This progress in India
steady, as it is also in japan.