Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-08
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS

Il
| "A tropical moth, called the "Atlas'
moth, has Q wingspread Of i foot 1t is
| gray In color and flies by night.
| There are tropical cockroaches
1sss iSns sssy With n
houses.
in South America there are giant grass.
hoppers with bodies inches long and Q
vtng-spread Of 10 inches. Owing to the fact
that they are not very numerous, these
formidable insects do mot do much damage.
There are many cases in which an ex-
trsordinary intellect has accompanied heavy
brain weight, but the records show that
men whose mental abilities have never been
| questioned have had brains under the aver.
| age In both size and weight.
BY some statistics recently published 1t
appears that, in the five years Of life be-
tween tho ages Of 20 and Is, the mortality Of
unmarried men is ], ia in 600 and OF mar.
ried men only 697. From rs to 50 the num-
bers respectively are 1,a96 and 666
Professor Masso, the italian scientist,
in experimenting with the blood Of eels has
discovered by injecting 1t under the skin Of
Is rank POISON being simsr in 1's Sssion to
venom Of snakes Of the viper kind.
Thomas Parr, who was born in Shrop-
shire, England, in 14s3, lived until he killed
himself from overeating in tho year 1885
when he had attained tho great age of lJ9
years He lived in three centuries and titled
the soil until after the end of his l3oth year.
If an elephant was as altisonant or far
sounding as q nightingale in proportion to
his bulk his trumpeting could be easily heard
around the world. On like conditions an OK
believing in Australia could be heard in
New York about Is hours after making the
noise.
The invention now known as "bleez-
ing" the mode of vanishing pottery with
thin film Of glass, is believed to date back to
the first Egyptian dynasty. Proof Of this is
found in the pottery beads, glass-glazed,
ferred to.
On metal rails horse can. draw one
and two-third times as much as on ssphalt
pavement; three and one-third times as much
rs on good Belgian blocks; i've times as
much as on good cobble stone: 20 times as
much as on an earth road; 40 times as much
as on sand.
alDivers who helped to lay the founda-
ton Of the great Eads bridge found that
while they were under a pressure OF four
"atmospheres," or 60 pounds to the square
inch, the ticking of q watch was absolutely
painful to the ear. They also found 1t i'm
possible to whistle.
1t is popularly supposed that aluminium
Is the lightest of metals. but this Is not the
case. Magnesium is one-third lighter and is
harder, tougher and denser Until recently
it was cheaper than aluminium. 1t f. less
affected by alkalies than the latter metal
and takes high polish.
There are most beautiful butterflies in
the Malay Archipelago, Of an exquisfte blue
and other iridescent hues, which measure
sinches from wing-tip to wing-sip. In South
America there is q beetle even bigger than
the Hercules beetle. 1t is over a foot long,
legs and all, though its body is not 50 heavy.
There were no less than 953 suicides in
Paris during the year 1ssl-2sl sought watery
graves, lib blew out their brains, 80 hanged,
II stabbed themselves, 81 used poison, "a en-
jOyed asphyxiation, IS threw themselves
from high elevations, lA deaths were from
unknown Causes and "a were crushed under
trains or machinery. -....s-.-'
-Yama, the Greek Pluto, the Christian
Satan. fs 80 miles high. The hairs Of Ms
body are like palm trees. He Furnishes the
damned by putting them in beds Of boiling
oil, saving their bodies In two, pouring
molten lead into their ears, pulling out
their toe-nails and tongues, and q vast num-
Der of other varieties Of torture.
Taking the whole of the married men
and the whole of the unmarried mon from
the age Of 20 to the close Of l1fe, tits computed
years, while those of the latter average only
10 yeary-a difference of 19k years in favor OF
married men; that is, marriage increases the
average duration of mans life by one-half
lacking six months.
So stupendous is the scale on which the
visible universe is framed that q ray Of light
which would travel round tho earth in
013s6 of a second OF time, does not reach us
from Neptune under period Of more than
four hours; while from the nearest hxed star
(alpha Centauri) it. occupies fve and one
naiI years, ana from q little star satiee ma
In Cassiopeia its journey occupies 80 years.
The color of the sharks egg is black, of
leathery texture. thin. tough and in form
similar to hand barrow, the body of the
barrow being represented by the middle Of
the egg and the handles by the four projec-
tions at the angles. These projections, which
are called tendrjls, are OF use to enable the
egg to cling to the growing seaweed at the
bottom of the ocean, thus preventing it
from being washed away by the currents
There is a good deal that is weird about
the Galapagos islands, which 1t has been
proposed that Uncle Sam shall buy for a
coaling station in the South seas. They are
l6 in number-fi~e big and II small ones,
without counting ever so many little islets-
and the line of the equator runs directly
through the sr0up o,na MeTsrtne,ess tn les the s
bly, low temperature Of the surrounding
waters.
Most of the big spiders of the New
World are of the sort which build nests with
trap-doors lining hole dug in the ground,
with silk, fitting It with door so artfully
made as to hinge, beveled edge and spring
that it IS almost impossible to detecr the fAet
that there is an opening, and, in some cases,
actually planting seeds on this dainty portal
for the purpose of concealiDg it with grow
Ing plants. Some of the largest spiders
catch birds, and individuals have been
known tn capture good-sized fishes, lying in
wait for them at the border of stream
Following are some interesting statis-
tics of the rapidly developing sugar in
dustry of Argentina: The area OF the cane
plantations this year Is 1850 acres, which,
at the usual rate of production, will yield
!, $40 600, 900 pounds of cane. The area of cul-
tivation in 1889 was 81, $50 acres and the yield
was l,507, 900 pounds Of cane. The gross value
Of the crop this year is estimated at G275o-
Do0, rs compared with IS, 165, 900 in 1882 There
are So sugar factories representing q capital
value Of about 80, ,000, 900 in gold. The
actual production in 1889 was 100000
pounds, and this years yield IL estimated at
70 900 900 pounds or 81, 500 hoysheads.
IDYLS OF THE HOUR,
'Has that lady who called on your mother
.sNo .nd she WON'T oo for another bour >,