Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-16
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS
Russia ha, tn. largest electric road.

Russia has the largest electric road.
Liverpool is England's most over
crowded city.
The city of Boston lays claim to
Chinese voter.
The dwarf magnolia came to Europe
from China in 17S6.
The Eiffel Tower is eight inches shorter
in winter than in summer.
The double handed swords of medieval
times often weighed 80 pounds
The diploidion was handsome cape
worn by Greek ladies of fashion.
"A railroad with gauge of but "a inches
is now building in North Carolina.
About 20 letters go sstray out of every
LOCO. 900 sent through the postofice.
The warm blood of animals has often
been recommended for consumptives.
Rubber pontoons were used by the
United States Army in the Mexican War.
About 1000 fishing boats engaged
around the British coast are named Mary.
Over 600 varieties of cotton are said to
exist; 400 in Asia and Africa and 200 in
America.
-Garum, the Roman sauce, was made Of
the intesi ines, gilIs and blood of the fish
left TO putrefy.
The different boring machines, designed
to cut out central bore "A feet in diameter,
were invented for use in the Hoosac tunnel.
The New York obelisk was brought to
this country in a specially prepared vessel,
the hold being opened at the bow to admit
the stone.
Henry w., of France, had for his we'd
ding feast young swans, fat puddings, suck
ing pigs, rabbits, sturgeon, almond cream
and frittcrs.
-Absinthe is an alcoholate composed of
anise, coriander and fennel, favored with
wormwood and colored with indigo and
sulphate of copper.
Here is the "eollege yell" of the Cell
tral University. Kentucky: "Brackety, Ka1,
Kowax. Kowax, Brackety, Kax. KOwax,
c. u u" "O-OOp' "O-0Op' nD''"O"-'-0'0 -
An intoxicated person, it is said, is
such rarity at Gaylord, Kansas, that when
one is arrested so much consideration is
SHOWN Tor him as to release him from
the dilapidated Jail for lear OF his taking
cold.
The annual report of the Society for the
Protection of Birds of Great Britain states
that the English goldfinch is threatened
with extinction, because OF the present de-
mand for its feathers lor "murderous mill
linery."
The inhabitants of the Andaman Islands
are the smallest race OF known human be
ings-that is, taken as an average. The
height OF a full-grown Andamanian seldom
exceeds 81 1eet and few weigh over 50
pounds.
Oysters come nearer to milk than al
most any other common food material
regards both the amounts and the relative
proportion of nutrients, the food values Of
equal weights OF milk and oysters being
nearly tile same.
Quail love potato bugs as an article Of
diet. One of these birds was recently opened
which had 10l of these farmers pets con-
cealed in its crop. 1t will pay the average
potato grower to have hock OF trained
quail among his other live stock.
king Charles V. said that we always
ought to employ French to converse with
statesmen, Italian to speak with ladies,
English to answer birds and German TO ad-
dress horses; but Spanish WAS the only
| language to be used in addressing kings,
| queens and the Almighty.
The English-speaking people and the
| Russians are about the only nations who
| use Fahrenheit's thermometer. while Ger
| many and Scandinavia still employ Reau-
| mur'S, though in all these countries scIen-
/ tific data are almost universally given in
that OF Celsius or the Centigrade.
| in the islands of New Britain man
| must not speak to his mother-in-law. Not
| only is speech forbidden to his relative, but
she must be avoided, and if by any chance
| the lady is met the son-in-law must hide
himself or cover his face. Suicide of both
| parties is the outcome if the rule is broken
According to the best and most recent
| calculations 600 tons Of water pour
| over Niagara every hour. This represents
| Is OeO 0C0 horse power. The total coal pro-
| duction of the world, either daily. weekly,
monthly or yearly, would not furnish steam
| power sufficient to pump it back again.
| Father Hennepin, the missionary, dis
| covered coal in 1863 in what is now Ottawa,
| Ill. This appears to be the first record Of
| the finding of coal in America, but it was
not mined until nearly a century and a half
| later. In 1913 five ark loads OF hinty coal
were fioated down the Lehigh river and sold
! for s2l per ton.
Probably the smallest electric light in
| stallation in the world is to be found in the
| little village OF Bremen, near Dormbach, in
| Thuringia 1t comprises q single arc lamp
installed in the church, the lamp being
| operated when required by a small dynamo
| arranged in the village mill and driven by
| the mill wheel.
In France there is an unwritten bus
immutable law that a painting shall not be
| exhibited without the artists consent, no
| matter what the wishes of the owner may
| be. And now a literary and artistic con-
| gress in session at Milan, Italy, has decided
| that the right of reproduction does not pass
| to the buyer of picture.
Miss Viola Fuller, of Mitchell, S. D,
will present to the Chicago Worlds Fair n
| unique opera CLOAK. It is made entirely OF
| the feathers OF prairie chickens. It took
Miss Fuller ten years to collect and sew On
the small feathers, each prairie chicken
| caught yielding only four or fve suitable
feathers.
"A traveller in the Transvaal has met
mysterious chieftainess, one Majajie. who
claims to be the original of Rider Haggard's
| "She Who Must Be Obeyed" Sne is an an
cient dame, strangely decrepit, and evil
| denrly not n KafIir; for she has trans
parently white complexion, bright blue eyes
| and long snow white hair.
Among the most sacred relics OF Hor-
Iuii is the veritable eyebalI OF Buddha- 1t
looks like nothing else but the tiny, black,
yeIl-boiled pearl that one SO often finds in
an OYSTER stew This "Eye of Buddha" Is
| shown every day at high noon, special mass
being chanted by the priests while the relic
is being brought out and displayed.
-Fine-edged tools assume blue color
and lose all temper if exposed for any con-
siderable length of time to the light of the
sun either in summer or winter. A similar
effect is exercised by moonlight, a large
cross-cut saw with which the experimenters
were working. having been put out of shape
and its temper ruined by q single nights ex-
posure to q firstquarter moon"