Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-19
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.
Football was tavorite game among the
Greeks and Romans.
-AFrench soldier can earn shillings q
month pocket money.
"A Philadelphia Chinaman glories in
pigtaf feet II inches in length.
:. A turnip seed increases its own weight
Is times in q minute when growing.
The cocoa tree of the Maldiye Islands
every month produces cluster of nuts.
Among English people dark brown hair
| Is more than twice as common as hair ofany
other shade.
"A chicken ranch in Bellingham Bay,
Puget Sound, has 100000 fowls. 1t is said to
be the largest in the world.
AT the present day sacred pigs roam in
Violate about the Buddhist monasteries Of
Canton and elsewhere in China. -
The largest telephone switchboard in
the world is that in the exchange at Berlin,
where 1000 wires are connected with the
main office.
The City of London is the smallest Of
cities, but the most valuable. 1t has an
area of one square mile which produces O
rental OF 5000, 900 per annum- .'.
family name first, the individual, or what
we should call the Christian name, next
and then the honorific-thus, Smith Peter
Mr."
1t is said that in all the forests of the
earth there are no two leaves exactly the
same. 1t is also said that amid all peoples
of the earth there are no two faces precisely
alike.
In the towns and cities of Chile all the
shopping of any consequence is done in the
evening. In Santiago the stores are open
till midnight, and during hot afternoons
they are locked up.
"A law is to be passed in Costa Rica
making the sale to foreigners of Indian
antiquities collected in the Republic a
crime punishable with severe penalties. 4
similar law is to be passed in Ecuador. >
Switzerland has the largest army of any
nation of Europe in proportion to its popu-
lation. No standing army is permitted by
law but all citizens are liable to serve, and
in turn undergo annual military training.
Bees are said to desert hive on the oc-
casion of death in the family. unless they
are informed of it by rapping on the hive
while announcing the death. In some
places it is said the hives in such q case
should be draped with mourning. 49,
Am ancient copper mine, which was fist
worked 1ls3 years ago, is about to be re-
opened in Musashi. Japan. Old Japanese
manuscripts of undoubted authenticity men,
tion this mine. Its galleries and levels are
in some cases just as they were 100 years
ago.
The oldest woman in the country who
is a preacher, it is thought, is the Rev. Lydia
Sexton, of Seattle, now 93 years of age. She
has been in service about half u century.
For eight or ten years she was an eIhorter
before receiving regular license to preach,
in ISL
After the famine of 1S47, lace making
was revived in Ireland. Limerick, the most
successful Irish lace is not really lace at
all. 1t is tambour work upon net and
muslin. The Irish point, so called, is. the
ancient cutwork, being made in quite the
same way
SO great has been the development of
the petroleum fields in Peru that pipe lines
have been run from the main wells to the
coast. The opinion is expressed that the
Peruvian field will soon be able to- supply
the demand of all the west coast of South
America. -
Along the Colombia river a kind of
bread is made by the Indians from moss
that grows on the spruce fir tree. This moss
is prepared by placing it in heaps, sprinkling
it with water and permitting it to ferment.
Then it is rolled into balls as big Us q mans
head and these are baked in pits.
The "superfluous woman" has not who'll
" abandoned New England, but she is dwin-
ding, so to speak. The aggregate popula-
tion Of the six States increased in the ten
years I7.2 per cent, but the number of males
increased 355 632, or ISL per cent, while the
females increased 335. 1S4, or only 1853 per
cent.
During seven months of last year more
than 200 buildings were struck by lightning
ebaps1s h afa Ia resfdences, = q farmhSuses. and
ricks. and hotels and public houses. Dur
ing the same time18 men and women were
killed by this cause, besides 9s cattle,aSo
horses and 153 sheep
One dav in 1880 a working jeweler,
Joseph elliott, now the famous steel pen
maker accidentally split one of his fine
steel tools. Being suddenly required to sign
q receipt, and not finding his quill. pen at
hand, he used the split tool as ready sub
stitute. This happy accident led to the idea
of making pens of steel.
In Oriental countries locusts are util-
lied as food They are sometimes fried and
served with rice and dates, sometimes
boiled. or baked, occasionally salted and
ground up into cakes and frequently boiled
in milk. The Digger Indians rejoiced in the
great swarms of locusts of 1875 as dispensa-
tion of the Great Spirit. . 49, =,
A hermit who died in Logan county,
o., recently, was great hoarder of curios.
He left a library of choice works worth ST.
5OO nearly q score of guns, some of them old
enough trousers TO start store.
and clocks, watches and revolvers by the
dozen, the inventory showing nearly 4,OO0
separate groups OF goods.
The Paris Exposition of 1855 cost S., ,000,-
COO, the London Exposition of 1862 50 500, 900.
the Vienna Exposition of 1873 s7SJO,0OO and
the Paris Exposition of 1889 ST, SOC, OOO. The
SO 600, ,OC0 which it is proposed to spend on
our Columbian Exposition shows that Amer
ica can beat the world when it comes to q
lavish expenditure of money.
"A unique triple wedding feast was en-
loved in q Bohemian village early this
month, when a young couple were married
on the same day that the parents of che
bridegroom celebrated their silver wedding
and his grandparents their golden wedding.
On the same day diamond wedding
was celebrated at Hellingenkreuz, near
Vienna.
A remarkable diamond has been re-
GENTLY found on the Koffeyfontein Diamond
Mining Company's ground in Australia,
which appears to be of such value that even
luuaes hesitate to name Drfce
with its worth 1t is said to
be of a beautiful shade of pink, entirely de-
void Of spot or blemish, and to weigh l3H
karats. .-. =.
One of the old stories is that in the year
1919 two councillors of Christian w. of Dem
mark. while sailing between Norway and
sweden, discovered a norman swimming
,bout with bunch of grass on his head
rhey threw out q hook and line. baited with
| slice of bacon. which the norman seized.
Peinp caught, he threatened vengeance 50
oudly that he was thrown back into the sea.
IDYLLIC HUMOREsOUEs.
Brian-I think you do Smith an injustice