Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-07
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

| West India people eat alligator eggs
The piano was invented by Christofali
in the year I'LL
The snare drum was brought into Eu-
rope by the saracens about 7oS A. c.
The laying of the Atlantic cable was be-
gun ut Valentia, in Ireland. in 1851.
| Some newspaper compositors are now
said to use both hands in setting type.
"A three-minute conversation by tele-
phone between Paris and London costs 81.
The streets of London, if put to an end,
would reach from that city to st. Petersburg.
-Thiers finished the "History of the
/ French Revolution" when he was 26 years
old.
The original "oeclaration of Independ-
ence'' is in the State Department. in Wash
instOn.
India has one missionary to 275, 900 peo-
pie. Persia one to 800 600 and Thibet one to
| 100000.
In England one person in every SO is
pauper: in America the rate is one person in
every &c.
No bird can fy backward without turn
ing. The dragon fly, however, can do this
and can outstrip the swallow in speed
-rwo thousand pounds was the fancy
price paid for a Stradivarius violin in excel
lent preservation recently at Stuttgart.
The corporation of undertakers of Paris
has formed syndicate and has celebrated
the event with banquet and concert.
Three hundred and sixty different
mountain peaks within the limits of the
United States exceed 10000 feet in height.
1t was not until the Council of Trent,
in 1929. that the intervention of q priest was
n fr,
riaEe.
"A law passed in England in 1850 to the
effect that at parties 'Tadies must not get
drunk on any pretext whatever, and gentle-
men not before 9 O'clock"
The smallest representatives of the
sheep species are the tiny "Bretons," na-
tives of Breton, France. when full grown
they are not much larger than rabbit.
"A lady writing from ST. Louis says that
her hair is 81 inches in length, and there Is
another lady in Chicago WHO can easily
stand on her hair, which is feet inches
long.
If man who weighs 12 stones were
proportionately as strong as flying beetle Of
the ckchafer family, he would be able to
Isl tons. % ''''- D g " -'
"A New York halter has just made hat
So in size. The length and width are 81 Dy
~. This, he says, is the size necessary to
the comfort OF the man with the biggest
head in town.
The first coins minted in North America
were produced in Mexico in 1885. and the
coinage OF the colonies that afterward be-
came the United States used the Mexican
dollar as the standard of value.
During the last financial year a profit
was made in the Scotch prisons of S4.c3S out
of the labor of the prisoners The expendi-
ture for implements and material was Ell ,596.
while the receipts amounted to Ell,6So.
"A calf belonging to a Nazareth, Pa,
farmer, while drinking water from stream,
swallowed front, about 10 inches long.
The fish ran down the calf's throat, causing
obliged to kill 1t.
The total work performed BY the human
body during five hours of mountain climb
ing is equal to 1926, 900 footpounds, not
counting other forces exerted, which DR..
Bucheister says will run the grand total up
to l,3s00 900 foot pounds.
Flies have long been accused of spread
ing disease, but it is asserted now from
Havana that mosqu' toes have a use, for IL
they inoculcate anyone after biting yellow
fever patient the disease which follows Is so
mild that fatal results are rare.
-Four Thousand dollars in Government
bonds were found in a room of a Rochester,
n. Y, hotel wrapped IN an old newspaper:
The owner. who reclaimed them soon, said
that he had been carrying them in his nip
pocket and that they had dropped out.
in 1850 the property of the Roman
Catholics in this country amounted to g.. .2js-
75S which in 1890 had increased to Sis, ,3Sl 5I6.
The Methodists hold the largest total, viz,
SEQ 0ls.07O while the Episcopalians are the
richest in proportion to their membership.
More than 200 panels of native woods
will enter into the inteEior decoration of the
Worlds Fair building. Some of them will
be carved, and others decorated with paint
ings of Washington scenerv and groupings
of flowers, fruits, grains, fish, game, birds,
etc.
In a recently invented watch for the
blind, small peg Is set in the middle Of
each figure. When the hour hand reaches q
given hour, the peg for that hour drops.
The owner, when he wants to know the
time, finds which peg is down and then
counts back TO XII
I'm 1870 the proportion of certifcated
women teachers was 4s in every 100. to-day It
is g. Similarly the number of women as
sistants has risen from go TO II per 100. In
1870 there were 1878 girls and $3.50 boy
tea chers. There are now q, ~ girls and only
6, $50 boys learning the art of teaching.
Fully 100, 900 men, it is believed. will
participate in the parnde on the occasion OF
in October, Such is the estimate of Secre-
tary Culp of the committee having the pre-
for the ceremonies in charge. The
militiamen and regulars who will partici-
pate will mum Der auout 10000.
Spain, as a country, is still terribl
backward in matters of sanitation, but i
has progressed somewhat during the last
century and half In the wear 1760 the
cleaning of the streets of Madrid was actual
lY forbidden, the physicians of the city be-
ing OF opinion that the filth was wholesome
and the innovation unnecessary.
"A compass which once belonged to the
explorer, jacques Cartier, will be exhibited
at the Chicago Exposition. The Instrument
was found in the ship LIE Petite Hermine at
the very spot whore it was abandoned by
jacques Cartier in 1856 II has the following
inscription: "Macquart, Paris. st. Malo, 9th
April, 1884. jacques Cartier, Mariner"
The Parliament that met on August
is the thirteenth of the present reign. The
reign of Queen Victoria stands unique in the
annals OF Parliamentary history, having
broken all previous records Since the days
of Henry VIII, when Pnrliaments of more
than one session began to be usual, no SOW
ereign has called into being IL successive
Pariiaments.
INTO ErrEEVnnM