Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-24
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

I'm Greece 155, 900 tons Of currants sre
grown, on an average, every year.
"A microscope which maglifes to 16,0o
dfameters has been made at Berlin.
Since the Zulu war Of 1880 British
standards have not been taken into the
field
In Switzerland the first sugar factory is
being erected at Romanshorn, upon Ger
man model.
Waste glass is now mixed with silica
and tale and fired. 1t then becomes an ef-
fective building material.
1t is stated that in some of the English
agricultural districts, the population has de-
creased 40 per cent since the last census.
The town of Warren, Knox county,
Me-, with a population of only 1000, has Is
secret societies, and another is being
formed. .-
There were 143 divorce cases in Scot
land last year, as against ITO the year.previ-
GUS. Sixty-three of the actions were brought
by husbands and so by wives.
Civil engineers report that Lake Mica
ragua is full of man-eating sharks. It is q
mystery where they came from, as the lake
Is midway between the two oceans
I'm the days when wigs and powder
were fashionable. ladies are said to have
paid as much as 81, 600 for having their hair
dressed for special or state occasions.
Files are now sbarpened by electricity.
They are immersed in liquid and the cur
rent turned on for 20 minutes, at the end Of
winch time they come out as good as new.
"A ton of roses Yields only two ounces Of
the altar, ottar or otto. If kept at temper.
ature below 500, altar crystallizes; if kept
open to the air and light it is easily yola.
tflized.
"A Lewiston, Me-, Frenchman, while
landing the rabbit as an article of food, de-
livered himself as follows: "You take one
rabbeet and skin him, and just as lief have
q chicken"
"A daily newspaper published in South
Africa in the English language has just en-
tered the forty-seventh year of its exist
ence. The paper is the Natal Witness, pub
Hshed in Pietermaritzburg.
There was quite heavy fall of snowin
Mobile, Ala, last Thursday, an event Of
great rarity and of equally great interest to
the Inhabitants. 1t was the first snow in
five years and the fifth in 70 years.
Some of the Maine coast dwellers are
no better or in respect to school and church
privileges than the people Of the remote
Aroostook wilderness, who never see any
thing much except trees and bears.
Some painters in Geneva are painting
panorama of the Bernese Alps, which will
havea height of 81 feet and width of 345 feet,
to go to Chicago. The whole will cost about
s300,0 1t was all sketched from the sum-
nit of the Mannlichen, g. 900 feet high
The constellation of Pegasus, or tho
'Flying Horse, is said to be the horse which
miraculouslv sprang from the blood of Me-
dusa after Perseus had cut of her head. Ac-
cording to Hesiod, he received his name
from being born near the source OF the
ocean.
"A hive of 5000 bees will produce about
50 pounds of honey annually, and will multi
ply about tenfold in five years. According
to the latest statistics the total number Of
hives of bees in the United States and
Europe is 900, and the annual product Of
honey Isl, ,000, 900 pounds.
Italian papers tell of a Neapolitan
nobleman who fought fourteen duels during
his lifetime in defense of his assertion that
Dante was a greater poet than Ariosto. As
he lay on his death-bed short time ago he
took pleasure in acknowledging that ne mad
never read the works Of either writer.
Wax is substance secreted by the bee,
and is analogous to the fat of the higher ami
mails The wax of species of bee common
in Patagonia, Terra del Fuego and other
parts of Southern South America and the
adjacent islands, is dark blue in color and
is said to be more poisonous than arsenic
Perhaps everyone does not know how
easily fresh apple blossoms can be had in
winter Get the ends of branches with
plump flower buds and place them in water
in warm, sunny window, and they WI
trees and shrubs will give as good satisfac-
tion. -s - - --n<y
The great lantern flies of Southern
Europe and ASIA which are sometimes
,alled 'tfving glox-worms," )" were allied to
.he boat flies and water scorpions. On the
beetles. The latter are of sombre hue in the
day time, and it is only at night that they
show their lights.
I'm some countries dates form not only
the principal food, but drink, clothing, tim
Der and shelter. To the Hindoo especially,
is the tree valuable, for it means to him
nearly all the necessaries of life. A liquor,
resembling wine, is made from the fruit.
There is a soft pith in the stem, which, with
the Young leaves, is eaten as vegetable,
and is called palm cabbage.
. Luigi Emanuele Farina, the italian
Deputy who died short time ago, was a
politician of unique electioneering devices.
On one rainy election day he sent to each OF
ibout 400 voters and umbrella with his COM
1liments At another time he had pigs
lriven through the streets with this notice
ranging from the snout OF each: whoever
7otes for Farina may eat of me-"
An Alameda, Cal, citizen heard great
.acket in his malt house the other night,
md going to investigate found an immense
,wI in the dove COTE He killed the intruder
With a club, and found it to be the most
normous creature he had ever seen of that
ort It took all his strength to drag the
,eayv carcass from the building, and the
Alamedan says that by actual measurements
t measured IS feet from tip to tip.
The largest oak now standing in Eng
and is the "Cowthorpie." which measures
feet in circumference at the ground. AT
ne time this tree and its branches covered
more than an acre of space. The gigantic
Id parliamentary Oak in Clipstone Park,
,ondon, is believed to be 800 years old. The
nIIest OAK on the British Isles is called the
)uke's Walking-stick. 1t is higher than the
nire of Westminster Abbey. The oak OF
ieIemos, which was felled in 1910, realized
$50 for it's owner; the bark was sold for
900 and the trunk and branches for s., $50