Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-03
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

-Underclothing of wood fiber is coming
| into use.
Turkeys have been known to. live 80
years in Indiana.
"A hunter in Maine claims to have a
! cat that will stalk grouse.
Sewing silk is soaked in acetate of lead
to make it weigh heavier
Successful experiments in growing tea
have been made near Panama.
Ammonia as motive power is coming
into use on various street car lines.
Porcelain is being made from asbestos
in Paris. 1t is said to be superior article
The Maehias river, which usually
freezes early in December, did not close this
year until January IS.
In Canterbury, n. H., one or the resi-
dents has lamp chimney that has been in
constant use for "a years.
-Noah's arks and kindred toys come from
Saxony and some 80, ,OO9 people at Thuringia
get their living making them.
Arabian wonder tales are as popular in
this country as they are at Bagdad, where
they are read and told by everybody.
In cases where nature intends that in
sects shall feed on flowers at night, the
MOWERS they select are all of a white color
Five hundred children under 10 years
of age have been taken into custody in II
months in London as drunk and incapable.
1t was not until thea eleventh century
that leather uppers were made for shoes.
The wooden sole was still in use at this
time.
A farmer of Durbin, Ore, has three
tame buffalos, which he intends to send to
the Worlds Fair, though he has been offered
thousands of dollars for them.
Rome, 20 years ago, was city of ruins
and cabbage gardens and had a population
of 2o0, 900. Now it has a population of 4OO, 900
and the streets are better kept
During the past II months the Saliva
tion Army Food Depots have supplied $780,
$50 cheap meals to the homeless and stary-
ing. Ofthese 10000 were free.
Minister Smith reports that Il, ,OOO, 900
is moderate estimate of the sufferers from
famine in Russia who require aid as they
are without other means of support.
The first form of bridge was that of two
struts hinged at the apex and provided
with means by which they could be made to
move alternately one before the other.
-Irishmen are leaving the British army
at the rate of 1000 year. A quarter of q
century ago the army contained more than
$1,000 Irishmen, but now the number hardly
reaches % 0O0.
Aluminium is the best conductor of heat
and electricity. In 1855 it cost $50 pound,
in 1887 it was reduced to IS pound and last
year it was sold in New York City for 80
cents pound.
"A carpet-layer at Reading, Pa, was de-
tected stealing a BATH" and the lady OF the
house was so delighted with his misconduct
when missed from his work that she de-
o1 ad t0
If all the babies born in one year were
laid in a line, head to foot, they would stretch
from New York to Hongkong. II they could
walk past a corner at the rate of 20 per min
ute 1t would take them six years to pass.
The famous Khojak tunnel of India
pierces the Khwaja Amran Mountains about
go miles north of Inetta at an elevation of
6 400 feet. 1t is II 500 feet long and was con-
structed broad enough to carry double
track.
There is an annual feast of false faces
among the Onendaga Indians in Northwest
ern New York that follows some weeks after
the white dog feast. The faces are mostly
wooden masks made by themselves, but are
not old
Recently little girl skating on the
Missouri fell into an air hoIe. The current
drew her under the ice and she fosted to
a young man grappled her with an ice hook.
She was none the worse for the mishap-
The following notice was displayed one
evening outside a small American theaterat
which a travelling troupe was about to give =
a perfornance: ."On account OF the loss OF
Desddmond's pocket handkerchief Hamlet
will be given this evening instead of 3
'Othello.'"
There used to be a giant species Of
in Mo Van Mack dis
cover of the dodo, found some there which
were so large that six men could be seated
in q single shell. Another authority states
that 1000 or 5000 of them were sometimes
seen in one drove
A Virginia girl recently attended to all
the household duties including the care OF
five sick persons, fed and curried six horses.
fed and MIXED six cows, walking mile and
a quarter twice a day TO reach them, and ran
errands to the drug store. She is said to be
beautiful ana is only Is.
I'm former times nearly every tribe of
Indians east of the Mississippi river was
accustomed at regular periods to collect and
clean the bones of those persons who had
died during the intervening time, interring
them in a common sepulcher, lined with
choice furs and marked with mound OF
wood, stone or earth
"A few years ago Maine man drew
will giving his property to church. Soon
afterward his wife died, and now he is dead,
but his will cannot be found nor the lawyer
who drew it. The church says that he was
sane when he made his will, and if he de-
stroyed it he was insane. and they are suing
for the property on those grounds.
"A family in Winterport, Me-, owns a
curious relic of the olden days in the form
of a bed cord made from the sinews of
whale Before the days of springs and mat
tresses people paid particular attention to
their bed cords, and many were the varie-
ties of Iacing which held up the tick filled
with feathers, corn husks or straw. Woods
men twisted the sinews of the deer, while
sailors wove strands of MANILA into tough
and fanciful forms, but it remained for the
Moodys, of Winterport, to utilize the whale
for that purpose.