Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-25
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS

Partisan rag-pickers operate only after
sundewn.
The City of Mexico is I, ,349. 80 feet above
sea level.
Women load and unload vessels in jap
| anese ports.
| 1t has been discovered that almanacs
date back to the year 100 A D.
On an average there are 2S15 hours Of
sunshine week in this country.
| The first lighthouses had fires of wood
| and coal kindled at the top of them.
"A pelican was killed at Shell Beach,
\ Cal, the other day, that measured feet 10
inches, from tip to tip.
-Dartmoor is the largest tract of uncul-
tivated land in England: it occupies one
| fifth of the county Of Devon.
According to Japanese belief the Mi
kako is descended from the gods, being one
hundred and twenty-irst in direct line Of
descent.
There is a Chinese theater in Victoris,
British Columbia, where a company OF Is
PLAYERS has a repertoire of 500 plays and the
bill is changed nightly.
1t has been found that half-ourned src
carbons will cut glass. Containing. as they
do, many OF the characteristics of the dia-
nOnus InlS iS HOt SURPRISING.
In all the large towns in Sweden the
fashionable BARRIERS shops are kept by
women. The hair cutting and shampoofn1
are done by men, but only women shave.
"A few old toll bridges down in Maine
bear signs that perpetuate the memory of
curious law. These signs proclaim that all
persons. save "paupers, Indians and clergy
men," must pay toll in crossing the bridge.
Three companies have been formed in
London to work the petroleum beds of Peru.
1t is TO be hoped that success will attend
their operations, as kerosene sells at about
. 81 per gallon in many of the Central Ameri-
can States.
BAN boo makes the best kind and quality
of charcoal for blacksmith work. 1t is said
to give off more heat than the best coke and
requires less blast to kindle and burn it. It
commands double the price of ordinary
charcoal in India.
The manufacture of wood pulp has
become one of the most important trades Of
Sweden. According to recent reports, that
country has over 10 wood pulp factories,
about half Of which have been started dur
ing the last three years.
Among the weavers EMPLOYED in q
Biddeford, Me-, cotton mill is woman who
stands feet and inches in her stocking
feet and is large and strong in proportion.
She is more than q match for any man about
the mill, either in boxing or wrestling.
During last year there were 300, 000, 900
feet of timber cut in the Adirondack forests
OF the whole quantity, two-thirds was made
into lumber. and the remainder into paper
pulp, and all by the wood pulp mills in the
Adirondack region, the product being l09,-
200 tons Of wood pulp.
A famous Maine hunter killed two
monster bull moose near Nahmakanta Lake
q few days ago and took their heads and
antlers to Bangor to be mounted. One Of
the headssand antlers weighed s9% pounds,
the other s71l pounds, and one pair had a
spread of feet inch.
The Portland Press Club has one of the
old desks provided by the Maine Legislature
for reporters when the seat of Government
was removed from Portland to Augusta in
1882. James G. Blaine, Chief Justice Fuller
and other eminent Maine men used the desk a.
while they were reporters.
The area under jute in India, in 1891, is
reported to be about 45 per cent less than in
the previous year. The quality exported in
1850 was 10, SOC, ,145 hundred weight, and it an
pears likely that the quantity from the ls9l
crop, available for export. will not be more
than three-fourths OF that quantity.
"A scheme for taking vessels of 20-fees
draught through the Canadian canals by
means of steel pontons placed under them
is being urged upon the Canadian Govern
ment The expense of this system would
be about $500, 900. while to deepen the canals
sufficiently would cost many millions of dol
lars.
-Adolph Sutro, the man who made q
huge fortune out of tunnels, is trying to
rival the ancient Romans with the magnif-
cence of his bath. Acres of sea are to be in
closed with granite walls. paved and tiled
and covered with glass, the tides being adj
mitted through suitable channels in the
living stone.
A large piece of float gold ore was
recently found near Brigham's Peak in
SEWER county, Utah, and it assayed $4,000 to
the ton. The vein or ledge from which the
piece of ore came has not been discovered.
but prospectors are filing claims. ON the
whole country, and in the spring they ex-
peet to uncover the ledge.
The French are now painting their war
vessels dull, sulphurous gray, exactly the
color of smoke as it arises from cannon.
They say this color has the ADVANTAGE Of
being as filusive and indistinguishable in
foes and sea mists and darkness as during
the smoke of battle. 1t is more battling to
the search light than any other tint.
The ordinary load for camel is 600
pounds for long journeys, though if the jour
ney is to last only week or ten days 1000
pounds weight is frequently placed on the
back of an average animal but not without
strenuous objection on the part of the beast,
which watches the process of loading with
great anxiety, and frequently interrupts it
by rising and refusing to kneel to receive
more.
Pretty nearly everyone has seen the
curious sisea ruffies' 'or"sea necklaces, which
are found plentifully on ocean beaches.
These are the egg cases of the sea snails.
Tbey consist of number of small disk
sbaned envelopes attached along sort OF
stem the biggest of them being in the
middle. In each envelope there is little
spot of thinner material, which the young
break through when they are ready to be
hatched.
-Brazilians train a snake, called the
giboa. as q rat-catcher. 1t is IS feet long, is
harmless to the human being, becomes quite
a household pet, is lazy in the daytime, but
at night roams about the hoUse in quest of
its prey, the rats. These animals it promptly
kills by twisting their necks- when Bra
zilians have to pass from room to room in
the dark they first put on their slippers 1t
would not be pleasant TO plant ones bare
feet on cold SHINY snake OF that size.