Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-30
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

"a
will be one of the exhibits at the Worlds
Fair.
In Charleston the other day woman
testified I'm court that she was the mother of
| 20 children.
The locomotive engine was known, 1t IS
said. in China at the beginning of the eight
| eenth century.
THE butcher plant" one of the car
nivorous vegetables. is found only in the
near vicinity of Wilmington. y. C.
"A popular drink called gin-sling takes
| It's name from John Collins. formerly cele-
brated waiter in Limmer's old house
Japan has 700 earthquake observing sta
| tions, and the records of the 500 shocks that
| annually visit that country are accurately
| noted.
Cotton is now grown in Turkestan and
the Russian provinces of Central Asia. the
quantity produced being 81. $4,000 pounds, or
say SO 900 bales, in 1883, and $50, 900 pounds
| in 1889.
No one knows when whisky was first
made, but, according to Mr. Ashton, it was
hardly known until the time of the Pre-
tender, being drink strictly of the High
landers.
-Andover, o., has quite natural curif
osity in the way of boy, II years old, who is
about two feet and half tall. who caD'kicIz
and tic kle his ear with the other.
w hile three woodcutters were sitting
on a bench in their lodging house near
Everetts, Va, last Saturday, singing "The
Old Ship of Zion," the house was struck by
lightning and all three were killed.
This globe has had &C, ,627, 842, 237, ,075, 265
human inhabitants since the beginning of
time. To even bury this vast number the
whole landed surface OF the globe, every
Il, ,<Nf baxvn 70 hn HrTrn nrrar-
timesl
Millions of Colorado beetles were
washed up on the shore of Sea Isle City, N.
J :. the other day, and the residents are at
loss to explain the remarkable occurrence
or form any idea as to where they came
from.
The grav rat came to Europe from
India by way of Russia, and is now popularity
known as the Norway rat, from n mistaken
tradition that it came from Norway to Eng
land and from the latter country to
America.
The rate of progression of storm is
often so miles an hour, and n series has often
been traced in a direct line from north to
south q distance of 400 miles The average
altitude of thunder storms has been found
to be not over 5000 feet above the surface of
the earth.
One of the worst calamity howlers"
that has appeared latelyis HowIing Bear, an
Indian who proclaims that within two years
great famine will spread over the entire
country, and that there will De neither corn.
wheat nor grass. and that all animals will
die of starvation.
The orohippus, the ancestor of the
noble horse of to-day, is first known to have
existed in the eocene period of geological
epochs. Some of the species were as small
as the common silver fox OF to-day, and all
had Is hoofs, four on each foot, just like the
COW brutes of the present age.
-Ouvriere states that 80 per cent among
the cutters of slick. 20 per cent among
needle sharpeners, s. per cent among file
cutters. 45 per cent among photographers. 40
per cent among grindstone cutters. per
cent among cement workers, and 5 per cent
among tinfofl workers die of phthisis.
One of the worst calamity howlers"
that has appeared lately is Howling Bear,an
Indian who can give points even to Totte1.
He proclaims that within two years a great
famine will spread over the whole countryy
that there will be neither corn, wheat nor
grass. and that all the animals will die OF
starvation.
Following Pasteur's advice, it is said,
the Greek Government called in the aid Of
the well known German bacteriologist, Prof.
Loeffier, of Greifswald, who has put an end
to the mice plague by causing fatal epidemic
among the mice This is q triumph of bac-
teriology practical enough to suit the most
unscientif1c taste.
London has found that suppliers and
consumers do not understand what is meant
when speaking OF lighting gas, per 1000
cubic feet or per 1000, so in future it is pro-
posed to speak and write per Murdoch in
stead. Water supplied by meter is for SINH
lar reasons TO be sold at SO much per Myd-
delton. Milk per quart, says the tocoSe
Engineer, is to be sold under the old name.
M. Napias pointed out that the attitude
OF the body during work has a great infiu-
ence on health. The sitting position con-
gests the digestive organs; the bent posi-
ton Qike that OF bostmakers) leads to car
diac affections The standing position
ductive of much suffering and disease, and
should be forbidden those who serve in
them.
1t is customary in the town of Quito
when a visitor takes off his hat upon enter
ing room to beg him to put it on again, and
in the absence of permission leave is gen.
orally requested. This, it is said, arises
from apprehension that cold will be taken
by remaining uncovered. The same persons
upon going out of doors take off their hats
to flashes of lightning, no matter whether
rain is falling.
The Provident Surgical Society, Of
London, distributed last year 1923 artificial
arms, legs, teeth and noses. One of the
noses was brought back TO be exchanged. 1t
was a pronounced Roman nose that had
caused the young woman, to whose face is
had been attached, to be unmercifully
chaffed. She was given in place of it a pretty
little nez retrousse, which secured her an
offer of marriage
Every man brewed his beer up to the
seventeenth century. 1t was in the reign of
Elizabeth that public brewing had begun at
Burton, which is now the metropolis of En-
giish beer, and which owes its pre-eminence
in this respect to the quality of its water.
The city, singular to relate, "still maintains
the importance of beer as a beverage by
keeping an ale conner whose duty is to
taste ales and see that the price charged IS
not excessive"
Rats are natives of Asia and their raids
westward belong to comparative modern
times From the fact that it is not men,
toned by any of the early Europeans, it Is
surmised that it was unknown west of the
Ganges in ancient times. The black rat first
came from Asia to Europe in the sixteenth
with the plague-and was
first known as the Graveyard Specter," be-
cause he preyed on the flesh of those who
died during that awful visitation.