Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-11-14
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

There are 800, 900 commercial travellers
in the United States.
"A revolver has been invented that
shoots seven times in O second.
Lancashire has a larger population than
Middlesex or any other county in tho
kingdom.
The man who is perfectly proportioned
weighs exactly 20A pounds for every foot OF
his height.
The Roumanian crown is made of metal
from the cannon captured from the Turks aS
Plevna in 1877.
"A leading Philadelphia society lady has
hair So inches in length. She is only 81
inches Is feet inch) in height.
During the last 1000 years there has
been one sudden rise of the Nile, that of 1923,
when $4,000 people were drowned.
1t is stated that there are 50, 1000, 900
volumes in the public libraries of America,
while there are but q. .OoO. 900 in Europe.
Mrs. Lewis Washington, of Charleston,
W. Va, owns the family Bible which for
merIy belonged to General Washtngton's
mother.
The longest canal IN the world is the
one which extends from the frontier OF
China to st. Petersburg. 1t measures in all
T. Az miles,
In Sitka, when an Indian wife has lost
her husband by death, she goes into nourn-
ing by painting the upper half OF her face q
deep black.
The hairspring of your watch weighs
but one-twentieth of a grain per inch. Ono
mile of such wire would weigh much less
than half pound.
The earth, in addition to its diurnal
and annual revolutions, has a slow wabblins
of its axis, motion seldom mentioned even
in the text books of astronomy.
I'm nature we have morning, noon and
night; fish, flesh and fowl Hundreds OF
trees, vines and grasses have their leaves
and blades set in groups of three.
Drowning, as punishment for crime,
was legally enforced in Scotland up to the
year 1911. The same punishment prevailed
in England up to few years before tias
date.
Contraction of the iron used in con-
structing the great Eiffel Tower makes that
famous structure eight inches shorter in
winter than it is during the hot summer
months.
Center county, Pennsylvania, has
natural curiosity in the shape of a 20-acre
pond which appeared in a single night on
ground never known to be covered with
water before.
There has been but one total eclipse Of
the sun at London since the year ll40. that
of 17l5, and, according to Prof Holden, there
will not be another until after the opening
of the twenty-frs5 century.
II. j. James, who lives in Boone county,
Ia, five miles northeast of Perry has raised
the largest squash ever known in that part
of the country. It is 5 feet III inches around
in the middle and weighs 12s pounds.
England imports annually about SO, 900
tons of palm oil; but it is considered that
this is a very small amount compared with
what might be the case were the enormous
supplies fully or even moderately realized.
-Borneo, SO far as is now known, is the
only island or country on the globe that
produces a species of flying liza rd. These
little flying sa aurians have all the grace of a
bird, and as great q variety of colors as q
tropical butterfly.
1t is not generally known that an orange
hit in the exact center by rifle ball will
vanish at once from sight. Such, however.
is the fact Shooting it through the center,
scatters 1t in such intnitesimal pieces that
tits at once lost to sight.
The professors in charge of the COM
mission to determine the exact longitude Of
Montreal found that it took but trifle over
a second to telegraph from that place to
London and get a reply. The distance
Travelled by the electric current was 5000
miles.
- The 'life tree" of JSmaieS will con-
tinue to grow for months and years after it
has been dug up and its roots exposed to the
sun. Leaves severed from the limbs will
remain perfectly green ior weeks. The ma
tives say that the tree can only be destroyed
by fire.
Much research and investigation war
rant the assertion that man is not the only
animal subject to dreams Horses neigh
and rear upon their hind feet while fast
asleep; dogs bark and growl and in many
other ways exhibit all their Characteristic
passions.
-'Tipperusaiem" City, Ok, is compro-
mise name. 1t was built upon the land Of q
Hebrew and an Irshman. The former
wanted the city named Jerusalem; the lat
ter wanted it named Tipperary. Neither
would give way to the other, and Tipperu-
salem is the result.
The little hamlet of Roseburg, S. c., is
to the fore with Il curiosity which i ahead
OF all others. This is 3-weeks-Old baby
whose right hand bears the imprint OF hu-
man face This lace occupies nearly the
whole palm, and is as clearly outlined as If
drawn on porcelain
-Entomologists in general concede that
upward of 100000 species OF insects have
been recognized and named: some authori-
ties place these figure $4,000 higher, and even
these latter figures are believed to not rep
resent more than one-ten:h OF the number
actually inhabiting the globe.
The most curious and unique clock in
the United States, or in the world for that
matter, was constructed by Amos Lane, of
Amedee during the past summer. Lanes
curious clock, which, by the way, is all face.
hands and lever, is attached to q geyser
which shoots upward an immense column
Of hot water every 3S seconds exactly.
The Australian jungle fowl (Megapo-
Illus TGmulus) makes its nest in the shape
'f earth mounds of prodigious size one OF
which measured Is feet in perpendicular
height, and having Il circumference of 80
eet. These heaps arc placed under shelter,
md often are so enveloped in ioliBge that,
n spite OF their great size, they can scarcely
De discovered.
Some of the tribes of India have a mar
iage ceremony which calls for the presence
If COW and calf at tho ceremony. The
principals and the priest drive q COW and
ali into the water, and there the bride and
room, as well as the Clergyman, clutch the
ow's TAIL while the officiating parsonage
Te