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

Norway has waterproof paper church.
Great Britain has 202, 300 acres Of OF.
chards.
There are 3s2 miles of street railway in
operation in Philadelphia
On the prairies of the Northwest the
crow is looked upon as q bird Of hlomen.
An old lady of Stonington, Conn, IL
said to have slept q, 900 consecutive nights
in one house.
Two dogs were recently arrested in New
York for following people in the street. and
two more for fighting.
in 1900 Philadelphia had nearly 10000
more population than New York. The f1s-
ures were 70,22s and go, 4S9.
The largest electrical plant in the West
is at the Poorman mines, Idaho, which saves
its company $50 000a year.
Out of 100 Indian students returned
from Hampton Institute, Virginia. to the
reservation only two have been failures.
The total wages in Great Britain. for
1890 was E4s,o00 900, or an average of only
f55 10s per capita for the whole number en-
ployed.
1t is claimed that the pheasant of the
English preserves can trace its pedigree
directly to the brilliant bird of the same
species in Japan.
1t is claimed that if steel rod be
given number Of raps on solid substance
while held in a more or less vertical posi-.
tion. the rod will become magnetic.
"A pine tree in Pennsylvania recently
scaled 1893 feet of lumber. 1t made II saw
logs Il and is feet in length, and the top end
OF the butt log was 50 inches i'll diameter.
While two fishermen were engaged at
their work in the bay near Seattle recently,
a large devil fish clambered into their small
open boat, and was killed only after hard
battle.
1t is said that if the earth's atmosphere
extended to a height of 700 miles the suns
heat and rays could never penetrate it, and
we would freeze to death while wrapped in
darkness blacker than the blackest mid
night.
Judging from the number of charters
taken OUT in the different States for the con-
struction of railroads. it is estimated that
upward off 500 miles of new track will be
added to the total mileage of the country
this year. --
"A gentleman of many years experience
in China says that the right word is "Pid-
g1n,'' not pigeon" English. ."Pidgin" is the
Chinese pronunciation of "busines f" and it
is in the business of these Chinese ports
that this peculiar dialect is used.
Snuff has been made from very early
period, first and most largely by the Span
ish, who prepared it with care and seen ted
it with various materials. Next the Low
Countries, Scotland and England extended
and populayized the use of snuff.
Coffee bieaches and improves with age,
but old coffees, which used to be highly es-
teemed, are now no longer obtaina BILE, as the
prices OF coffee have been SO high that the
planters have hurrieal their product to mar
ket instead of keeping it, as was often the
custom in the old time.
-Snails' eggs absorb moisture. The most
singular thing about them, however, is their
marvellous vitality. They may be burnt in
a furnace. and thus reduced to powder, yet
on the application OF moisture they swell
and regain their vitality, Matching out as
freely and successfully as If they had been
let alone.
In Ashantee no man is ever allowed to
see any of the Kings wives, and should he
even accidentally see one his punishment is
death. These wives during the working
season attend to the Kings plantations, but.
the rest of the time they live at Coomasie,
the Ashantee capital, where they occupy
two long streets.
Chicago has woman's baking company
that has been Incorporated with q capital
stock of $3.50 900. The company is composed
of Christian Temperance Union women,
and they expect not only to run the concern
on strict business principles, but also to use
only purest materials, and to have the work
done entirely by women.
The average number of insane in the
five Massachusetts hospitals last year, inc
briates included was 1865; in 1865 1t was only
1,O44. The population has not doubled. but
the population under treatment had more
than trebled. The average for the whole
State, besides those in aims houses. was 4,s5J-
at least; in 1865 it was less than ], ,7C0.
in the cold regions of the far north,
where timber or bark is difficult or impossi-
BILE to get, boats of skin are almost exclu-
sively employed To provide material for
the sea lion and the walrus. Many patterns
of such craft are utilized in the fisheries
pursued among the Aleutian Islands and
elsewhere on the Alaskan coast.
The construction of the worlds longest
railroad is progressing rapidly along the
river valleys and across the steppes OF Sibe-
ria The western extremity of the road is
the mining town Of MASK, on the eastern
side of the Ural range, and its eastern
terminus is at Vladivestok, on the Sea of
Japan, making total length of 4.7s5 miles,
which, is nearly twice the length of tho
Canadian Pacific. 1t will cost sls3, 900.
"A doctor in Albany has put on record
list of the articles which he found in the
stomach of a young woman upon whose
body he had performed an autopsy. Here it
is: Fifty-one hairpins, Is needles or pieces
of needles. darning needles, 80 nails vary
ing in length from one-half inch to inches,
screws Zone of them ~ inches long), 8
pieces of iron 81 inches long and one-quar-
ter inch thick. 9 rolls of hair, pieces of
wood and pieces of cloth leach about
inches long and inch wide)
Probably the largest congregation IN
America is that of the Church of st. STAN
islaus Kostka, Chicago, which has $4,000
communicates. The number of attendants
at the several masses every Sunday ire
quently exceeds l5.GO0. The cure of souls
committed to its chargs requires the serv-
ices OF Il priests. 1t has parochial school
attended by 5000 children, and these are
taught by 26 Sisters and lay teachers. The
church maintains an orphan asylum in
which about 300 inmates are cared for.
There is in the Museum of Turin a
papyrus roll which displays whole series
of such comical scenes. In the first place
"a lion, a crocodile and an ape are giving a
vocal and instrumental concert. Next
comes an ass dressed, armed and sceptered
like a Pharaoh. With majestic swagger he
receives the gifts presented to him by cat
of high degree, to whom bull acts as proud
conductor. lion and gazelle are playing
at draughts, hippopotamus is perched in a
tree and a horse has climbed into the tree
and is trying to dislodge him.