Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-18
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

i -
! but flowers and shrubs flourish luxuriantly.
"A young man recently captured 165 eels
in the Hackensack river in about eight
| hours, so he claimed.
-Prussic acid can be concentrated from
| peach pits to such point that single smell
Oft will kill a person more quickly than
rifle bullet through the heart.
The grand total of charitable bequests
in England during the past year, excluding
| Baron Hirsch's $4,000, 900 for Hebrew emigra-
tion, was sl5,000O00, as against 81, 5OOOOo In
I 1890
There is giant chestnut tree growing
at Center Bridge, Bucks county, near the
Delaware river. The trunk measures 10 feet
in circumference and the tree still yields an
annual crop of chestnuts.
During the last decade 2 489 affairs OF
| honor were settled by recourse to the sabre,
W by appeal to the broadsword and n9 by
the use of pistols. Newspaper attacks, the
statistician declares, were responsible for
the majority of duels
The annual report of the Comedie Fran
caise shows profit of $4,000. This will give
| 5000 to each societaire. In the course Of
the year 1891 eleven new pieces including
| Sardou's "Thernidor," were produced, and
twelve plays of its old repertoire revived,
Insanity has increased so in France that
o''~ ASJ iuiiiS Sdh iO lOhS uOlO Juc luHdbiC8-
The Assistance Publique has therefore, de-
cided to place some of the crazy paupers
who are harmless with peasant families,
| just as it puts out pauper infants and chill
dren.
DIR. Leo Priby1 states that the Germans
and Swedes are utilizing their peat bogs in
the manufacture of naptha, tor. solar oil,
parraffin, acetic acid and gas. and the peat
yields an elastic fiber, which, freed from
dust, IS emDlOyed for weaving into car
pets.
The ant is said to have the largest brain
according to its size of any creature in the
world, and it stands to reason that so much
brain must give rise to numerous complaints
of the head and some things lately seen
through the microscope recently strengthen
this opinion.
Frank Smiley, the Indiana man who
recently attracted much attention by the
loss of his hair, beard, eye-lashes and eye
brows, as the result of a severe attack of the
grin, is undergoing the second stage of his
afhiction by his hair growing out again in q
fine, white fuzz.
Sake drinking, according to a writer in
the american Antiquarian is one of the
great curses of Japan. In 1879 the amounto OF
rice converted into sake amounted to 15.000,-
600 bushels. Pledges to abstain from the
habit are frequent among the picture offer
ings in japanese temples.
AT one time Japan considered the ques-
tion of establishing national creed, and
Minister was sent to Europe to investigate;
but. says the Bishop of Exeter, who has
been following the subject, the agent re-
turned to report that Christianity exerted
no more beneficial influence upon vice than
Buddhism.
"A ''razzle dazzle" was one of the nui-
sances specified in the complaint against
place of amusement in the old Cross Bones
Burial Yard, near London. The "razzle
dazzle" was contrivance intended to make
peoDle experience the motion OF the waves
of the sea, and the screams of the razzle
dazzlers were heard for blocks.
The turquoise, although not credited
with either remedial or protective proper
ties, so far as disease was concerned, was
nevertheless REGARDED as kind of sympa-
thetic indicator, the intensity of its color
being supposed to fiuctuate with the health
of the wearer. The latter, moreover, by vir-
tue of the stone he carried, could, it was
said, fall from height with impunity.
If a tea stalk floats in the cup it is called
a 'beau" and when this is seen unmarried
women should stir their tea very quickly
round and round and then hold the spoon
upright in the center of the cup. If the
"beau' is attracted to the spoon and clings
to it, he will be sure to call very shortly, il
not that very evening; but il the stalk goes
to the side of the cup he will not come.
"A striking illustration of the spread OF
civilization occurs among the Maoris of Pow
erty Bay. quarrel arose between two
Chiefs PM and Tuta, which being re-
strained with difficulty from taking the old
form of bIoodshed, has been taken. to court,
by regular summons. printing press has
also been set up in the King country to re-
port the sitting of the first Maori Parlia-
ment.
On the North Atlantic coast we have
certain species of whelks which might be
made to serve admirably for eating. afford
ing a cheap and nutritious diet. Even in
the waters of the far Arctic these aasterc-
pods are found in great numbers, where
they sometimes supply means OF suos1st-
ence to castaway whalers and other voy-
ayers who would otherwise perish of starva-
tion.
The largest library in the world is that
at Paris, which contains upwards of 600
printed books and 700 manuscripts. Be-
tween the Imperial Library at st. Peters
burg and the British Museum there is not
much difference. In the British Museum
there are about 100000 volumes The
RoyaI Library. of Munich, has now some
thing over 100000, but this includes many
pamphlets.
There is only one refinery in the world
that makes absolutely pure sugar The
manufactory is in Germany, and it supplies
chemists and druggists with sugar for solu-
tions which must be unclouded- The
chemically pure article would not find mnch
sale for table use. as it is dirty, grayish
white in appearance. When d1ssolVed II
gives a clear solution, there being no artif-
ciaI coloring matter in suspension.
The new German artillery, which will
shortly be introduced, is said to be the most
terrible war instrument every produced.
Exneriments made at the Interbogk ranges
deeply impressed the experts, the Kaiser
being present The first shot, fired at
target placed so PAGES from wood, missed
the target. nut ploughed its way through the
wood for 1,500 feet. The splinters of a shell
burst py the new powder over circle of
900 feet A she'll fired at an enormous target,
by the Emperor's orders, COW
cred it with tens of thousands OF holes. A
battery of the new artillery would, 1t is as
sured annihilate an entire division, once
the range was found.