Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-03
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

Eleven hundred steamers traverse the
four great ocean routes.
A fellow named Ammonia has bought
an interest in the "Red Onion" drug store at
Sturgeon, Kan.
They have Just opened the doors Of
Johns Hopkins College to females. Singu-
larly, the first girl to get In was Ladd.
Live fish have been safely sent in the
mail from India to the British Museum
They are now prospsring in the tanks of the
museum.
In New South Wales II banks and
financial syndicates own about 100000
acres of land, one Institution alone owning
$500, 900 acres.
Miss Hattie Day, of East Bucksport Me-,
has sold $50 worth of braids made from her
own hair, and yet she has abundant black
tresses. three feet in length.
-Tertullian, who wrote about A. d. 1876,
said that kissing was first instituted for the
purpose of discovering whether the person
kissed had been guilty of tippling.
"A patent has recently been issued for
this chair tonic:' Oil of onions, oil of cab
brge, oil of parsley borax sulphur, sugar of
lead, aquarammon1a, salt, alcohol, and bay
rum.
AN uEcuODics rItuCe, OOZen
pairs of gloves are manufactured annually.
This represents value of s7,2OOOOO, and
gives employment to 5000 workpeople Of
both sexes.
-Thistles in the pampas grow to height
of 10 feet, and clover rises or 5 feet. Mari
Colds and camomiles in North Africa grow
to or 5 feet In India the rhododendron
grows to the height of 80 feet.
Since January 1 Sc persons, or more
than 1 per cent of the entire population,
have died in Waldsboro, Me. Twenty.one
were more than 80 years OF age, more than
80, and lacked only year of the century
mark.
The Plattdeutchenvogelschu
schalt contemplate taking trip in the near
future over the line of the Electrictisches-
strasseeisenba ahnwagengeseIlschaft, is the
announcement that recently appeared in
German-American paper.
French fishermen are emigrating to
Algeria and Tunis. The Society of CONNER
cial Geography in Paris is encouraging the
movement,and has supplied the funds ne ces-
sary for the removal of about 300 families to
the southern shores of the Mediterranean.
"A Boston young lady at the Union
station in Portland, Me-, wanted to buy
ticket for way station, but had forgotten
the name OF the town. Being urged to mako
guess at it she replied, in blushing con-
fusion, that it sounded something like "cat's
wh1skers." She got a ticket for Wiscasset.
Japan is rapidly becoming a consider
able consumer of diamonds. With the OPEN
ing up of the world by railway and steam
ship communication the demand for dia-
monds has increased marvelously. The
world now purchases about f5,000,0O0 worth
per annum. Twenty years agoit was about
f5O0,000.
Hicks Pond, in Palmyra, Me-, is
strange body OF water. 1t is only II acres
in area, but is more than 100 feet in depth.
1t has no visible inlet, although a fair-sized
stream flows from it into Lake Sebasticook.
Inc volume OF its waters Is not materially
affected by either drought or freshet, and
the water is always cold.
An electrical tuning box for the use of
leaders of orchestras and others interested
in music has been invented by a French
man. 1t consists of a dry-pile battery con-
nected with an electromagnetic. When
placed on sounding board, the required
note is obtained by moving small commu-
tator located in the box.
Some authorities insist that the great
toe ought to project farthest, others that it
should not project quite so far as the second
toe; while others, again, maintain that the
two should be of equal length. 1t is we'll
known that in antique statues the second
toe is usually the longer of the two, while
the first is longer in living men.
The largest stationary engine in the
United States, and among the largest in the
world, is at Friedensville, Pa. 1t is called
the President" Its driving-wheel is 35
feet in diameter and weighs 40 tons; it's
sweep-rod is 40 feet long; its cylinder is ITO
inches in diameter; its piston-rod 10 inches
in diameter and of q 10foot stroke, and it
raises Il, 500 gallons of water in a minute.
Peoples fingers, cut from the hands of
the dead, are sometimes carried as amulets
by the ignorant and superstitious. Dried
lizards sewn up in leather serve the same
purpose. The Indian hunter will cut the
shape of an animal out of stone, have it
"blessed' by the medicine man and believe
that it gives him good fortune in the chase
of the beast represented. When ne kills one
he dips the fetch i'll the blood.
The elster (pica candata) is a bird that
is respected and feared throughout South
Germany. 1t belongs to the raven tribe, and
is about the size of q dove, with black and
white feathers and long pointed tail. 1t
builds its nests in orchards, and its life is
sacred. If 1t is seen three times in success
sion on the same housetop, in place remote
from Its home. it is believed to be q sure
sign of death in that house.
An electrical gold finder, designed for
prospecting in alluvial deposits, is being
made in England. 1t consists of q steel tube
carrying an inner rod, which communicates
by wire with portable battery. The rod
is thrust into the ground, and, should It
touch piece of metal, an electrical alarm Is
sounded, the instrument being SO delicate
that contact with metallic particle the size
of pins head would be noted.
1t is proposed to cover the surface of
the sea around an endangered vessel with q
thin cotton or silken net, rendered unsub-
mersible and ever floating by means of being
dipped in a special chemical preparation.
The idea is due to the fact that, when cross
rfNff fho( (.r11 has
noticed that the vast spreading fields of
floating seaweed within tine confines of the
stream, though upheaved by the swell, re-
main glossy and smooth. The netacts in the
same manner as the seaweed-
I'm the winter in Norway all the
vehicles are sledges-the carriages, cabs,
carts and even the perambulators are on
runners. Outside the to&n. where the road
is not trodden hard, it is impossible to walk
without the snowshoes of the country.
These are called ''ski, and are long wooden
planks measuring nearly nine feet for q
fully-erown man. They are " Of an inch
thick and about inches wide, slightly raised
az the toes and pointed off like the shoes of
CHANGERS day. The wood for ski is not
sawn. but split with the grain, so that they
never break, and can bear q tremendous
strain.
LIGHT LITTLE TRIFLEa