Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-12
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

in California they catch fish by wheels
| york. Mont, has a natural ice mine in
agulch nearby.
The number of dwellings in the United
| States in 1891 was s,s55,sl2
The most expensive American curtain
sells for 81 so at wholesale.
"A hive of 5000 bees will produce about
so pounds of honey annually.
There is claimed to be snow-whits
squirrel at Yellow Springs, o.
A 6-year-oId boy of Bridgeport, n. j..
| is reported to have lived four days on bark,
Persia has a race of pigmy camels, who
are but 25 inches high and weigh but 80
pounds.
The Esquimaux manufacture fshnets
from strips of seal hide and from thin slices
ofwhalebone.
Minneapolis has the largest'grain eleva-
tor in the world; its storing capacity is Zoo
900 bushels Of grain.
"A German geologist estimates that the
Dead Sea will be one mass OF solid salt with
in less than 500 years.
-Herod the Great was the first Hebrew
King who imported into his realm Roman
modes of society hfe."
carats which is quite transparent. 1t is to
be had for the sum of 500, 600.
The San Francisco police last week
| seized 100000 Chinese lottery tickets,
weighing in all about 13 tons.
"A newspaper foreman has invented
device whereby compositors are enabled to
set type with both hands at once.
The orange was originally pear shaped
and about the size of the wild cherry. It's
evolution has required 200 years.
AN 8-year-old girl of Philomath O,
fell into a well 25 feet deep. She clung to tho
bucket rope and was rescued uninjured.
The projectile thrown from the ROYAL
Sovereign will weigh 1900 pounds, and that
thrown by our Massachusetts 600 pounds.
I'm Philadelphia, the largest city of the
greatest iron producing State in the Union,
there is one home to every five inhabitants.
The difficulty of soldering together two
pieces of aluminium is said TO have been
overcome by the use of chloride of silver as
a fuse.
1t is estimated that in the United States
there are 2.sO0,0OO hives belonging to 10000
rearers. and producing 6l,OOO,000 pounds of
honey yearly.
1t is claimed that there is Lighthouse
to every IA miles of coast in England to
every "a miles in Ireland and to every 80
miles in Scotland.
"A postage stamp of the original value
of about 16 cents was sold at auction in Lon
don recently for sa40. 1t was Moldavian
81 paras postage stamp.
"A man at Kings Mountain, N. c., has
Jersey heifer 10 months old, that has never
had calf, but gives about one and half
gallons OF a milk a day.
A woman was arraigned in the Harlem,
N. Y, Court recently, and, upon being
searched by the matron, q loaded revolver
was found in her stocking.
Athens, O., has an S-year-o1d boy who
is the possessor of doublejointed limbs
arms and legs-whfch have the singular
advantage of bending with equal facility
either way.
The 15-inch aerial torpedo thrower, now
introduced as British service weapon for
coast defense, resemb les in appearance a
powder gun, having the axis OF its trunnions
at or near the center of gravity of the
barrel.
Coal is mined in Turkey, in Heraclea
and Koslu, both on the Black Sea and about
100 miles from Constantinople. The coal OBJ
tanned is in ferior in quality to the Enqlish
mineral, especially to the Cardiff and New
castle coal.
Six Hebrews were converted last year
by means of the Scottish Mission to the
Hebrews. The outiay of the society was
s29 99O, or nearly 600 a Hebrew. At Jeru-
salem the cost OF each Hebrew convert is
about $50, 900.
Pigeons, as letter-carriers, tradition
tells us, were employed at the time W
Johoshua invaded Palestine, as medium
communication between the headquart
and camps in lands far Off on the other
. OF the Jordan.
The official report from Japan of tn
firing of guns made for that country by
Canet emphasizes she fact that the accuracy
of firing was superior to that OF anv guns
that had been previously bought by the
Japanese government.
The investment of $4,000, 900 made by
the British Governments in the suez Canal
shares will in a year or two, according to
Mr.. Goschen, be worth f19,00 000 which
proves it to have been an excellent stroke
OF business as well as diplomacy.
Sir Henry Bessemer suggests the sub
stitution of aluminium tokens for bank
notes of small denominations. He says that
with the recent progress in the science of
metallurgv these tokens could be made in .
fashion that would set all the arts of forgers
at defiance.
There is now playing in Paris Russian
horn band, each horn being capable of pro-
ducing a single note only. So perfect is the
training that the band produces the effectof
one equipped with ordinary instruments,
and precision of a violin.
Plans are being examined for the con-
struction of a railroad across the main
chain of the Caucasus Mountains. The lima
will have a length of 100 miles, and viii pres
ent great engineering difficulties. There are
to be two tunnels, one four and a third and
the other six and three-quarter miles long.
The most important literary ''fnd" Of
recent years is undoubtedly the purchase by
Mr.. Davey, OF London, of lot OF waste
paper which turns out to be three thick
volumes of notes of Victor Hugo'S table
talk during five years of his exile at Guern-
sey, transcribed by his son, Francois Victor
Hugo.
The sisal grass of Yucatan is one of the
most remarkable vegetable products known.
1t grows in long blades, sometimes to the
length OF four or five feet, and when dry the
blade curls ND from side to side, making
cord which is stronger than any cotton
string of equal size that has ever been manu-
factured.