Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-01
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

-Philadelphia has raised more camellias
than any city in the United States.
The water is so low in Salton Lake that
the Salt Lake Company has begun taking
out salt.
BY an act Just passed in South Austria
lin. ali hotels are to be altogether closed ON
Sundays.
The percentage of women who success
fully mass the examination for Governments
positions is greater than that OF men.
How Chinese women we're expected to
behave themselves 1000 years ago is set
forth in an ancient Chinese work in sl3
chapters.
The steel used by the United States
navy is recommended by the Austrian Soci-
ETY. of Engineers as the best known in prao-
tical science Z
"A Flof1as fish story tells of shad,
some 20 inches long, which leaped from one
stream to another, over considerable
space of ground, in search Of food.
AN expetment in weaving silk BY cleo
trio looms has been made in Germany, and
the results en&ourage a return to manufact-
uring in the houses of the weavers.
-Sparrows, tstares and plovers are on
friendly termSwith the fairies. The lark
and the swalloH are birds of good omen but
the latter should not ress on the housetop.
Australia Will send to the Worlds Fair
probably the biggest astronomical clock
ever made 1t will be 40 feet high and Is
feet square andNis to be built Of colonial
cedar.
Old peach trees are now being reported
from various paris of the country, but
Southern paperG claim that the Oldest free
bearing tree isaivhg in Georgia and is 50
years old. sr
The Chinese have many kinds of cere-
monial dishes and cakes. Thus. oranges
form an Introductory course at ceremonial
dinners, and preserves of betel nuts are
offered to the guests at the New Year.
Twenty-Five cents was paid for horse
at a sale in Bucks county the other day, and
the auctioneer threw in q halter to make
respectable baryain; The horse dropped
dead before the purchaser got him home.
Grows, like crickets, come for good or
evil luck, but the course of the crows" is
malediction to be avoided. If good luck
abides in the homestead where they build
their rookery they should not be molested.
Faith in dreams is still active in
Georgia. where, a few nights ago, woman
dreamed that an Indian angel appeared and,
hovering over her couch, impaired to her
the spot where golden treasure lies hidden.
"A woman in Georgia, it is related in
Southern exchange, quenched a longing for
eggs and buttermilk by eating. at one meal,
two dozen hard boiled eggs and gallon of
buttermilk. "She died in great agony three
days later"
AT the end of July last there were
So. 500 electric clamps-incandescent and arc
in use in Paris At the end of March, 1891.
the number was 1o5OoO, so that during per-
fod of l6 months tine number of lamps in use
increased by 4,J00.
Last years passenger figures show that
the two Ger1nap lines-the North German
Lloyd and the urg-Ameriean-carried
to America more passengers than the whole
of the English great Atlantic lines sailing
from Liverpool put together.
Recent investigation has shown that the
amount of tannin, which is the no1ious
element in tea. is from three times to five
times as great in the Bengal and Ceylon leaf
as in the Chinese. The attention of the
| medical profession in America is called to
this fact.
Arizona has one of the greatest copper
mines in the world. The Copper Queen is
| one of worldwide reputation, and during
| 1891. with copper down to ridiculously low
prices and the cost of development work
| running up into the millions, the mine paid
a dividend of Ss5O,OoO.
"A telephone up the volcano on Hawaii
Is the latest novelty for dwellers on the
| 1Sldnu. LII Tue Olu niCh lOOC Ou hOfsC-
| back ahead of the lava flow to let the
settlers know there had been an eruption,
| but hereafter it will be necessary only to
| turn the crank and call up Central"
There is no doubt about the difficulty Of
| killing cat, but even that so-cailed nine
| lived animal is no to compare in tenacfty Of
life with the South American condor. 1t can
| fast for periods that would tax the endur-
ance of a professional fasting man. and 1T
| can survive wounds that any other animal
would succumb to.
AT the time when he made his will
King George had no proprietorship over the
| money which he bequeathed away. 1t had
been conf1scated by the Prussian Govern
| Elenr. and Was only to be restored to him on
| certain conditions, which he declined to
| fulfill Consequently, when he died his will
| became Of no effect.
AT shooting lodge in the Scotch High
| lands is an electric installation operated by
| a brook, from which a column OF water de-
scends in 4 pipe 600 feet to a turbine running
| q dynamo. Electric current is obtained
| sufficient to run 292 lamps and large num-
ber of electric stoves for drying the cellars
| and warming the rooms.
Before the invention of bottle-jacks,
| the turnspit dog was. says "Casselrs Nat
ural History used in England to turn the
| spit on which the joint was roasted, for
| which purpose they were attached to sort
of wheel. 1t Is queer LOOKING uOS-Very
long-bodied and very short-legged, and IS
possessed of u great degree OF intelligence.
If anyone is i'll or annoyed in any way
in Thibet the evil spirits are responsible,
and the only sensible thing is TO go and hire
q priest to frigllten them off. For this pur-
nose the lama reads aloud from his sacred
writings blows q horn made from a human
| thigh bone, beats a drum manufactured out
OF two human skulls, rings bell and tells
over a rosary of disc-snaped beads, cut out
of human skulls.
The horse power of a whale has been
made a subject of study by the eminent
anatornist, Sir William Turner, of the Uni
yersity of Edinburgh, Scotland, in conjunc.
tion with the equally emsnent Glasgow ship
builder Mr. John Henderson. The size and
dimensions of a great timer stranded sever
al wears ano on the shore at Longriddy fur
nished the necessary data for a computation
of the power necessary to propel 1T at a
sneed of l2 miles at an hour. This whale
measured 50 feet in length, 20 feet across at
the fiauoes of the tail. and weighed "a tons.
10 attain a speed of y miles per hour it was
calculated that H5 horse power was neces
sary.