Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-22
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

shops.
-LiberianS get intoxicated on . mush-
room concoction.
Tobacco is said to have caused the death
of a COW at Durham, N. C.
"A fine bed of gypsum has been discoV-
cred in Morris county, Kan.
Paris boasts of the largest and most
complete sewers in the world
Two canals projected at Payette, Idaho,
will reclaim 10000 acres of land.
There are 1856 men and 1856 women In
the New Hampshire Insane Asylum.
About 5000 intoxicants of different
kinds are known to the Custom House OFF,
cials.
"A St. Louis paper offers prize of 81 .
day for errors discovered in its advertising
columns.
Walter Scott and Charles Dickens
works are read by more people to-day than
they ever we're before
A pool room for ladies exclusively is to
be opened at Covington, KY. No liquor will
be sold on the premises.
Every time bank in China fails they
cut on the bank officers heads, and no bank
has failed there for over 800 years.
AT the foot of Mount Blanc stands tho
oldest chestnut tree in the world; II has a
old.
One or two of the older Senators are
said to favor the idea of Senators wearing
silk gowns while in session, like Supreme
Court Judges.
"A personal in Boston paper reads:
''Mr. Rowland, who had his face slapped at
the horse show in New York the other night,
is at the Vendome."
According to the statistics of the Inter-
State Commerce Commission, a railway pas
senger stands one chance in II, ,s23 los to be
killed while travelling.
The astronomers at the Paris Observa-
tory arc already making preparations for
the observation of the expected total eclipse
OF the sun in April next.
An attempt with electric omnibuses is
to be made on Liverpool street, in London.
The cost is estimated at 8 pence a mile,
against pence for horse power.
With the single exception of the Penn
sylvanfa, the Boston and Maine Railroad
system transports more passengers than
any other system in the United States
The most costly piece of railway line in
the world is that between the Mansion House
and Aldgate stations in London, which re-
Quired the expenditure of close upon SO 000.
600 mile.
Rough, brownlsh oranges carry in their
complexion a guaranty of sweetness, the
peculiar appearance being due to the attacks
OF insects which have selected them for this
very quality.
An oak tree was recently cut on q farm
near Bedford. Ind, which yielded log 40
feet in length, 81 feet in diameter at AZ feet
at the top. The log is without knot or 6lem-
ish of any kind, and will be exhibited at the
" orld's Fair.
About 100 species of deep sea fishes
have been obtained by the Albatross in the
depths of the ocean on the continental slope
of California. These creatures are. as a rule
very soft in BODY, covered with phOsphores-
cent spots by which they can see their way
in the darkness
While resident of Portland, Ore, was
excavating for a well some time ago, he
claims to have found a remarkably well pre-
served tooth of a mastodon. 1t is, he says,
about ten inches high and the face of the
tooth is by ~ inches He further states
that it IS fossil, and weighs about Is
pounds.
Father Hennepin, the missionary, dis
covered coal in 1863 in what is now Ottawa,
ILL., This appears to be the first record OF
the finding of coal in America, but it was
not mined until nearly century and a half
later In 1873 five ark loads Of finty coal
we're hoated down the Lehigh river and SOLD
for s2l per ton.
1t has been left to a resident of North
Carolina to discover the most novel way to
endow a college. His proposition Is to in
sure the lives of so men, between the ages Of
40 and so. for $4,000 each. and then, as the
policies are collected. convert them into e.
fund for the college in question. That would
mean n clear S5OOOOO-
The sloop Wasp, now receiving repairs
on Moraan's ways at New London, Conn.,,
is probably one Of the oldest boats afoat.
In 1872 she gained decisive victory over the
British brig Froltc. and, later in the war,
she captured the sloop-of-war Reindeer, the
Avon. There is some talk OF exhibiting the
Wasp at the Worlds Fair.
An eminent authority has it that the
death rate Of the world is calculated to be 81
per minute, 4,O3O per hour 720 per day.
while the rate of births, slightly exceeding
the death rate, Is calculated to be 70 per
minute, 100 per hour, 100 800 per day, So, 49,
900 a year. The estimated increase DER an
mum is therefore little over 800 900.
1t is q fact well established by students
of heredity that children are apt to inherit
not only the physical, mental and moral
traits OF their parents. but to be influenced
by their age as we'll Children born Of very
Young fathers and mothers never attain so
vigorous growth of mind or body as those
of older men and women, while children OF
old people are born old.
The bones of the whale which were
killed during the whaleing expedition of
Emperor William, of Germany, last summer
are to be turned into furniture for the Nor
wegian Doathouse at Potsdam, and by order
OF the Kaiser Fraulein Berg is painting on
the whales shoulder blades the various in
cidents OF the chase, the object being to
have the unique pictures placed in a gallery
in the boathouse.
The old Cathedral in Berlin is being
pulled down and a new one erected. The
Emperor has consented to allow paper
weights TO be made of the marble pavemens
and the steps of the altar where the late
Emperor Williams coffin stood Each weigh5
bears stamped upon it the words in which
the Emperor gave his permission as guar
antee Of its genuineness. They are to be
sold for charitable purposes.
The latest solution proposed for the
London fog and smoke nuisances is the use
of gas for all cooking, heating and laundry
purposes. The author of the scheme would
make its use compulsory. He estimates that
it would cost only Sl20 900 900 to buy up the
gas companies, and the cost of the new
plant to enable the whole of the 100000
tons of coal now burned in London to be
consumed as gas would be S55,00O.OOO more.
"A young man in Scott county, KY, felt
a severe pain in his left shoulder and arm
some two years ago, and for months he suf-
fered intensely. Then the affected parts be-
gan to change color and become dark brown,
and the pain decreased. At last the shoul-
der and arm were covered with a thick
growth Of soft, brown hair an inch long, the
pain ceGsed entirely, and now the young
man is twice as strong in his left arm as he
is in his right