Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-06
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

-AIexandria has the largest artificial
harbor in the world.
Over 90 600, 900 copies of hymns have
been sold since 1872.
Money lenders in England frequently
charge 600 per cent.
The total income of the Church of Eng
land is about 81, 900, 900 week.
The Italian Government raises S15, ,oOO,-
600 yearly by holding lotteries.
The smallest parish in England is Hill
cot. 1t has but seven persons.
Petitions to the British House of Conn
mons must be written, not printed.
-Forty-five per cent of the water drawn
for domestic purposes in London is wasted.
Turkey is rarely boiled in this country,
while it is dish highly estimated in Eng
land.
"A fir tree 33 feet in circumference has
ington.
Over 1906 couples have been married
in the Manchester Cathedral during the last
SO years.
BARRIERS usually gamble with the money
earned by shaving dead men. 1t brings luck.
they say. -...
Three times as much spirits are con-
sumed in Scotland. according to the popula-
tlon, as in England.
The three longest South American
rivers outside of the Amazon are the Rio
Mederin, Rio Negro and Orinoco.
Eggs are fried in shapes of hearts, stars
and other devices by means of pans having
sunken places in these shapes
Out of an Indian population of 25O, 4S3
there are but 26l9 voters. The Indian vote
will not be an issue in tn next campaign
When Columbus discovered America
he found that the Indians possessed dogs.
They were direct descendants of the wild
coyotes of the plains.
Thousands of men, women and children
in the mountains of Spain and Portugal are
busted in cutting cork. 1t is domestic
trade, and it occupies whole villages
HOLSTERS often travel in regiments,
seeking new feeding grounds. Their mi
grating armies are always led by the biggest
and strongest ones, while the MANNED and
weakly struggle along behind.
Many of the London photographers are
introducing electyic lights in their studios
both for taking the pictures and printing
the negative, the long periods of foggy
weather preventing the use of direct sum
light.
During tie % years ending with 1885,
1,49l new papers were started in New York,
including so dailies and Gil weeklies- OF
these papers 1IO5 died before the end of the
% years, leaving percentage OF about 80
survivors
A French physician claims to have
cured y cases OF consumption bv placing
the patients for two or three hours every
day in a compartment filled with COM
pressed air containing the yapors OF creosote
mixed with eucalyptus.
"A remarkable family of eight old wo-
men is living in the same house at Vexo,
Sweden. Three are widows and five are
old maids. Their ages aggregate within
year or two of 700 years, each of the women
being nearly 80 years OF age.
Consul Heath saws that many of the
houses in Catania are built of the lava which
poured forth from Mt. Etna in great streams
on the neighboring clay beds. This mixture
of clay and lava is now mixed and used TO
great advantage in building.
The largest part of the coast of France
that is suitable for the growing OF oysters is
divided into spaces of 80 yards square. These
parks are sold to the fishermen for $50
apiece and the beds under proper cultiva-
tion are made to yield enormous returns
The Mormon temple at Salt Lake City,
which is of enormous dimensions, is built in
the form of a true eclipse, and person
standing IN the FOCUS at one emo can GRITTY
on conversation in whisper with another
who places himself in the focus at the other
end.
Large ships were not unknown to the
ancients and some of the most roomy at
tanned dimensions equal to ships of modern
times Nevertheless they were unmanage-
able monstrcsities, almost at the mercy of
wind and wave, and utterly unfit to cope
with the fury OF hurricane.
An Oroville bootblack has brought suit
against "Native Son. of that place for i'm
personating him at q masquerade. He alleges
that he has been guyed since the ball to the
extent of $1,000 and that his feelings are
lacerated to the extent of s., 500 more. Hence
he brings suit for 50, 500 damages.
In ireland only one shamrock is known.
1t is an indigenous species of clover, which
trails along the ground among the grass in
meadows. The trefoil leaves are not more
than one-fourth the size OF the smallest
clover in America, and are pure green in
color, without any OF the brown shading Of
white and pink clovers.
The longest electric railway in the world
is to be constructed in Russia. The project
is being considered of constructing line
from st. Petersburg to Archangel, port Of
the White Sea- a distance of more than 300
kilometers (49s miles). TIE electric current
is to be furnished by series of generating
stations distributed along the line.
SO late as the middle ages cats were
comparatively scarce in Europe and were
so highly priced that any'person who killed
one were obliged to pay atfne. This penalty
sometimes was required to be paid in the
shane ofa pile of wheat big enough to cover
the slain animal when iIwas held vertically
bv the tip of its tail, thes nose touching the
ground
Three miles an hour is about the aver
age of the gulf stream, though at certain
nlaces it attains a speed of 81 miles. In the
Yucatan channel, for instance where it is 30
miles wide and 1000 fathorns deep, the cur
rent is not over a quarter of mile an hour.
In the straits of Bemini the current is so
rapid as to give the surface Of the water the
appearance of being sheet of fire.
-Zerah Colburn was the most gifted
mathematician ever known. When only 8
wears old he raised tue number 8 success
ivelv to the sixteenth power, and in naming
the last result, which consisted of ID figures.
he was right in every one On being asked
the square root of 106,929. he answered 327
before the old gray-haired philosopher ques-
tioner had time to put it down. He was next
asked how many minutes there were in 4S
wears and instantly replied 25, 22S, 500. and five
seconds later gave the aStonished Savants
the exact number of seconds
uEnnTINC WITH TRIFT.FS