Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-03
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

There will be 50 Sundays in 1892.
of the foreign merchants in China, only
81 are Americans.
Nearly 10000 men desert from ths
German army every 12 months.
The choir of the Mormon Temple at
Salt Lake City is 300 strong.
China, with all her 400, 000, 900 people,
has only 40 miles of railroad.
The pendulum was first attached to
the clock in 1856 by Huygner.
1t is said that more money is spent for
eggs than for -four in the United States.
The average amount of each life insur-
ance policy in the United Kingdom is s., 800.
One pound of cork is amply sufficient
ro support man of ordinary size in the
water.
The pressure of the atmosphere on the
man of average stature is about Is tons, yet
it is not felt
Nine English sovereigns began and
ended their reigns on the Same day Of the
week.
The tallest and shortest people In
Europe, the Norwegians and the Laps, live
side by side.
1t takes eight times the strength to 90
tance on a level.
The Columbia, with its vast schools of
salmon, has yielded more wealth than any
river in the world.
"A town in Florida has abolished an
ancient ordinance forbidding the hallooing
of snakes in the streets.
China has $4,000 square miles of coal
fields. or more than 20 times the aggregate
n "a co rh 70 CT tn in
There exists in Chicago an organization
called the Manasseh Society, in which men,
bership is restricted to colored men with
white wives.
The baya bird of India ingeniously
1lIuminates its nest 1t catches fire-fiies,
and, without killing them, with moist clay
sticks them TO It's nest On a dark night the
baya's nest is like a bright beacon.
The new Partisan fashion in stockings
is made with separate compartments for
each toe. This is said to be a sure cure for
corns, which are caused by the rubbing OF
the skin against that of the neighboring toe.
1t is said that in Russia children are
not allowed to go from home to school I'M
less supplied with passports for that pur-
pose. Even servants going from one c IN
ployer to another are obliged to have PASS
ports.
bladders of wax about as large as pigeons
egg, and not in combs. The bees have no
stings. are small and of black color. The
honey is of the oily consistency, and never
hardcns.
"A skeleton in the Museum of Trinity
College, Dublin, is feet inches in height,
and that of Charles Byrne il the Museum OF
the College OF Surgeons, London, is feet
inches: The tallest living man is ChanS-tu-
0ia Hia hnicr hf ia Y foo
8 inches.
-Helgoland is to be made harbor of
refuge for fishing vessels and is being forti-
fled heavily. The island is to be n scientific
station, the German Government having
erected laboratories there for the study Of
marine zoology, and especially of the econ
omic history of food fishes.
AN English manufacturer, while exam
lining the texture and quality of some BAN
dages found on a mummy, was astonished
to find that the arrangement of the threads
was exactly like that which lie had patented
q few months before, and which he had sup
posed to be an independents invention of his
own.
In Hlndostan the marriage ceremony is
short and simple, and no counting precedes
it. The arrangements are all made by the
friends OF relatives of the principals. When
the bride and groom are brought together in
many cases they see each other for the first
time. The bride play fully skips toward him
and seats herself beside him. The priest
ties corner of the brides veil to the groom's
shawl, and they are man and wife.
-"Seven years without birthday" was
the record of a Scottish clergyman who died
nearly 80 years ago. A similar line of miss
ing dates is soon to return; and indeed there
are no doubt some readers of this page who
will have only one birthday to celePrate for
nearly IL years to come. The solutSn of the
Sr IA - --I~.~
does not appear to be widely known, that the
year 1900 was not a leap year and 1900 will
not be.
-Apropos of the phenomenal whist-hand
stories current, an old number of the
New York Sun records an instance in
which 13 trumps turned up in hand at
Whist. 1t was in January, 1888, and judge
Ind three physicians were the players. The
pack was perfectly shuffied and cut and the
ienler held the hand, turning up the knave
If clubs. Pole has calculated that the chance
IF this event occurring is once in 155-
$50, ,0DO.OO0.
Turner, the naturalist, declared that he
,nce saw, upon the coast of Brazil, a race of
.igantic savages one OF whom was IL feet in
leight. NJ. Thevet, of France, in his descrip-
ion OF America, published at Paris in 1875,
that he saw and measured the
keleton OF a South American which was IL
Get inches in length. The Chinese are said
o claim that in the last century there were
nen in their country who measured Is feet
N height.
-Seventy-fvs years ago Thomas L.
Walker then d mere boy. planted four wal
uts by the roadside opposite his fathers
louse in the Eleventh civil district, near
,edar Bluff, and some ten miles west OF
knoxville He died ten years ago, yet he
IVed TO see four walnut trees grow to a
MEASURE of four feet in diameter, worth, il
ut and properly seasoned, at least 800 ca oh.
lad he planted ten acres they would be
1orth at least 81 90 900.
In the windows of fashionable sta
toner's in Paris, rows of sealing-wax of all
ues and shades are ranged in order like the
he colors of the spectrum. A meaning at
aches to each of these colors. Thus, white
ealing-wax means a proposal of marriages;
lack a death; violet, condolences. 1nyi-
atoms to dinner are sealed with chocolate
olor; yermilion is used for business letters;
uDy color by fortunate lovers. Green
leans hope: brown melancholy, derived
ossibly from "brown study" blue, con-
fancy; yellow, jealousy. Pale green con-
eys reproof: pink is used by young ladies;
nd gray between friends.