Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-11-17
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.
Janan is building two electric roads.

Japan is building two electric roads
Military engineers were formerly called
| trench masters.
Wooden pavements were the invention
| of Nicholsar in 1854.
The total cost of the Suez Canal e1-
| ceeded 81. .Oco oOOO, 900.
The Indian corn is an American plant,
and was first noticed in 1893.
The German Emperor has Q walking
stick made of rhinoceros skin.
The Boston Ne,cs-Lettsr, the first Ameri-
can newspaper, was Degun in 17O4.
About the year 1880 cotton growing be-
gan in Georgia and South Carolina.
Seneca says the Romans had cooking
schools and a teacher of masticatfon.
Tea was introduced into Europe by the
Portuguese in the sixteenth century.
-Sunshades, formed like the umbrella,
were held over Roman ladies by slaves
"A party of Florida young men contem-
plate visiting the Worlds Fair next year in
an OK cart.
ranged as at present, but the parquet was
given up to the chorus.
During the sixteenth century all
robes worn by conventual orders.
In shingle mill at Gray's Harbor,
WASH. recently, the entire works were kept
running all day on single cedar stick,
which made 1Ss, 500 shingles.
An "Albino deer" was killed by resi-
dent of Dauphin county, Pa, on SATURDAY..
Superstitious people claim that this will
bring bad luck to the hunter.
A statistician hascompiled q curious
table of the expectancy of life, drunk and
sober: at age of 90. drunk Is years, sober ~
years; at age of 40, drunk II, sober 20 years.
1t is curious anomaly In the law that, /
IL you pay for your photograph being taken,
no COPY can be sold without your consent,
while, If you do not, the photographer may
sell 1t to any extent.
In the early days of this century
French cooks became rich; Very was a mill
ionaire; Achard had immense wealth: Nine.
Sully, of the Palais Royal, made $4,000 in
three years.
The new iron monuments being placed
on the boundary line between Arizona and
New Mexico are seven feet in height and
weigh about 800 pounds. They are laid five
miles apart.
-Twenty-seven men in the English mer
camille marine who were candidates 70.
masters and mates certificates last year
loJcSl0u ludDlllJy GO us
tfnguish colors.
The auger that bores a square hole
consists OF screw auger IN a square tube,
the corners of which are sharpened from
within. and as the auger advances cuts the
round hole square.
"A well-known French physician as
serts that the bilious fever SO characteris-
tic of tropical countries is due to a special
bacterium, which. though motionless ITSELF
tad hal
spores.
We learn now that the famous jubilee
shot fired from a 22-ton gun in Queen Vic
toria's jubilee year, to ascertain now far q
shot a shot could be carried, remained in the
air 69h seconds, and the highest point
reached in its flight of II miles was 1900
feet.
The remains of all the French and
German soldiers who were killed during the
siege Of 1870, and were inferred in the varl-
GUS cemeteries in and around Kronenberg,
tied in the cemetery of st. Urbain, in Stras~
burg.
AS rule seats in frst-class theaters in
Europe cost more than in this country A
seat in the parquet of a London theater
costs 81 6S115, and one in the first balcony
81 Is. Then the programme costs from to
cents and the ices OF the attendants count
up anywhere from a dime to 30 cents.
Photographs of growing plants show
some marvellous results, especially among
the climbers. The young stems are said to
move in a succession of irregular circular
Or eliptical curves, which vary in every
direction. These movements are due to the
irregular growth in various parts OF the
stem.
The most curious character on the
Island Of Borneo is the white Sultan or
of Go yvaL~ He ia ar EupIfahrnan
Sir Charles Brooke, and the United States is
the only nation that recognizes his sove-
reignty. He rules over part OF Borneo as
large as Ireland. and his subjects pay trib
ute to him in rice.
Most people do not know a plant has
lungs, but it has. and its lungs are in its
leaves. Examined through a high power
microscope, every leaf will show thousands
upon thousands of openings, infinitely
small, OF course Du each provided with lips
which, in many species, are continually
opening and closing.
The introduction of bells into churcher
is usually ascribed to ST. Paulinus Bishop
of Nola, in Campania (4Oo A. d.. Their use
in churches and monasteries soon spread
through christendom. They were intro
duced into France about $50. and Benedict.
Abbot of Wearmouth, brought ons from
Italy into England about $50.
One would not imagine that butterflies
were a very nour1shing article of diet yet
millions of them are eaten every year by
the Australian aborigines. They congre-
gate in vast quantities on the rocks OF the
Bugolg Mountains, and the natives secure
them by kindling fires of damp wood, which
smoke very much, and thus suffocate the
little insects.
Magic qualities are attached in Hun
gary as in Germany, to the lime or linden.
tree. In some villages it is usual to plant
one before a house to prevent witches from
entering. From early times the lime-tree
was sacred to Venus among the Greeks, ash
was to Lada among the Slavonians. This, II
is said. was due to its leaves being of the
shape of heart.
There were roller-skaters, or, at any
rate, an individual of this species, more
than 130 years ago. He was foreigner, ano
he undertook to perform before com pany
at a fashionable party in London. He darted
along the ballroom at full speed, but MS
brake machinery was imperfect, and ne
crashed into a looking-glass with the most
serious consequences both to 1t and to nlm'
SELF
"A great point in the pursuit Of garden
ing OF the study of flowers is the relaxation
It affords from other mental occupations. II
is the universal testimony that nothing
equals such studies. Jean 1ngelow, the au
whose delightful tales will live long
after she passes away, has recently stated
that the study of botany has ever been one
of her best rela1atives, and SO say tney al