Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-21
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

CURIOUS CONDENSAIIUNS.
Poor persons are supplied with spects-
cles, free Of charge, by Boston society.
A Stockton (Cal. club has decided to
use lirnburger cheese as cure for dyspep-
Sia.
There are 46, 900 oil wells in the United
States, and their daily output Is 10000 bar.
rels.
There are 1, $50 postofices in this coun-
try which are used as lounging places by the
public.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York has treasures to the value Of
s., 100000.
"A Connecticut scientist calculates that
there are 43, $50, 900 mosquito Larvae to an acre
of swamp land.
Indiana has more Germans than any
other State. They constitute 55 per cent OF
the population.
The soil of Haiti is very fertile. Corn
is easily grown and three crops can be
raised annually.
The Buffalo directory credits that city
with resident named Peterje Rmnchziz-
konskekowlowski.
In 100 years $500 worth of pennies
would only be worth $3.50 so quick does cop
per money wear away.
Siberia is said to be country of enor-
nous natural wealth which no effort las yes
been made to develop.
Clark county, Ind, has prisoner in its
jail who has seldom been out of "durance
vile' for the last 80 years.
AN ancient copper mine which was first
worked 1,1s3 years ago. is about to be re-
opened in Musashi, Japan.
"A block of carbon IA inches square
represents the amount of that material in
the bodily makeup of q man of the average
of l55 pounds weight.
In the human blood there is an average
of 300 red cells to every white one. The red
cells have an average diameter of 1-3,200 Of
an inch, the white ones l25.0o0 inch.
They have had a fall of black snow in
the Canton of Geneva. This curious color
ing. as is now well known. is attributable to
the presence in the snow OF a fungus.
1t has been said that Washington died
during the last hour of the day, on the last
day of the week, in the last month of the
year and the last year OF the century.
Labrador, a country which we always
associate with Arctic snowdrifts, icebergs,
etc, has 900 species of Towering plants, 50
ferns and over 30 species of moses and
lichens.
In the year 1886 the Kentucky Legisla-
ture was petitioned to change the name of
q man who thought that "Mr. Schlafenha-
senrichstfchstafer" was an undignihed cog
nomen-
The feat of putting a standard locomo-
tive together in ten hours from the driving
of the first rivet to the vanishing of the
cab was performed in Stratford, England,
recently.
In Ekklesiazousai," v, 1859, Aristo-
phanes gives a polysylabic word which
contains q syllables and l69 letters, Brewer
in his Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, mits
90 letters from the word.
An Arizona paper announces the find
ing of M pound nugget in the Planchas
placers, Sonora, Mex. This is said TO be the
largest nugget of gold on record. The per-
centage of pure gold was 81 fine.
The points of the compass can be told
from trees by the following simple observa-
tions: The side of a tree on which most of
the moss is found is tAe north. If the tree
be.exposed to the sun. its heaviest and long
est limbs Will be on the south side.
To be more or less shaken 500 times
every year by earthquakes seems to be the
lot of the dwellers in Japan. When the
earthquakes are more active than usual one
or two thousand additional shakings may be
added to the usual minimum of 500.
The passage through the Suez Canal
grows shorter every year. According to the
annual report the average duration is % b.
81 m.-some 35 minutes less than II months
ago. This Improvement is due to the cleo
trio light enabling the vessels to conttDrIo
their voyage at night.
The great English Derby dates from
1850, and received its name from the twelfth
Earl of Derby, who was initiated in that
year 8 1t has always been run on a Wednes-
on THURSDAYS. It's greatest value was s7.-
35a, won by Lord lyon in 1865. The greatest
number of starters WAS "a, in 1873.
"A murderer who is to be hanged in
Savannah, Ca, July p, has just concluded
an unusual financial transaction. He has
sold his head for SIS, to be delivered on the
day after his death. The money will buy
brighten his short time on earth. The pur-
chaser will use the head tor chronological
purposes.
Missouri boasts of man who carries in
his trousers pocket buckeye plucked from
q tree 13 years old on q Friday night when
he saw the moon over his right shoulder.
In another pocket he had luck stone taken
from a cross-eyed perch's head while the
tide was out while about his neck he wears
the left hind foot of a rabbit killed in q
graveyard in the dark of the moon.
A Mr.. Rittenhouse, of Waverly, Md,
has an heirloom that is over two centuries
old and which has been handed down from
generation to generation of the Rittenhouse
family since 1878. 1t is teaset, composed of
teapot, waterproof, coffee-pot, cream pitcher,
sugar-bowl tray and sugar-tongs. All but
the latter piece were made of britannia
ware. The first owner of the set was Mr..
Claus Rittenhouse, in the seventeenth GEN.
tury.
The necessity for criminal to confess
his crime before the capital sentence can be
carried out has existed from time imme-
mortal in China, and was up to the end Of
the Middle Ages universal. The custom
was based on the fact that the Church could
not give absolution save on confession, and
hat therefore the earthly penalty would in
evitably be followed by eternal punishment.
70 obviate this terrible doom torture was
used to eXtort the necessary admission OF
guilt, and innocents often suffered q hum
lred deaths before they were set free.
On the Western prairie is found what is
,alled the compass plant, which is of great
value to travellers. The long leaves at the
oase of its stem are placed, rot fiat as in
plants generally, but in q vertical position,
md present their edges north and south.
The peculiar propensity of the plant is at
ributed to the fact that both surfaces OF It's
caves display an equal recept1vity for llght
whereas the upper surfaces OF the leaves
)f most plants are more sensitive to llght
han the lower); the leaves thus assume
rertical position, and point north and SOUTH
Travellers on dark nights are said to feel the
,dges of the leaves to ascertain the point OF
he compass.
FIGHT ROTNDS OF SMILES,