Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-20
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.
Steel rails average 18 years.

y
-China's foreign trade last year aggre-
gated $3.50 100000.
Mount Etna had its first recorded
eruption in AS B. C.
Greek helmets covered the head, back
of neck, ears and eyes.
The steam printing press was invented
by Richard Hoe in 1872.
The Democratic wheelman of Nashua,
N. H., have formed a bicycle campaign COM
pany.
The British Government in 1880 ordered
10000 telephones for use in the postal
service.
When Cortez invaded Mexico for the
second time he had so musketers and so
crossbowmen.
DE Quincy published 'The Confess
sions of an English Opium Eater' when he
was So years old.
AT the castle of Simonetta, Italy, there
is an angle in the building which re-echoes
pistol shot 81 times.
"A woman who died in the Norristown
Insane Asylum last week had, although not
dumb, not spoken in II years.
ANY bicyclist travelling into France will
have to pay the regular duty of SIS or $40 on
his machine, according TO weight
Nearly three-fourths of the fires in the
United states last year were the result Of
the upsetting or explosion of lamps.
The last census shows that while 80, 1853
lawyers received s35, 900 every year in
fees, 81, 900 ministers get only s6,0O00 900.
-"Masrium'' is the name of a new
chemical element which has been discovered
in the bed of an ancient Egyptian river.
For putting grass on the bottom Of
'baskets of Strawberries" Manchester
wholesale fruitdealer was recently fined.
"A trial of speed between English and
American locomotives will be an interest
ing and novel feature of the Worlds Fair.
Vulcan, the British ironclad, is pro-
vided with rudder weighing % tons or
something like six tons heavier than the
Great Eastern.
The white horse has been taken out Of
the German cavalry, it having bean proven
that it can be seen at such distance as to
make 1t d special mark for an enemy
Numerous experiments to determine
the best fire-resisting materials for the con-
struction of doors, nave proved that wood
covered with tin resisted the fire better than
an iron door.
There is still burning in India sacred
fire that was lighted by the Parsees IL GEN.
turies ago. The fire is iced with sandal and
other fragrant woods, and is replenished
five times day.
There will be an unprecedented boom
in the ship building yards on the shores of
the great lakes this winter. 1t is sold that
the vessels under contract for the season Of
1893 will aggregate 1900 gross tons.
The healthiest trade is said to be that of
a waller. a man who attends to the pans in
salt works. If he falls in he dies, but while
he lives he is free from cholera, smallpox,
scarlet fever and probably influenza.
Last year New York City e1pendet
a, 200 900 on its schools and 81 80 600 for it
police. In three years the increase of th'
cost of the police has been CO per cent ant
the increased cost of the schools II per cent
The Salvation Army poke bonnet ha
been replaced in England by a broad
brimmed straw hat. trimmed with stalks o
corn. Salvation meetings are now greetet
with cries of "Where did you get that haiti
The most powerful electric light in the
world is at Hantsholm, on the coast of Jut
land in Denmark where from the light
house situated at that place, there Is fiashe'
nightly an electric light of 20,OOO,00O candl
power.
"A clergyman in Oxford has invited tn.
mon who frequent the river on Sundayst
come to church in their boating flannel.
Hitherto such costumes had been trowne,
upon. and the boaJmen had not gone t.
church.
The railways of the United Kingdor
of Great Britain have 1850 locomotives, OF
which only lS41 are in Scotland and 100 in
Ireland. The London and North Western
have the most, 2,64S, followed by the Mid
land, with 2,020
The sea water originally put in the
great aquariums at the Crystal Palace,
Sydenham, in 1854, is still used there, having
haa
record without parallel in the history OF
similar institutions.
The largest and most powerful search
light in the world is destined for the statue
of Liberty in New York harbor, and will be
visible for 100 miles and capable OF transmit
ting messages that distance. 1t will be a
50,0O0-candle power and will cost about
$4,000
The Oriental Congress, recently held in
London, has astonished scientific circles by
the deciphering of records in stone and clay
which 90 back thousands OF years to the in
fancy OF the race, and are held to corrobor-
ate, independently of Holy Writ, the ac-
counts OF the creation and 1all of man.
"A WAGNER was one day driving his
team along the road in the gold fields, when
his wheel, in turning up the soil, suddenly
exposed to view a conSfderabl lump Of
some shining matter. The WAGNER stopped
to pick it up, and by doing so became the
owner of a nugget which proved to be worth
s1,6OO.
Agent Lucky had a bottle of whisky
which he obtained at the Warm Springs
Indian Reservation analysed and found it
contained chiefly fuseI oil. choloroform and
ether. 1t would kill the germs of any dis
ease, as was show by the fact that three
Indians who drank half q bottle of the stuff
all died.
Every Roman had the use of the public
baths on payment of about half a farthing.
Those We're not such structures as we call
public baths but superb buildings lined
with Egyptian granite and Nubian marble.
Warm water was poured into the capecious
basins through wide mouths of bright and
massive silver.
Someone calls attention to the gradual
abandonment of the use of dogs with guns
in England. The chief reason for it is sup
posed to be the change in agricultural
methods. After the moving machine had
supplanted the scythe the pointer found the
stuDble too short to lie in; and another
reason is offered in that "the turnips are
drilled in regular lines, and make passages
along which the birds may run"