Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-09
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

| "A New York firm is manufacturing self
winding clocks.
Artificial teeth for horses is one Of the
| latest inventions.
Sweden is doing quite business in e1-
porting wooden cottages.
1t is found that oil can be produced
from grape seeds. promising permanent
industry.
There are $50 women students in the
University of Michigan distributed through
out all the departments.
The public park in San Francisco has
recently received cocoanut tree, weighing
six tons, from Honolulu.
In Paris the common public schools are
provided with medicine cases, and instruc-
lions are given for using the remedies
Two hundred and forty-eight cities and
towns of Massachusetts have free libraries,
ana the State has lately provided aid for the
rest.
"A Paris policeman begins service with
II cents day. and after II years he gets IS
cents day. The police have asked for 81 q
day as the minimum
There is in a ward at PaIatka, Fla,
quite curiosity in the shape of an orange
tree only seven inches in height, but con-
S@4hihS d pOllOCL OTdu9e-
The Central London Railway, England,
fs to run three workmen's trains daily, the
fare being only 2 cents for six miles, the
cheapest railway fare il the world.
In tearing down a house the other day
in Williamsport, Pa, built 25 years ago,
perfectly formed and mummifed kitten was
dicovered between the plastering and the
laths OF the wall.
1t is claimed that the boundary line be-
tween Idaho and Washington is 80 miles out
of the way, and a resurvey would probably
place Spokane in Idaho increasing the pop
ulation of that State 1000.
Under the conviction that the plumage
of canaries can be altered in color by vary.
ing the food, DIR. Beddoe thinks that the
color of human hair must eventually be in
huenced by particular diets.
The measles bacillus, discovered in
Berlin by DIR. Canon, varies from one three
thousandth to one one-thousandth of an
inch in length. and possesses characteristics
said to be different from those of any other
bacillus known"
More first magnitude stars are in the
field of vision in winter than in summer.
Sirius, Aldebaran, Procyon, Betelguese
Rigel and Capeila are bright stars seen in
the winter months which are not visible in
the evening hours during the summer.
In the Hebrides Sea beans are supposed
to be fairies eggs. Whether this is a correct
belief or not il is certain that all peoples of
the world living near the ocean have enter
tanned faith that its waters were inhabited
by human-l1ke creatures more or less SUPER
natural.
The thistle, according to the London
Vegetarian Federal Union, is a desirable
article of human food. If boiled, they are
"ltke delicate turnip tops. and may be eaten
like spinach on toast, with poached or fried
eggs. and with q little olive oil or mixed
with cream"
There is now playing in Paris Russian
horn band, each horn being capable of pro-
ducing single note only, So perfect is the
training that the band produces the effect
of one equipped with ordinary instruments,
and even running scales with the rapidity
and precision of a violin.
Among the thousand and one recently
invented dental and surgical appliances Is
an ingenius device of French origin for pro-
ducing local paralysis of the nerves, in order
that minor dental and surgical operations
may be painless. 1t consists of glass tube
filled with highly volatile liquid.
Wool is a kind of hair, and that hair is
simply species of plant rooted in the skin
of animals. Through the whole range of
human, plant, goats hair and sleeps wool,
however, nature shows such close gradations
that it would be difficult to draw an exact
doubt between wool and hair.
The London postofice received by
parcel post from Egypt four lively young
llligators. Their temporary home was d
wooden box, out of which proceeded mys-
-erious sounds that raised in the minds of
the postoff1ce people visions of internal
machines and dyn 7mite. When the parcel
WAS opened the alligators were frisky and
hungry.
The literary society of Finland is by far
the most active, as it is the oldest society OF
in the world. 1t was established in
1881, in order to gather oral material as well
Is manuscripts relating to the archaeology
pieces of folklore now in manuscript in
the library amounts to more than 10000
numbers.
Mr. Flamand, who has been studying
he inscribed stones in the southeastern
part of Algeria, has found many rocks upon
which men, women and children, who were
prehistoric, are represented. The
stones show the figures of horses, cattle,
1striches and elephants, though thu ele-
ohant has not inhabited this region within
historic times.
French factories supply dentists with
'ings upon which are strung thin short
METAL bars. each carrying a tooth at its ex-
remity. There are 25 of these sample teeth
hat run all the way from nearly white to q
hade that is almost olive. Some on5 of the
5 usually almost matches the patients nat
lral teeth, and, at any rate, enab bleS the dem
ist to match the teeth by application at the
actory.
Among the queer survivals in the
United States navy is the theory that an
nsign is necessarily very young man.
yhen lads were midshipmen at 12 or IA and
here were wars to thin ont the officers at
he top man reached his lieutenancy at
7orst in his early twenties. But now that
he midshipmite i9 unknown and promotion
slow an officer may remain an ensign
or 2S
Tapestry came originally from Byzan-
um, where its weaving was brought toa
Ugh state of perfection. Its expense, like
hat of all wall carving and stucco. was very
reat. Slammed leather, which, in a meas
re- superseded it. was also costly and nos
ble only to the very wealthy. This
,amped leather consisted of the skins of
oats and calves cut into rectangular shapes
nd covered with silver leaf, then varnished
18th yellow lacquer to give the appear
nee of gold.