Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-29
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS,

Chicago has colored bicycle club.
Christianity was introduced into Japan
In 1549.
More than 1s, ,00O, 600 men stand ready
for battle in Europe.
in China, slips of mulberry bark serve
as money in the interior towns
The modern panorama is due to
Micheli du Crest. Q Frenchman.
The first banana was brought to the
United States about so years ago.
The diving apparatus is one of the latest
objects to which the telephone has been ap-
piled.
The greatest distance covered b.
steam vessel in one hours run is fixed at %
miles.
French speaking Canadians now en-
brace 2ss per cent of the population of the
Dominion.
There are 19, $50 men and more than
4,500 women engaged in the retail liquor bus
tness in Chicago.
"A new lining for bearings is reported
from Germany as composed of a compressed
vegetable parchment.
"A typewriting machine which will
print on the leaves of q blank book of any
thickness Is the latest invention.
An oil painting constantly hung in
dark place loses some of its vividness and
therefore depreciates in value.
The new German army tent is divisibla
into two portions, each of which can be con-
verted into an overcoat in case of rain.
"A London publisher is going to re-
produce the first folio 1923 edition of
Shakespeare by means of photography.
Checkers or draughts were known to
the ancient Egyptians. and pictures 1000
years old represent quarrel over the game.
Tobacco was taken to Europe by the
Spaniards early in the sixteenth century;
was introduced into England by Raleigh in
1855
1t is said that in England there are 100
lives of Gladstone in manuscript ready to be
rushed to the printer the day the old man
dies.
"A tribal law in Mashena, Central
Africa, DEGREES the dea tn by drowning OF
twin babies Immediately after they are
born.
Twenty thousand words have been
added to the English language in the de-
partment of biology since Darwin's discov-
cries.
The magnifying lens is believed to have
been known to the ancients, but in modern
times was brought into use by Roger Bacon
in 1862.
Lilies are raised as a regular field crop
in the Bermudas. In one of the largest
fields over 100000 may be seen in bloom at
the same time.
The first society for the exclusive pur-
pose of circulating the Bible was organized
in 1905 under the name of the British and
Foreign Bible Society.
-Picnicers listen: Rain has only fallen
twice in % years in Alden, Aracia. Previous
to the last rain. which occurred in 1883, none
had fallen in 20 years.
One of the natural curiosities of Asia is
the Great Salt Desert OF Persia. 1t is many
miles in extent, and is n Solid incrustatiop
Of salt several feet thick.
BY an ingenious apparatus lately in
vented, it has been shown that in Glasgow
on wet morning there are 100000 dust
particles in cubic inch of air.
1t is said that in no three cities in the
world have greater advances in sanitation
been made during the last 20 years than ir
Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta
"A Shasta Indi an broke the egg-eating
record by deyouring 81 raw eggs at one sit
ting. He would put an egg in his mouth,
cl unch it, and swallow it shell and all.
Cranes, storks and wild geese fly fast
enough to make the trip from Northern
Europe to Af1ca in a week, but most OF
them rest north OF the Mediterranean.
"A grocer on one of the islands off t.
coast of Maine is so years old, and has ne
been off the island, where he has &C
mulated a handsome competence in
trade.
The silkworm's web is only the $500
part of an inch In thickness, and some of tn
spiders spin web so minute that It would
take CO., 600 OF them to form rope an inch in
diameter.
An old man, 70 years old, living in
Nodaway county, Mo-, plowed his own land
this spring with horse 20 years old, which
was born on the same farm and has worked
on with the old man ever since.
"A scheme, propounded by NJ Ragosine,
which provides for the construction of a
Persia to the Persian Gulf for the convey
ance OF kerosene, is attracting attention in
Baku oil quarters.
From Eastern Asia comes q plant the
flowers of which contain a quantity of juice
that rapidly turns black or deep purple on
exposure to air. 1t is used by Chinese ladies
for dyeing their hair and eyebrows, and in
Japan Tor backing shoes.
AT three of the large London railway
Cross, Cannon street and
London Bridge-as many as 80 969 move.
nents for signal and point levers nave to be
made every "a hours, quite apart from the
Geographic operations.
Two Indian gentlemen have invented
In anti-collision apparatus. 1t is worked by
electricity, the principle being that when
>ne train gets on the same pair of metals as
mother train within a certain distance, the
current SO acts as to bring them to a stand
still.
"A scheme is now being developed in
scotland by which high grade of bricks is
,eing made from Clipped granite and clay.
rhe experiments have been successful, and
when perfection is reached it is likely that
he method will be introduced in this
ountry.
"A celebrated feast given by Vitellius,
Roman Emperor OF those degenerate days,
o his brother Lucius, cost a little over
zoo 900. Suetonius says that this banquet
consisted of 1000 different dishes of fish and
900 different fowls, besides other courses
n proportion.
AT hat establishment In Philadelphis
n electric motor has been brought into use
n connection with hat-polishing machine.
hat shaper is connected to the shaft of the
motor. The hat to be polished is fastened
n to the shaper, and revolyes at high
ate of speed, by which meanSit is easily
nd quickly polished.
prRnurrrES FRnH1 purE