Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-10-03
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

s'-At the present time the average height
of the tides the world over is only about
three feet.
Ireland has occupied one-half of the
time of the House of Commons during the
last Il years.
Before theater can be opened for stage
plays in Dublin patent, which lasts %
years, has TO be obtained from the Lord
| Lieutenant
Fine rubies are enormously more valu-
able than diamonds. A fine ruby of real
pigeon-blood color and eight carats is worth
from $4,000 to $4,000.
Lord Yarboraugh calculates that tho
cost of keeping the $50 packs of hounds in
tie United Kingdom and maintaining the
| hunts amounts to over 81 600, 900.
! Most people are under the impression
that it il less fatiguing to go downhill than
| up, but that is because most people know
/ very little about mountaineering.
| The town of Guelma, in Algeria, is
now lighted by electricity, the installation
| having recently been completed by the So
ciete Franco-Algerienne d'EIectricfte.
! The Mohaves believe that all who die
and are not cremated are turned into owls,
| and when they hear an owl hooting at night
| they think it the spirit of some dead Mohave
| returned.
I The only specimen of fossilized orpetri-
| fed cave man ever found in the United
| States was that discovered by an exploring
party ut Craighead Cave, near Monroe,
Tenn, in 1882
There is large factory at small town
near Chicago employing about 100 to 80
workers, which is wholly given over to the
| manufacture of useful articles from waste
| animal blood.
| The American President receives his
salary in monthly instalments. On the 10Th
| day of every month the Treasurer of the
| United States sends to the White House
cheque for 81, ,l66.
Raw onions contain an acrid volatile
oil, sulphur, phosphorus. alkaline, earthly
salts, starch and free, uncrystallized sugar.
| The fresh juice is colorless, but by exposure
| to the air becomes red.
There are two distinct places of the
| earth lying under the equinoctial line whose
difference of longitude is exactly s61l de-
grees. and yet the true distance between the
| two places is not Sc miles.
The nebula in Orion is fine telescope
object now. The great black space in this
| nebula is known among unpoetic star gazers
| as the coal hole. No star has ever been seen
in this hole in the universe
"A glass factory at Liverpool now has
! glass journal boxes Tor all of its machinery,
glass floor, glass shingles on the roof and
| smokestack 1G5 feet high built wholly of
| glass bricks, each foot square.
There are three distinct places of the
earth, all different both in longitude and
| latitude, and removed from each other 1000
miles exactly, and yet they all bear upon
| the same point OF the compass
There are two distinct places on the
Continent of Europe so situated in respect
of one to the other that, though the first
doth lie exactly east of the second, yet the
second is not west from the first
Immense stocks of coal are constantly
kept on hand at st. Vincent, Madeira, Port
Said, Singapore and other Oriental coaling
stations, there being often as much as 100000
tons in store at the last named place.
1t has been found by actual calculation,
that if Aphides we're left unchecked to only
the tenth generation, the descendants of a
single pair would be equivalent, in point Of
actual weight, to O0000,OOo heavy men.
AS proof of the manner in which the
civilization of the West.is seizing hold on
Japan and all that is Japanese, it is stated
that in private mission school in the town
of Kiota there were 400 Japanese women.
Light travels at the rate of $4,000
miles second, a velocity which causes the
| rays from the moon to reach US in a little
| less than a second and a quarter. The rays
| of Jupiter are 81 minutes in reaching us.
The greatest number of people ever
killed by an earthquake since the dawn OF
history was 10000. The date of the terrible
| disaster was 1903 and the scene of the most
violent disturbance at Yeddo, Japan, and
vicinity.
Among the most remarkable inventions
at the recent paper exhibit at Berlin was q
set of paper teeth made by Luebeck dem
tist in 1873. They have been in constant use
for more than l3 years, and show absolutely
no wear whatever.
The Spanish youth has a rather indIf-
ferent time of it when he goes courting. He
is expected to turn up every evening beneath
the balcony of his lAdy-love's house, and
there to twang the soft guitar and warble
gentle to her of his hearts desires.
Burial at sea Is to be abolished for
those who have money to pay for the trans
portation of their remains in case OF death
on board ship. Air-tight steel caskets for
the transportation of bodies are now u part
of the equipment of all the best steamers.
Some ingenious contrivances are used
by thieves. The latest looks like an ordin-
ary walking stick, but is so arranged that by
pressing spring at the handle the ferrulo
will spread apart and form a sort of spring
clip that will take hold of anything that 10
within reach.
-Piscatory authorities of the highest
grand "evening-up" provisions, the fishes of
the seas would multiply so rapidly that
within three short years they would fill the
waters to such an extent that there would
be no room for them to swim. =
"A Paris doctor, who had been investi-
eating the question, has just published some
statistics showing, the number of baths
taken annually by each inhabitant of the
city since 1850 The average, he states, has
varied very little during the last AZ years,
and is-one single bath every two years.
Some German scientists have recently
furnished Information in regard to the ages
of trees. They assign to the pine tree 500 to
700 years as the maximum, 425 years to the
silver fir, 275 years to the larch, A5 years to
the red beech, 2l0 to the aspen. 200 to the
birch, 10 to the ash, and 145 to the elder, and
130 to the elm.
The red glow of the planet Mars has
puzzled everybody but a French astrono-
mer who gives it as his opinion that the
vegetation of that far-away world is crim-
son instead of green. He also says that he
hasn't the least doubt but that there are
single flowers on the war gods surface
which are as large as the fncorporsted