Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-03
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

Madagascar has standing army Of
10000.
There are now 65,OO7 postoffices in the
United States.
An orange tree in Southern California
| year old bore POS oranges.
"A dollar aminute is the charge for using
the new London-Paris telephone.
The cubit, Latin cubitus, an elbow, is
Roman standard of length from the point
of the elbow to the end of the middle finger.
-Sappey. the learned psychologist. saws
that the human stomach contains 5000 900
glands which are constantly secreting gas
trio juice.
In olden times, when every part of the
| body had its price, the beard was valued at
20 shillings-a large sum for the time-while
the loss ofa leg was only estimated at IL
shillings.
AT depth of 2s0 feet new spouting
mineral spring has been struck at the Gey-
sers at Saratoga. the gas in which is so pow
e erIul as to throw six-inch column of water
70 feet high.
There is man in Pomona, Cal, who
! drives horse that is a tobacco 1end. He
must have his "chew'' regularly, and if it is
not given him he "kicks," literally as well
as figuratively.
That rather dangerous breed called Spitz
or Pomeranian dogs, a variety of Esquimau,
were first bred in Pomerania, Prussia, but
the popular name of SpitZ was probably de-
rived from the erroneous notion that they
originated in SpitZbergen.
Newfoundland dogs were originally nat
ives of that country and Labrador. from
which circumstance they received their
title. In the same manner the noble st.
Bernards are so called from the famous
monastry OF that name in the Alps.
The dolphin is said to be the fastest
swimmer in the seas. 1t has been observed
to dart through the water at rate COM
puted to be much greater than 20 miles an
hour, and is often seen swimming round
and round a vessel which is sailing at high
est speed.
If well could be dug to the depth of 46
miles, the density of the air at the bottom
would be as great as that of quicksilver. By
the same law a cubic inch of air taken 1000
miles above the earth's surface would ex-
pnnd sufficiently to fill sphere 1000 lO00, 900
miles in diameter.
Not more than 90 years ago there ex-
listed in the South of Ireland abduction
clubs, whose members were bound by oath
to assist in carrying of such women having
money as were fixed upon, the members
drawing lots to determine to whom the
woman abducted should fall.
In the Caucasian province of Georgia
where q drouth has lasted long, marriage
able girls are yoked III couples with yoke
on their shoulders, priest holds the reins,
and thus harnessed they wade through
rivers, Duddles and marshes, praying,
screaming, weeping and laughing.
-TheBechuanas burn the stomach of an OK
at evening because. they say, "black smoke
will gather the clouds and cause the rain to
come" Timores sacrifice black pig for
rain, white or red one for sunshine. The
Garos offer black goat on the top OF very
high mountain in time of drouth.
"A man weighs less when the barometer
is high, notwithstanding the fact that the
atmospheric pressure on him is more than
when the barometer is low AS the pressure
of air on an ordinary sized man is about 10
tons, the rise of the mercury from 20 to 81
inches adds about one ton to the load he has
to carry.
There is kind of paper money in circu-
lation in Africa. On the coast of Loanga. for
instance, they have umbougo, sort of paper
mat, one foot square large, of which 100 are
worth a piece of cloth in kano. In the in
terror of the Soudan the tobe, cotton cloth,
and in Kanem 81 cotton shirt is the regular
standard money.
According to the ideas of the Iceland
ers all waters which flow to the north are
drawn thitherward by suction created by
the oceans tumblino downward through the
hollow which they firmly believe exists ut
the Pole. Their authority for this curious
belief is the "Utama Saga" semi-sacred
work written early in the fourteenth GEN.
tury.
On every horse will be found, on the
inside of each foreleg q dry, gray wart
about the size of a silver dollar, apparently
of nc possible use. When the weary, over
taxed animal, sweating at every pore and
covered with foam, can reach down and rub
with his wet nose this alway dry, hard SUBJ
stance. he is instantly refreshed with an
odor like geranium.
Arkansas has two natural curiosities
which will be exhibited at the Worlds Fair,
and which will be OF interest to lumbermen.
One is an oak tree ten inches in diameter,
pierced through and through by a small
cedar three inches in diameter. The other
is a sample OF Arkansas grape vine found in
Lincoln county. 1t is Is inches in diameter
at the butt and 80 yards long.
Until recently it was supposed that the
small star near the North Pole known as
No. 1880 Goombridge, which travels at the
rate of 232 miles second had the greatest
velocity OF any i'll the heavens: bnt it is now
known that Mu in CassiOnola has Il velocity
of 305 miles a second while, while If the OBJ
servations of DIR. Ellin are accepted. Arc
turus is travelling at a speed of S75 miles
second.
"A few years ago it was suspected that
the latitude of places on the earth's surface
changes. number of astronomers agreed
to make observations for two years and the
result has just been made public. Latitudes
do change. Berlin, for example, was so feet
nearer the North Pole in September than 1t
was in March, This change isnot, of course,
a shifting of any one point on the earth's
surface. 1t is n fitting OF the axis of the
earth.
The powers of the fakirs, or faqueers of
India and Persia OF stimulating death are
marvellous and almost incredible. Several
sGcts in these countries regard the art Of
apparent death as part OF their religious
ritual and practice it assiduously. In their
ancient hooks it is described as puranayam,
or stopping the death. Many cases in which
these Indian fakirs have allowed themselves
TO he Juried alive for long periods have been
verified bv British officials in India and at
tested by evidence which dispels all doubt
of their truth.