Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-14
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

"A ton of coal yields nearly 10000 feet
Of gas.
Ten men can be arranged to march in
single file 3s2s, 900 ways.
"A lady doctor in Birmingham, Eng
| land, goes her medical rounds on a tricycle..
Cork, if sunk 200 feet deep in the ocean,
will not rise, on account of the pressure OF
the water.
In Missouri common whisky is called
in literary circles "the essence of the tas-
The mean annual temperature of the
earth is 500 Fahrenheit; the average rainfall
Is SO inches
New Orleans, with an are of 227 square
miles, covers more ground than any other
city In the United States.
The family bicycle has three saddles
one for the driver and one each, fore and
aft, for his little passengers.
The oldest spoon in the world belongs
to George A. Warren, of indianapolis. 1t is
729 years old, and was brought from Eng
land.
A minister in this State was, it is said,
successfully a barber, q bartender and
variety theater actor before he became con-
verted-
The microscope shows 4, 900 muscles in
the body Of the common caterpillar, and that
the eye OF the dragon hy contains % 900 pol
tshed lenses.
When a Clarksvil1e, Tenn, woman
broke an egg the other day she found that
it contained another egg inside about the
size of small birds egg.
Cardinal Gibbons has a letter from
Bishop Beffi, of Carthage. Columbia, in which
the Bishop promises to send a bell 7s years
old for exhibition at the Worlds Fair.
Fifteen thousand jack rabbits were re-
Gently killed in one drive near Fresno, CAL,
and it is estimated that more than 100 900
were killed in this manner throughout the
state this winter.
There is horse in Chicago which is so
strongly charged with electricity that when
warm with exercise it will give a powerful
shock to whoever touches it, and even yield
enough OF spark to light gas.
The Negritos, in Tuzon Zone of the
Pnilippinesl, scarcely ever stop smoking
cigars, of which it is the lighted end that
they place in their mouths. The Hottentots
even barter their wives for tobacco.
"A student of chirography says that Gen.
erals always write thin, small. clear and
methodical hand. In the matter of curving,
however, their strokes are hard and deep.
Financiers, according to the same authority,
snow tendency to write back-handed.
Hunters near Caledonia, Pa, are ex-
cited over a snow white deer seen several
times recently in the mountains. 1t is said
to be a large buck with spreading antlers
and as fleet as the wind. A party of hunters
who saw the animal last fired at it but failed
to hit it.
"A rancher of Hillboro, Ore, on the
eve of his marriage, fell from the roof of a
N ha
been invited and the minister engaged for
his wedding, SO the doctor put the foot and
ankle in u plaster cast, and Casper was mar
r1ed on schedule time.
No animal is met with over so wide an
area of the enrth's surface as man. The
creature which most nearly approaches him
in this respect Is undoubted the dog, which,
IN one form or another. is to be found every
where except in the West Indies, Madagas-
elr and the Oceanic Islands.
Rats and mice are found almost every-
where on the earth's surface except in the
central portions OF the African and Aus
tralian continents and in the cold regions of
the extreme North and South. Bats, too,
are widely distributed, and are, indeed,
found every where in the tropical and tenn
perate portions OF the world.
The ''Rhinoceros Beetle is about 2
inches long, ,and is plentifully found in many
for its offensive smell, which has at times
rendered Raleigh. n. c., and other towns al
most uninha bitable, neces5itating action by
the health authorities. The animal lives in
decaying logs and stumps, feeding upon
rotten wood
"A peculiar freak of nature on the farm
of E. A. Grove, of Kings Park, L. L. attracts
much attention. It is a lamb that was born
without a lower jaw. The little white
heeced animal seems to be perfectly healthy
and romps about the lawns with as much
celebrity as the other quadrupeds on the
farm. The lamb manages to take nourish-
ment notwithstanding the absence of the
lower jaw
Unlike the Romans of a later age the
Egyptians did not contine the privilege of
shaving to free citizens but obliged their
slaves to shave both face and head. The
data is not exactly as authentic as one
would like to have but it is believed that
duced at Rome in the year 300 B. c. Accord
ing to Pliny, Scipio Africanus was the first
Roman who shaved daily.
I'm Paraguay it is chiefly the women
who chew, and travellers have often de-
scriDed their emotions when, on entering
house. a lady dressed in satin and adorned
with precious stones, comes toward them,
and, before holding out her mouth to be
kissed, as is the usual custom or welcome,
cheek pouch. Some of the South American
tribes actually eat tine tobacco cut into small
pieces.
In Southern Europe the cantharides in
sects are gathered by shaking them at night
upon sheets from trees on which they have
gone to roost in fiocks. Then they are ex-
posed in sieyes to the vapor of boiling vim
egar after which they are dried in the sun.
and are ready for sale in the drug shops
The flesh of all "blister beetles" contain
peculiar chemical compound, called "can-
tharidin'' - which burns the skin.
-Gallapageous tortoises are vegetable
feeders, browsing chiefly upon succulent
cactus. 1t is said that they are entirely
deaf, so that even the report of a gun does
not startle or alarm them. At intervals they
make pilgrimages to the hilltops, where
water is to be found, travelling by night
only. Thus in the course of centuries, they
have worn regular roads from the shore up
the mountain sides, by following which the
Spaniards first discovered the watering
places.
sNE tn uOnR