Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-30
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

man has been Durglar1zeu seven tiHes Wltnln
Is months.
When a cat washes itself and puts its
hind leg straight up behind its ears there
will be rain.
An Eskimo village, inhabited by from
one of the sights at the Worlds Exposition.
"A cocoon of a well-fed silk worm will
often yield thread 1000 yards long, and
one has been produced which contained 12sS
yards.
The majority of recent calculations of
the SUMS pace place It at about 40 miles per
second. or nearly 1900 times as fast as an ex-
press train.
"A French naturalist has stated that an
insect which attacks hop vines can produce
6oCo,oO0 600 young ones during the month or
six weeks OF its existence.
There is whirlpool in the Santa Fe
river, three miles northwest of High
Springs, Fla. into which 900 feet of line has
been lowered without finding bottom.
Green Mudd was the name given by Q
dark colored man when he took the stand In
the Louisville City court upon the charge Of
breaking into his aunts house. Mudd was
fined $40.
Among the instrumental resources Of
the John Hopkins University is a thermom-
the scale are so fine that magnifying glass
Is required to read them.
st. Paul's, London, is to have a new
clock. The old clock strikes the hour on the
old Phelps bell. but the new one will strike
upon Great Paul, which is nearly II tons
weight, with a hammer weighing $50 pounds.
The new countries are not the only ones
IN which towns expand as with a mushroom
growth: Thus Crewe in England, which in
a q 1aft ~F
years later could only boast of 2o3 inhabi-
tants, all told, now numbers 10000 who are
most all railway employees.
Some one has been taking the trouble to
reckon up all the advantages of the new.
tangled labor-saving appliances for veloci-
pedes, as described by their enthusiastic in
ventors, and the conclusion arrived at is
that machine fitted with them all ought to
go without any motive power at all.
On reading in Southern newspaper of
heroic act of q young woman in Mississippi,
william Jones, young business man of
Delke, Ga. wrote her, expressing admira-
ton or her courage. A correspondence fol-
lowed, together with an Interchange of pho.
tographs. Last week the young couple were
married.
"A man IN Evanston, Wyo., has invented
new style of railroad which he claims
ought to transport passengers across the
country at the rate of 200 miles an hour as
easily as trains can now be run at so miles
an hour. The cars are to be run on single
eleVateo ra1l placed upon posts and steadied
by side rails.
Miniature arrow heads cut out of Jasper
and carnelian are found to this day by Arabs
in the desert sands and strung in necklaces
for charms. The Etruscans of old used to
mount similar arrow heads in gold, and one
sees them worn even now in scarf pins.
Thus is the stone age brought down to the
very present time.
In Iceland the Protestant religion is the
national one, for there is not a single Roman
Catholic place Of worship on the island
There are very few Roman Catholic Hebrews,
OF Dissenters in the Scandinavian countries
the percentage of non-Lutherans lutheran
ism being the established Scandinavian re.
ltgion) being barely one of the total
The blackbird and thrush are awander-
ing souls" whose sins must be expiated on
earth, hence they are forced to endure the
rigors of winter. Rocks, jackdaws, bats,
hawks and owls are animated by lost souls
The wagtail is called the "devil's bird. for
no other reason than that it cleverly evaoes
the missiles thrown at it. A dead wagtail is
q rara avis.
On New Years Day, at the capital city
Of Thibet. Lh'asa, there begins a season Of
festfvity. One Of the entertainments is
called the spectacle of the Flying Spirits"
The performers stretch an enormously large
rope made of hide. all the way from the top
to the bottom of Mt Potalo; then they fasten
SlOoved blocks OF wood to their chests, and
sail down the line like so many swallows
Horse chestnuts and potatoes carried in
the pocket to keep or rheumatism or for
other superstitious purposes are amulets.
The virtues supposed to be possessed by
amber beads are variously familiar. Belief
in the supernatural qualities of amber is
verv old indeed. 1t arose originally from its
peculiar electric quality. from which was
derived the word 'electricity," electron be-
ing the Greek name for amber,
"A convict made his escape at Brennan,
Tex, a few days ago in curious manner.
With a number of others he was working on
q railroad embankmeut. When none of the
guards were looking. the convict laid down
in "a hollow made by the spades. The gang
near him threw dirt over him until he was
completely covered. When camp was
reached and the roll called the escape was
That knowledge of mythology Gas
Taught to young ladies and others) should
be common in the Greece of to-day is only
natural. You shall find the urchins in the
village school at Delphi reciting the lives OF
heroes and saints, OF Samson and Herakles,
of the virgin huntress and her VINO was
greatest among women. in q breath. All are
equally real to them as they might have
been to their forebears is centuries ago.
An odd belief is current among the
Roman populace that Beatrice Cencf has
finally got into heaven. The legend was
that when she was executed she went to pur-
gatory, and that she was to stay there as
long as the Borghese family, to whom the
Pope distributed the Cenci property, kept it
with profit and enjoyment. The Borgheses
are now almost ruined and so 1t is believed
and reported in Rome that Beatrice's pun
ishment is ended.
One of the latest methods of testing the
academic proficiency of mail clerks has just
been devised in San Francisco. 1t consists
of q case of LA pigeon holes, each of which
represents country postoffice. The victim
gets a number of cards having written adj
dresses on them to represent ordinary let
ters. He is then timed with a stop watch in
get all the cards In their proper pigeon
holes In California alone there are 1,45o
minor postoffices, so 1t may be imagined that
the task is not an easy one
M Koebele, who has been for the sec
ond time searching in Australia and New
Zealand for beneficial insects" has discov-
cred that Orcus cnalybeus, steel-blue lady
bird, is most important enemy of the red
scale. According to Nature he has found
them by the hundred, and has observed the
ma ture insects eating the scales The trees
were full Of eggs" and the larve were
swarming on all the orange and lemon trees
infested with the red scale. NJ. Koebele has
sent to America a large quantity of the eggs
and many of the adult beetles.
Curious evidence shows that cubic
inch of air at sea level contains about $780,
600, 900 molecules. If the law of regularly
density holds good, a cubic inch
of air at the height of 100 miles will contain
about $50. 600 mole,.uIes and at less than 222