Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-05
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

There is a man living at Liberty, Ind,
who eats newspapers as a regular diet, so it
is said
AN absent-minded Philadelphia barber
tucked newspaper under hts patrons chin
and gave him towel to read.
The authorities of Meran, in the
Austrian Tyrol, have forbidden the outdoor
wearing of long trains by women.
Columbus described three mermaids
which he himself saw floating on the waves.
Many other early navigators give similar
accounts.
"A man who enlists in the United States
regular army may hereafter. if he chooses,
wear cravat. Hitherto he has been denied
that privilege.
-Four families of Penobscot Indians
lived last winter in a board shanty at Cape
Elizabeth and earned tog ether S1l0 month
at basket making.
The fimsy paper called tissue paper
was originally made to place between tissue,
cloth of gold or silver, to prevent its fraying
or furnishing when folded.
The gastronomic law that oysters should
not be eaten in the months without an R in
them was laid down by person named But
Ter nearly 800 years ago.
"A West Philadelphia clergyman re-
old-fa shioned copper penny as his fee for
performing wedding ceremony.
The Chinese have kitchen god, which
is supposed to go to the Chinese heaven as
the beginn ing of each year to report upon
the private life of the families under his
care.
An old way of interrogating fate in
love affairs is to slice an apple in two with
sharp knife. If this can be done without
cutting seed the wish of the heart will be
fulfilled.
In olden times the Ottoman believed
that eclipses of the sun and moon were
caused by some gigantic dragon or serpent
who was doing his best to devour those
luminaries.
"A rare relic of aboriginal life, the skull
of an animal with flint arrowhead i'm
bedded in the frontal bone, has been ex-
humed on the farm of Edward A1bin, south
of Springfield, o.
A little colored boy was struck by the
tail OF an alligator while he was wadfng In a
pond in Jefferson county, Fla, one day last
week and had one leg broken in two places.
The stroke threw him on shore.
The teak, which has passed into proverb
as the best material for ship building, is
superior to all other woods, from the fact
that it contains an essential oil which pre-
rusting.
The collection of fabrics in the Drexel
Institute promises to become one of the fin
est in the country and of the highest fmpor-
tance to students. The series of Indian
prints is remarkable and ste Chinese en-
broideries comprise several notable speci-
mems.
The French Ministry of War has been
engaged for more than year in making e1-
periments in the preservation OF meat. The
experiments have resulted in the discovery
that frozen meat can be kept for eight
months, without any change in its appear
ance or powers ofnourishment.
From the twelfth to the fifteenth GEN.
tury small mirrors. carried in the pocket or
attached to the girdle, were regarded as in
adjuncts TO ladies' toilets. The
pocket mirror was q circular plaque of pol
ished metal fixed in a shallow box and COW
cred with u lid.
"A tool has recently been invented that
may be attached to any drill press for bor-
ing any geometrical figure such as round,
square, hexagon, octagon, triangle, diamond,
star, oval, half round, etc. 1t can be fitted
to bore any shape of hole having straight
sides or curved sides. or both. Any mnchin-
ist of ordinary ability can successfully use
the tool.
The Geological Society have Just &C.
quired three samples of the gigantic Japan
ese salamander. This creature is interesting
as being the largest existing amphibian. In
former periods of the earth's history, large
nevis and frogs were the rule, rather than
the exception; but nowadays these giants OF
old are represented by puny and degener-
lte race.
The use of horse flesh as an article Of
food has made great progress in Paris, where
about 1000 horses per week are said to be
the animals eve hofng i'm
ported for that purpose. The snail is becon-
ns another fashionable article of diet in
France. Snails were highly esteemed by
The Romans, and in the sixteenth century
,he Capuchins of Fribourg possessed the
lrt of fattening them.
There have deem during the past years
series of fashionable crazes in Japan. The
rear 1873 was the rabbit year. The Japanese
vent wild over these little quadrupeds. As
much as E3GO was paid for a single specimen,
nd speculations in E100 and f200 rabbits
we're of daily occurrence. Cock-fghting,
printing dictionaries by subscription, boat
ng, whist, waltzing, gigantic funerals, and
able turning are among other recent
RACES.
The streets of Berlin are soon to be en-
iched by large number of so-called "Ura-
ia pillars" OF which it is proposed to set up
n all 800. These pillars will be about Is feet
Ugh, constructed OF cast iron, ana Will 6ach
ontain a clock, meteorological instruments,
weather. charts astronomical and geograph-
cal announcements, and also, as in the
treets of Paris, a plan of the neighboring
treets in enlarge form to enable strangers
o find their way.
"A dispatch to the Indianapolis Neus re-
ltes that j. C. st. John, of Grsensburg, Ind,
the owner of a Cog of the terrier species,
rhich has voluntarily taken upon himself
he task of rearing four motherless chicks.
he dog is their constant attendant, and
'hen harm seems to threaten he ruSheS
rantically to the rescue, briStling for
ght, and the chicks huddle about him
in perfect confidence of his abil-
y to protect them.
Small convex mirrors of glass were
lade in Germany before the sixteenth Cen
1ry, and were in demand until compare
vely modern times. They were produced
Y blowing small glass globes, into which,
lille they were hot was passed through
ipe mixture of tin, antimony and resin.
7hen the globe was coated inside it was al
,wed to cool, and was afterward cut into
onvex lenses, which formed small but
ell-defined images.