Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-19
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

| VUhlVVO OOND6RsS<AAA AAS4sSs
Women began work in printing Offices
as early as 1520
Only one woman of the upper class Of
Egypt is permitted to see men.
There are more bee hives in the United
States, where there are 2, ,ooo, than in any
other country on the globe.
| If cork is sunk 200 feet deep in the
ocean it will not rise again on account Of
the pressure of the water
| 1t is interesting to learn that we live Q
distance of only twenty trillion miles from
| the nearest of the so-called "fxed' stars
-Truckee, New, had q shaving contest
| recently. The successful artist scraped hts
man in As seconds and no blood was she'd
The extremes of temperature on the
Sahara are such that while the day may be
| oppressively hot at night it is freezing cold
Amherst College is now among the
American colleges which authorize their
students to appear in classical garb, cap and
gown.
There are about II, ,0O0, 900 women In
Italy, and some 1000. 600 of them are engaged
in indu strial occupations, while more than
5000 900 labor in the fields.
"A Cornell professor recently told his
students that the man who sells his vote Is
worthy of greater respect than he who
stays away from the polls and does not vote
at all.
Railway managers of Holland have
found it impossible to get men to work the
switches who can be depended upon to let
liquor alone, and have therefore substituted
women.
One of the highest living authorities on
oceanography, John Murray, estimates the
area OF the dry land of the globe at 55, 900, 900
square miles and the area OF the ocean at
137, zoe, 600 square miles.
"A careful woman has her home In Port
Richmond. She was married l6 years ago
and began her married life with two rows OF
pins. She has 81 of them yet, and would be
happy If she could find the three missing
pins.
"A new puzzle has appeared in London
shops which is said to be patience-prover
after the style of pigs in clover. only a good
deal more So 1t is called the bicycle puzzle.
The chance of solving the puzzle is but one
in ten.
Belgium now has $4,000 voters; q
household suffrage would raise the number
to 800 900: giving the suffrage to all who can
read and write would raise it to j, 100, 900, and
universal suffrage would mean 100000
voters.
"A lock on the door of house in Ply
mouth, England, on being taken to pieces
loE Ec pdlTSy was iOuuu W COnIdlu dn lIlSCT1D-
door of the chamber in st. Helena in which
Napoleon breathed his last.
"A novel signal has Just been success
fully tried by the fire department. of Cincin-
natl. 1t consists of an electric button in the
nozzle of the fire hose, and by its means the
fireman in charge Of the hose can signal to
the man at the hydrant to shut or or turn on
the stream as may be required.
"A pneumatic selfplaying piano, which
reels OF any kind of music, from classical
selections to the latest music hall atrocity,
has lately been put on the market by a
music seller of Hamburg. The tune is de-
veloped by means of q perforated sheet Of
cardboard passing over kind of bellows.
There are remarkable instances on
record of what pigeons have DONE A French
bird, captured near Paris was taken to Ber-
lin, 500 miles away, and kept there for
four years. It escaped somehow, and at
once made q straight line for home, safely
reaching the loft in Paris where it had been
reared.
The transportation fleet of the United
States at the beginning of 1890, with the e1-
ception of canal boats, numbered Is, ,A0ves-
sells of all classes. of which 6067 were steam
ers, s,9l2 were sailing vessels, and 10 SCI were
barges or unri@eed vessels, whose gross ton
mage was ,633, ,676 tons, and whose estimated
value stood at s2l5, ,O693oO.
The instructive fear which cats have Of
dogs is illustrated very amusingly by strok-
ing dog and then caressing a blind and =
newborn kitten with the same hand that
has touched the dog. At once the kitten
will spit and fluff itself up in the most ao-
surd way, distinguishing the smell of the
beast which experience has for generations
taught it most to dread.
Two Swedish peasant women attracted
attention recently at the In
migrants Bureau az Ellis Island by the
; aboriginal way in which they carried their
ba bies. The little ones were tucked in Q
Ieathern bag suspended from the backs of
the mothers from shoulder straps. Peasant
mothers OF Sweden have so much hard work
to do afield that they have to take their
babies with them.
"A storm cloud was observed few
miles south of Lemoore. Cal, recently that
acted very strangely. 1t was quite near the
ground and seemed to be violently agitated.
)ne part going to the northwest and only
orty or fifty feet from the earth. One of the
sections passed over or through the tops Of
Iome poplar trees and shaved them OF as II
gigantic moving machine had passed that
way.
AT Hirniskretschen, in Bohemia, from
The unequal working of nature in the de-
Itruction OF rocks, has resulted a most colos-
al and ruggedIy beautiful arch, the summft
" which is upward of LOO feet above sea
cV6l.
distance like the frame of an immense
picture, the latter being represented by the
wildly roman tic scenery which is visible
through the opening of the arch.
For practical purposes the Mediter-.
anean may be accepted being what fs Is
opularly supposed to be, a tideless sea, but
is not so in reality. In many places there
a distinct rise and fall, though this Is moro
due to winds and currents than
o lunar attraction At Venice there is
ise of from one to two feet in spring tides.
he only place where the tidal influence is
nmistakably observed is in the Gulf OF
tables. where the rise and fall varies from
h-ee to eight feet.
"A stock-raiser and ranch owner of
Iomer, Neb., has just contracted one of the
hastliest marriages on record. He was
idower. Ten days before his second union,
Q declares. he received a spirit message
aging that his wife was in perturbed state,
Is approaching marriage being the cause.
o propitiate the wounded spirit the stock
ian and his bride were married at midnight
n the grave in which his first wife was
uried- From exposure and fright the
brtge has since been con-
ned to her bed.
PICKINGS FROM PUCK.