Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-21
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

The railroads get SO. 2.OOO, 900 year 70
carrying the mails.
Turkish women eat rose leaves witt
butter to secure plumpness.
The smallest quadruped in the world
the pigmy mouse of Siberia.
The site of the city of Boston was sol'
in 1856 by John Blackstone for sl5O
I'm the Chicago postofics 100, 600 letter
are sorted stamped and bagged in 30 minute
by 2l7 men.
The mines of the world produce 25 tom
OF gold every week, but the precious
metal remains as rare as ever.
-"My Lord" said the foreman of ar
Irish jury when giving in his verdict, "w'
md the man who stole the mare no
guilty"
"A papyrus containing problem il
chess said to have been solved in the time o
Rameses the Great has been offered to th'
brltlsh museum.
In all probability Tubal Cain, thi
primal artificer in iron and brass, was the
| first to set the fashion OF wearing rings
known.
1t Will undoubtedly surprise many per.
sons to learn that the nursery or floral in
terests in the United States now reach q
Nalue OF nearly S42,O OOOOO and claim
p1re OF more than 10000 acres.
The custom of shaking hands, which
exists among the Amos, the aboriginal in
habitants of Japan, was so strange to
Japanese author, in work published
as late as 1855, that he gives an engraving O.
1t.
Like some of the rings of TODAY, the sig.
nets worn by the Israelites bore inscr1p
tions The breastplates of the high priests
were set with Il precious stones each one
representing tribe of the Children o.
Israel.
The hose used in sprinklIng the plaza.
of Paris is queer contrivance. 1t consists
of lengths of iron pipe, each length mounted
at the end on short axles having two small
wheels, and the lengths Joined together BY
short pieces of flexible hose.
Newspapers having been mysteriously
stolen from doorsteDs in Chicago, watch was
set, and a little black and tan dog was
discovered to be the cuprit. Although
chased, the dog escaped, and was detected
~ minutes later stealing another paper.
"A couple of months ago PhiIadelphis
woman bought a rustic table made of the
boughs of some trees from which the bark
had not been removed. About two weeks
ago the table began to throw ont green
sprouts, and now the whole table is in full
bloom.
Kansas City, Kan, has band of youth
full terrors called "stone throwers." Their
unique mode of attack consists in throwing
stones against the windows of houses to
ascertain if the folks are at home. Then, if
the road is clear, they enter the place and
steal what they can.
The Great Western Railway, of Eng.
land, will exhibit at the Transportation
Building at the Chicago Fair the famous old
locomotive. ''The Lord of the Isles'' which
was built at the -company's works in Swim
don in 1851. from designs by the late Sir
Daniel Gooch.
I'm the seventeenth century the favorite
color of the Scotch Covenanters was blue.
and blue and orange or yellow became the
Whig colOrs after the revolution OF 1858.
Green is the color of the Irish Roman Cath
olicS. while opposed to it is the orange of the
Orangemen or ProteStants of the North Of
Ireland.
"A little girl at Adairsville, Ga, told
her parents recently that she would not live
long, and that the world was all going
wrong. few days ago she fell into creek
and was drowned. photog rapher took a
picture of the child, and while putting the
negative in solution the glass shiVered into
many pieces.
"A resident of Fitchburg, Miss, is in
luck and in trouble at the same time. He is
wanted to receive slO 600 left him by will for
stopping pair of runaway horses and saving
a Young wOman's life. The reason he cannot
be found is that he disappeared last fall to
escape Judgment of $1,000 given against
him in court.
The Laplander crawls, head and all,
into bag made of reindeer skin, and sleeps
warm and comfortable within 1t. The East
Indian at the other end of the world, also
has sleeping bag, but it is more porous
than the Laplander's. Its purpose is to
keep out mosquitoes more than to keep the
sleeper warm.
Some unique features were introduced
at wedding in Wisconsin recently. Be-
sides the maids of honor. best man, four
bridesmaids and four ushers, one lady acted
the part of Queen Venus. dressed in classic
robes. with jeweled crown on her head.
Her part was to bring the minister from
some hidden retreat.
-Eben Jourdan, a Boston merchant,
built gymnasium for his female employees,
who are instructed by professor of physi-
cal exercise from TO 6o'clock, afternoons.
The success of the gymnasium, with 600 STU
dents, has been so great that Mr.. Jourdan
thinks it would pay every large establish
ment employing women to have q like adj
junct.
The habit of pouring few drops of
wine from freshly opened bottle into the
hosts glass before the guests are served Is
popuIarly supposed to be for the purpose Of
rettino rid OF the small bids of cork that
may adhere TO the mouth of the bottle, but
in reality it is relic of those uncomfortable
days when host first tasted wine as q
guarantee to his guests that it was not
poisoned.
-Mayalipuram, India, is graced with
seven of the most remarkable temples in the
world, each of these unique places of wor-
ship having been fashioned from solid
grants boulders. The "Hevasa-G Goda-Cla"
the largest of the seven, is 81 stories high,
its outlines resemble those of an Atlantic
steamship. The inside of the boulder has
been chiseled away until the walls do not
exceed eight inches in thickness.
Alternate wires of copper and zinc are
run around the trunk OF tree. at a dis
.ance of about half al inch apart. The
casual caterpillar begins TO mount the trunk
IF the tree and unlimbers himself with the
confidence and vigor born of an impending
feast Presently he reaches the copper wire,
Dokes his nose over 1t, and lets another kink
put of his backbone. Half an inch further
I'D his front feet strike the zinc, the circuit
s completed, and the unfortunate larva Is Q
martyr to science.
rTrrNnRESOrEl