Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-12
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

The actual output of phosphates in
Florida is now over 200, 900 tons.
There are about 525 species of spiders at
present known in the British Isles.
There Is a heifer at English, Ind, which
has given birth to five calves within II
months.
Cast iron melts and flows like water
when subjected to a degree of heat greater
than 2,7sS.
The Pixies Peak telephone line is said
to be eclipsed in altitude by a line that
crosses the Andes, on the Trans-Andean
l.ailroad, Mt an elevation of about 1850 feet
above sea level.
According to the New York State Board
OF Health there has been in that State 35, 1873
deaths within the past three months, and
that the present epidemic of grippe has al
ready caused 10000 deaths.
1T is not surprising that in the Connecti-
cut town of Tariffville nearly all the people
are believers in a high tariff Some English
freetraders, who recently settled in Tariff
vile, have become Tariffites.
-Selectman S. Byron Brownson, of
Ansonia, Conn.,, has two remarkable eggs.
one measures inches around the longest
way and the other ~ inches. Both were
lald oy the same hen on the same day.
The latest novelty in yacht building
will be an aluminium vessel of 81 feet in
length, which Mr.. Wells. of Leith, has re-
cetved orders to build. The boat will not be
painted, but polished when necessary.
Dynamite has been superseded in
Sweden for blasting purposes. Electric wires
are introduced in the rock and then heated.
The sudden heating of the rock rends it in
pieces, quietly and effectively, without peril
to human life.
Every year 1,500 to 1000 Portuguese
men and women are landed in Boston and
New Bedford, and there is a large colony
of Portuguese in California, supporting
numerous churches, besides literary review
and weekly paper.
Henry A. Pond, of Bristol, has been
visited by many farmers who desired to see
his twin calves. They were born OF JERSEY
mother, and while one is n very diminutive
specimen of the Jersey breed, the other is
monstrously large fullmarked Holstein.
A daughter that was born to Mr.. and
Mrs. Edward Morse, of Shelton, recently,
has more relatives than the average baby.
She has two grundmothers, three great
grandmothers, eleven greatuncles and
aunts. and six greatgreatuncles and aunts.
Complaint is made at the present high
price of camphor gum. While q few years
ago the gum sold for 10 to 25 cents a pound,
it now sells from 50 to 75 cents This rise in
the manufacture of smokeless powder in
both Europe and America.
Recent tests made under the auspices Of
the Royal Philosophical Society with a single
barley stalk unfolded wonders which but
few have ever thought even possible. By
sleeping and watering that one plant with
saltpeter dissolved in rain water they man
aged to produce 249 stalks and over Is 900
grains.
1t is an interesting fact that out of 16
cities of over 200. 600 population in the United
states, IA, or over 81 per cent. are using the
electric railway system or eqnipping roads
with the system. And out of ~ cities with
populations ranging from 100000 to $4,000
all but one are using the electric railway
system.
An important article of trade in Mo-
rocco is loaf sugar. which is in general de-
mand for presents. Every person approach
ing q superior whose favor or good will it is
desired to propitiate is bound to bring gift.
He cannot appear empty handed and the
form that is most commonly taken by the
gift Is loaf sugar.
Hugh Farrell, who is not very large
man, attempted to drink 20 quarts of milk
on wager, in Middletown. He had ten
hours to do it in but after drinking Is quarts
he thought he had made a custard of him
self and gave it up. He was able to go to
work the next morning, although he tried to
find way out of doing so.
"A Derby, Conn, woman, whose word
is not to be doubted, tells the oldest hen
story of the season. She put 10 eggs under
her hen and obtained l6 fine chicks. In tho
nest, besides, were two eggs that wore, not
Matched, and two more in which dead chicks
were found The problem has been given to
the local school children to solve.
The works of distinguished Japanese
painter are on exhibition in London, and
are greatly admired. His name is Watanebe
Seftei, and he is a native of Toxic. Some of
his paintings have already been exhibited
in Paris and praised by the French critics.
1t was he who, five years ago, painted the
ceiling panels for the imperial palace in
Toxic.
The Amos of Japan burn their dead
and place the ashes in a prayer house next
to their dwelling. The prayer house is made
of deals, and is generally more than two
feet high, and in it the ancestral tablet is
placed. This tablet consists OF long up
right plank. cut slantingly at the upper end
and tied around with six loops. At the foot
lies fish and two tobacco leaves.
The population of the city of Rome,
which, by the census of 1881, was 273,00O, is
now over 100000, having nearly doubled
within the past ten years. Since the city be-
came the capital of united Italy thousands
of new edifices have been built, and it has
been greatly changed otherwise. The seven
hills themselves are undergoing process of
leveling and the valleys are being filled in.
"A committee has been formed in Ham,
burg, including Prof. Neumayer, Director of
the Marine Observatory, and several leading
merchants, with view to sending out an
expedition to the Antarctic Ocean. 1t is to
first to the southern extremity of
South America, and there and elsewhere
will make u systematic series of magnetic,
and geological investiga-
tions.
"A Swiss chemist has, it is said, not only
discovered how to dispose of ordinary coal
smoke but how to turn it into 4 highly prof
table commodity. The statement is that by
l25 tons of coal, at a cost of sl55, and
making full use of it for steam raising pur-
poses lie can ut the same time secure, by q
simple process he has invented, four tons of
sulphate of ammonia from the smoke pro-
duced by the coalt The money value of this
will be s24O.
Playing jokes on newly married couples
is a favorite pastime with bucolic Ridge
felders. When young pair from that town
left the train at South Norfolk, Conn.,, last
week they were mortified to find several
white ribbon bows attached to the top OF
their trunk, an old shoe on each handle, and
across one end q plGcard which was
painted two hearts transfixed with skewer.
1--WE are one." The bride cried and the
groom swore.