Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-13
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS

Uncle Sam has 2, 900, 900 beehivea
The first iron wire was drawn ct Nur
emberg in 1851.
The greatest depth Of the Atlantic
Ocean is q ,3s6 feet
Among the nobility of England, 81 per
cent have no children.
In Southwestern British Colombia shers
are fully 1000 wild horses.
On Bali, an island in the Indian Archt-
pelago, east of Java, the burning OF widows
still goes on.
-In Corea sheets of paper pass for money
one sheet brings one quart Of rice, or 30
sheets piece OF hemp CLOTH
There are still IA different places on this
globe where cannibalism is practiced, but
the custom Is gradually dying out.
Statistics show that 1000 persons are
murdered in this country every year and
only one murderer in 80 is punished.
An asylum for mothers-in-law is being
built in Austria by wealthy Austrian
woman. and provision has been made for
500 occupants.
of IA frst-class racers now on the
Atlantic four are German built, one halls
from France, six from the Clyde, two from
Belfast and one from Mersey.
Out of q total of 70, 324 paupers in aims
houses in the United States i'll the year COW
cred by the eleventh census, 9Il5 per cent
were white and s.s5 per cent were colored-
There is a certain island in the Baltic
Sea to whose inhabitants the body Of the
sun is clearly visible in the morning before
1t rises, and likewise in the evening after fs
sets.
The Chinese have kitchen god, which
is supposed to go to the Chinese heaven at
the beginning of each year to report upon
the private lie of the families under his
care.
The proposed underground electric rail-
ways for London, il sanctioned, will be
16 feet under the Thames, 6s feet beneath
Regents Park, and 85 feet below Oxford
street.
Bricks made of plaster of paris and
cork are now used in the construction Of
powder mills. In case of explosion they
| offer slight resistance and are broken to
atoms.
The central Sahara registers . mean
| Temperature of go in July. Central Australia
| boasts of $40 in January, q mean which Is
| attained in South Carolina and Arabia In
midsummer.
The largest number of men enlisted
from the 10 States of America during the
| Revolutionary War was 81, ,761 in 1776 The
aggregate of troops furnished the Union
| army in the war of 1916 was 2,32O.212.
Between January /, 1890. and june 30,
| 1891. 7,l50, $50 silver dollars were coined in
| the United States mints. The total value OF
the production OF silver IN the United States
| from 1881 to 1880 inclusive, was S+s4, Co.,
"A cigar contains acetic, fomic, butyrio,
valerie, and proprionic acids, prussic acid,
creosote, carbolic acid, ammonia, sulphur
| cited hydrogen. pyrldine, viridine, picoline-
| and rubidine, to say nothing OF cabagine
| and burdockic acid.
I'm the regalia room of the Scottish
kings in Edinburgh castle, one can still see,
| among other variable relics, the coronation
crown of the great Robert Bruce: 1t is a
plain circlet of gold, heightened with four
| spikes having trefoil heads.
Missouri City, Mo-, has a cat with eight
| legs and four tails; Moberly, NO., has an
albino with pink eyes and white, kinky
| hair; Springfield, Mo-, has ten-year-old boy
who weighs $50 pounds and has two ext
| fingers and two extra toes.
"A strange custom is followed by Mex
| can farmers. They use oxen of one color
| the morning and another color in the aftt
| noon. They do not know why, but tbs
| know that it must be the right thing to
| because their forefathers did it.
| According to Dr. Lauder Brunton, co
water is q valuable stimulant TO many, ifn
| all people. Its action on the heart is mo
| stimulating than brandy. His own expei
| ence is that slipping half a wineglass OF col
| water will raise his pulse from 76 to owe
| lO0 ' --
| "A tunnel, the largest in the world, hs
been projected and begun, practically, uFi-
| der Simplon, to supersede the famous roAd
over the mountain constructed by Napoleon
| The "Route of the Simplon" is 80 miles In
| length; the tunnel will be trlfle less than
| 121a miles.
The costliest paintings of modern times
are Meissonfer's "lsl4' and Millet's "The
Angelus." NJ. Chauchard gave S1700 for
| 1854" and sl50.0O0 for "The Angelus." Henry
| Hilton, in 1887. paid $4,000 for Meissonier's
| "Friediand, 1907 and presented it to the
| Metropolitan Museum of Arts, of New York.
English oak is scarce, lots offered for
| safe nowadays commanding large prices.
| At sale or some oak trees in Burghley Park
| recently from ECO to ESQ each were paid for
trees. Half dozen of the best trees sold
| for fSl. ESQ f72 f65, s6i and s6L One tree
containing $50 feet OF lumber. sold for ESQ.
A year ago an oak was sold for E110-nearly
5000
"A new material for paving is now being
introduced in London. II is composed of
granulated cork and Ditumen pressed into
blocks which are laid like bricks or wood
paving. The special advantage of the
material lies in its elasticity. When used
for pavement it gives a soft thread which is
exceedingly pleasant recalling the feeling
OF D Carpet
Experiments on a considerable scale
are being made in the German army with
aluminium, as q means OF lessening the
weight which the men have to carry. Thisl Is
the case, for instance, in the First Regiment
of the Foot Guards, in which ten men out OF
every company have received the various
articles OF their equipment either bound
with or constructed of aluminium.
"A Frenchman has recently made i'm
portant advances in the work of photo
graphing colors. One of his plates gives q
view of q stained glass window containing
red, green, blue and yellow; others show
group of flags, partly colored paroquet and
q plate of oranges with poppy lying on the
top. The shades OF the Objects as well as
their colors, are faithfully reproduced.
I'm the west of England, particularly on
the borders OF Dartmoor and Exmoor, there
are speculators who cain considerable IN
comes by rabbitcatching. A middleman
who bought up all the rabbits in a district on
the eastern side of Dartmoor, and sent them
to dealers in the Midlands and London,
earned in a few years sufficiently large
sum to enable him to retire and live in Q
house of his own building.
FOETRY EN- PAsSANT.