Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-10
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

There are 156, 973,87 watches in use
There are over 900 chess clubs in the
United Kingdom.
Spiders are seven times stronger In pro-
portion than lions.
London has paupers enough to hh all
the houses in Brighton.
London, in monetary value, is worth
"a times as much as Paris.
There are go, 900 singers in the choirs
Oh the churches OF England.
1t is said that two out of every three
VINO Degln to learn shorthand fail to ac-
quire it.
In 1891 there were in England and
,'. MaIes on the average 5H persons to each in
hab1ted house.
-Inere are more than 20 times as many
Germans in England as there are English
men IN Germany.
"A hive of 5000 bees produces alone 80
POUNDS of honey yearly, and muItiples ten
1oiu IN five years.
1t is somewhat odd that the most
ancient cities should bear the name of "New
IoWn" (NoVgorod).
line finest wool is said to be obtained by
ffue1ng-pulling out the fleece by the root
from the live sheep
1t has been found by actual measure
ment that the pouch of a pelican will hold
SIX gallons of water.
The total revenue of England and
w wales lies at the time of Henry " was ETC, ,8I3.
In 1881 it was sS9,4s liz.
The majority of recent calculations of
the SUMS pace place it at about 40 miles per
SECOND, or nearly 5000 times as fast as an ex-
press train.
Lake Superior is 335 miles in length: its
greatest breadth is $50 miles: mean depth,
6ss feet: elevation, s27 feet, and area, 5000
square miles.
by tar the greater part of the accidents
sna1 occur In mills, ETC., happen during the
last two hours of work when wOrkpeonle
are tired and careless
1t is stated that since last October in
ADDITION to the ordinary cremation in
france more than4,6l bodies nave been sent
from the hospitals to be cremated
The brewer1es of the world consume
yearly 100000 tons of barley, and 70, 900 tons
Of hops. British breweries consume 56OOo
ooo bushels OF barley, and 10000 tons of sugar
The representation to the House of
commons, as now constituted, consists OF 495
members for England and Wales, 72 for Scot
$40. . '0Sai Vi
-Smeaton ascertained by experiment
that IN canal four miles in length. the
water was kept up four feet higherat one end
toan the other, merely by the action of the
Wlnd along the canal
-TWenty-three physicians all enjoying a
deservedly wide reputation, give gratuitous
consultations in Paris. These philanthropic
and skllliul men have already given more
than II 600 consultations.
White tar is one of the latest inven-
tions or discoveries. 1t will not become soft
ur1ar tho un1a in,
expected to be used largely in calking the
deck seams of fine yachts.
The average consumption of meat in
Australia by each inhabitant is equal to 276
pounds per annum, or over three-quarters
OF pound of meat every day of the year by
eacn man, woman and child.
To-day much of the paper for books is
made, at least in part, OF wood pulp treated
with powerful acids, while the ink is COM
pound of various substances naturally at
laid.
For ages the common slang phrase, or
its equivalent, Gin the soup'' has in ons form
and another been in use among the Ger
mans. "He sits in the SOUP is used to indf-
cate the situation of man in misfortune by
his own fault.
Medieval churchmen of high degree
did not allow "the largest, first and shortest
gold ring was found upon the thumb OF the
supposed skeleton of Hilary, Bishop of Chi
chester, who died in 1859.
j. T. Hancock, Sr., has an orange tree
two miles west of Fort Meade Ga, that
measured "a inches in diameter two feet
from the ground Six years ago it bore 1000
oranges. The age of the tree is not known.
1t was there 40 years ago, when Mr.. Hancock
first took the place.
George W. Noah; aged SO years, living
about six miles from Gadsden, is considered
the smallest man in Alabama. He is feet
II inches high. and weighs only S5 pounds.
He has been offered several places in dime
museums. but has refused them, and prefers
to work on his farm.
In the middle English period weddings
were scenes of great state and festtvity.
The bridegroom presented to all the guests
scarfs, gloves and garters OF his favorite
colors and received in return gifts of plate
and other household goods. Hence our
modern ideas as to wedding presents.
The Bianzi, who live along the Upper
Congo, have a strange custom which makes
life burden to the married woman Brass
rods are welded into great rings around the
necks of the wives. Many of these rings
worn by the women, whose husbands are
well-to-do, weigh as much as 80 pounds, and
this burden must be carried by the Door
creatures as long as they live.
When the shrine of Thomas A. Beckett
was robbed of it's treasures the famous
Archbishop's thumb ring, given to him by
the King of France, graced with a ruby the
size of q hens egg, found its way to the
thumb of bluff King Hal; and as the humor
of the King is always voted just the thing,
we may be sure the royal hand was not the
only one so decked at court.
If you t'lke all the people in the world,
and set them out in q space a mile apart,
like milestones along a road, and then at
the farther end use all the dogs and cats to
extend the line of mileposts. you would run
far short of the material top mark the dis
tance ont to the earth's brother planet, NeD-
tune Again, if you could use all this mate
rial of men, women and children, dogs and
cats and put them out so that they would
be as far from one another as one end of Eu-
rope is from the other, your line wouldn't be
half long enough to reach to the nearest
fixed star.