Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-04
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

Every hare on a farm costs or wastes
annually 4s Sd. at least; every rabbit 2s.
The University of Oxford has appli-
ances for printing in 15O different languages.
Sixteen skeletons of ancient Indians
were recently dug up in field near Merced,
| Col.
Out of the 80 ducal and princely fami-
| lies established by Napoleon l., Il are ex-
| tinct.
There are said to be 800 snakes known
to naturalists, but that only few Of them
are poisonous.
The export of apples to Europe from
Portland, Me-, will be 1000, 900 barrels larger
this year than last.
Arrow heads covered with hiero-
glyphics were an interesting find in Lake
county, Col, recently.
-Gustave Dore, who never saw the Nj
agara Falls, put upon canvas one OF the
grandest paintings of them ever executed
-Two-thirds of the total number of chill
dren under ten years OF age in the United
hindom are insured In one form or another.
I'm court in Mississippi an important
case was interrupted because one Of the
Jurors caught the mumps and gave it to the
other H.
AT an English wedding recently the
bride, in default of q male relative to per-
form that office, was given away by young
er sister.
I'm Normandy not fewer than 5000 diff
ferently named varieties Of the acid or Bit
ter apple are known and grown for the man
ufacture Of cider.
Food costs little more here than in
Europe. 1t has been ascertained that the
cost per family for food in the United
States is s243 65 year against s22 81 in
Europe.
In China a man cannot by will dispose
of his land in favor of any one person,
whether relative or stranger; it must be dis.
tributed evenly among all his male children
without exception.
"A paper published in Greenland is said
to have the longest name ever given to
newspaper, but as the people of Greenland
can see to read until nearly midnight, that
doesn't matter much.
In the loft of an Oldtown, Me-, store
are 10000 fancy baskets, the result of the
work of Oldtown Indians during the last
winter. They are Of all shapes and colors,
and insured for 5000.
We owe many things to Japan, but it is
not generally known that the pheasant of
our preserves can trace it's pedigree on one
of the Rising Sun. Such is, however, the
case.
Bullets made of precious stones are
rarities in warfare. But during the recent
fighting on the Kashmir frontier, when the
British troops defeated the rebellious Hun
Zas, the natives used bullets of garnets en-
cased in lead
I'm an old trunk in forgotten corner of
q garret of O house in Martinsville, Ind, the
nm:
is supposed to have been deposited there by
the father of the present owner of the place
many years ago.
-Pliny tells of an Arabian giant,
Gabara. feet inches, the tallest man in
the days of CIaudius. John Middleton, born
at Hale. in Lancashire, in the time of James
l.. was feet inches in height; his hand was
II inches long and 81 inches broad.
-Hand-mirrors of metal are still in COM
mon use in Oriental countries In China
and Japan they are usually made of bronze,
slightly convex and about II inches in d.
ameter. The Japanese woman who is so
fortunate as to own mirror regards it as
the most precious of her possessions.
The Ecclesiastical Commissioners
that is to say, the Church of England
pocket by far the greater share of the mining
royalties exacted in the County of Durham.
The total of these royalties last year is estt-
mated at about ESQ, 990 and Of this enor-
nous sum about one-third went to the
church.
The population of the German Empire
was 49, AS, 40 on December !, 1890 The relative
n umbers of the federated German States
staad as follows: Prussia. %, S57 1861; Bavaria,
1884 9s2: Saxony, 3502,6S4; Wurtemberg,
2,cS6, 552; Baden, 1,657, ,S61; Elsass-Lothringen,
] 1,6O2, ,5O6; Hesse, s92 1888. The number of males
in Prussia on the census day was u, ,7O9, Isl.
1t is not uncommon to see -rhe famine
stricken districts of Russia families wander
ing about with q cart full of coffins from
church to church, until they can find a
priest who will perform the last rites gratis.
They are often finally forced to bury their
relatives themselves, and the piece of
ground allotted to them as a cemetery by
the municipality of Tumen is already over
crowded with graves.
1t has been computed that for every
bird of the rarer species-such as the hum
ming bird, the orange and scarlet cock OF
the rock, the oriole, and the kingfsher-
that is worn in a woman's headgear, at least
ten have suffered the death pang; counting
in the young who die of starvation, the
wounded which fly away to drop down and
die in the woods or among the reeds, and
those which are mutilated and destroyed by
the pellets so much as to be unavailable for
purposes of decoration.
The eolors of Great Britain are red and
blue; of the United States, stars on the blue
with white and red stripes. The Austrian
colors are red, white and blue; the Bavarian,
red; those of Denmark, red with white
cross those of France, blue white and red;
of the Netherlands, red, white and blue; of
Portugal, blue and white: of Prussia, white;
of Russia, white, with blue cross; of Spain,
black, yellow and red; of Switzerland, red
with white cross; of China, yellow; OF Mex
ico green, white and red.
Some insects are remarkable, not only
in possessing protective colorng, but also 8
wonderful change of form Such as the
eaf and stick insects, which deceive even
,he practiced eye. SO closely do they re-
,emble in shape and coloring the leaves and
twigs among which they live. They are for
he most part large sort, defens eless Great
lres and would readily fall a prey to the
countless multitudes of insect eaters were
{ not for the almost perfect manner in
which they simulate the objects around
them.
JOKELETS FROM JUDGE.