Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-22
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

Women began work in printing Offices
| as early as 1920
Newspaper advertisements were un-
known until 1852
-Sawdust, compressed into blocks, is
used for building purposes in Germany.
The Mohamm edans, 1T is said, consider
] silk unclean, because it is produced by q
1 worm.
/ 1t is estimated that the jewels worn on
drawing room day represent value equal
TO fl,5OO,O0O
The grain, the smallest weight in use,
| was thus called from being originally the
weight OF grain of wheat.
Butterflies to the number of 80. 900 will
be shown in the Pennsylvania exhibit at
the Worlds Fair at Chicago.
For the murder of City Marshal, a
man has been sentenced at Corpus Christi,
Tex, to 80 years imprisonment.
Three hundred and sixty different noun
tain peaks within the limits of the United
States each exceed Il, 600 feet in height.
The hardest known wood is said to be
cocus wood 1t turns the edge OF any ak,
however well tempered, so it is claimed.
One million dollars IN gold coin would
weigh 1855 pounds. The same amoun5 OF
silver coins would weigh s., 1898 pounds.
"A convention of German horse butchers
is to open a restaurant in Berlin to educate
the upper class to the use Of horse flesh as
food.
"A collection Of butterflies long owned
by Baron Won Fielden, of Vienna, was recent
ly sold to Lord Rothschild, of London. for
5000.
There are said to be over @, 900 Indians
in the United States who can read English
and over 10000 who can read Indian Ian
guages.
The Queen of Spain is superstitious
She believes that articles manufactured by
blind people bring luck to those who use or
wear them
A Mr.. Goodman, of London, bet that
he could smoke Sc cigars down to an inch in
less than II hours He did it with A min
utes to spare.
In spite of its ice and severe cold, Lab
rador possesses 900 species of Towering
plants, SO ferns and over 250 species Of MOSES
and lichens.
Vulcan, the British ironelad, is pro-
vided with a rudder weighing % tons, or
something like six tons heavier than the
rudder used on the Great Eastern.
AN orange fad is among the possibili-
ties of the day. Free consumption of the
fruit is said to be good for the complexion,
and many ladies are testing the claim.
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 lite of the families under his
care.
The fsh-hook of thirty centuries back
was precisely similar in every respect to the
fish-hooks of to-day, save only in the metal
employed, which then was bronze and now
Is steel.
From January 1 to the end of June
19. 223 immigrants have gone into Manitoba
and the Northwest Territories. For the
same period last year the number was less
than 5000.
The largest book ever known is owned
by Her Majesty Queen Victoria. 1t is IS
inches thick and weighs 63 pounds, and con-
tains the addresses of congratulation on the
occasion of Her Majesty's jubilee.
Chemical action formed stone in the
stomach of La Marshale, the famous hurdle
jumping horse of Paris. He died, and the
stone, ball nearly eight inches IN dame
ter, is in the museum of q Partisan yeter-
mary.
-Workmen found on Friday about a, 900
historical documents, some of which are re
ported valuable, under the floor of the
Breslau Town Hall In Berlin. They have
been sent to the Kaiser Frederick Univer-
sity, in Strasburg, Germany.
If you could cut sections out of the side
of soap bubbles and then had some delicate
the pieces, you would find that it would take
$4,000, 900 films laid one upon the other to
make pile one inch in height.
If the boundaries of Custer county,
Montana, have not been recently changed,
they still surround $4,000 square miles OF
territory, unaking that one county larger
than the five states of Vermont, Massachu-
setts, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode
Island.
"A valuable goblet has been purchased
for the sum of $4,000 francs by a member of
the Frankfort branch of the Rothschild
family. The goblet is OF exquisite work
manship, and is said to have formed part
Of the municipal treasures of Osnabrick, in
Germany.
The wine cellar of the House of Com
mons is capable of storing away some $780,
900 to 100000 worth of wine; as it is, the
present stock now amounts to over $4,000
The cellar itself is about 2l0 feet long, and
there are innumerable sub-cellars arranged
on either side.
According to M. Flammarion, the
French astronomer, the mean temperature
of Paris during the past six years has been
about two degrees below the normal; It
also stated that Great Britain. Belgium,
Spain, Italy, Austria and Germany have also
been growing cold.
AT the banquet given at the opening of
the Royal Albert Dock in June, 1880 there
were 500 walters. 100 cooks, 1000 dishes, "a
600 forks and spoons, 1000 knives, R,OOO
glasses, and 1000 plates. The dessert con-
sisted of 800 pounds of grapes, and 1000 bas-
kets OF strawberries, in addition to other
fruit: and the tables and tablecloths ex-
tended to mile and half
The stratiied masses of the earth's
crust, where most fully developed, attain
united thickness of not less than 500 900 feet.
II they we're all laid down at the most rapid
recorded rate of denudation, they would re-
auire period of IS 100000 of years for their
completion. If they were laid down at the
slowest rate they would demand period Of
not less than $50, 900 600.
The Falkland islands produce no trees,
but they do produce wood in a very remark
able shape. You will see, scattered here,
and there, singular blocks of what looks like
weather beaten, messy, gray stones OF var
ious size. But if you attempt to roll over
one OF these rounded boulders, you will
find yourself unable to accomplish it. In
fact the stone is tied down to the ground
tied down by the roots: or in other words,
it is not q stone, but block of living wood.