Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-30
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

One company has monopoly of p
funerals. ,.---s-,rQ
The United States has formally decla
war but once. f
The best sapphires come from Cey
and they are of all colors. 5~
There are go, 900 singers In the che
of the Church of England.
On the prairies of our northwest
borderlands, as well as in Peru and Scar
navia, the crow is considered a bird of
omen.
There are IA great gates to the Escuri
the palace of Spanish kings, and the bui
ing is lighted by LILO outer and 575 im
windows.
BY an act passed in the 3Sth y
of Henry I'LL all persons possessing yea
income of s1O were compelled to
kn1Shted or pay fine.
"A man in Prospect, Me-, has a roos
that is as good as any barometer. Wher
storm is approaching the rooster crows dl
ing the entire preceding night.
In Vienna they have a single word
an occurrence very common with them
winter-the bursting OF a water pipe. tt
IS the word: "Hochquellenwasseri
rohrenfatalitaten.'
"A very extensive domestic industry
Russia consists of the manufacture
wooden spoons. which are made to
amount OF 30,0O0,000 annually. They a
nearly all made OF birch.
-Conch shells, when ground, enter in
the manufacture OF porcelain The ro
colored pearls of the pink conch are We
valuable, and have beautiful Wavy she
like that of watered silk.
Diamond dust, which has the appes
ance of gray mud, is made by puIEerizi
chips in an iron mortar and grinding t
particles with an agate mortar and pesteT
various degrees of fneness. --l
There are more baby girls than BE-
babies The proportion of female births
male births is as 100 to 90 So that betwet
100000 and 3OO0,O ,O00 more girls are born
tne world each year than boys
The bark Of the Australian mimosa {
''magnosa" tree) is now employed as tam
in France and also in England, especial
Ior hides intended to make 'tMoroccC
leather. 1t gives the skin a slightly reddi
tint, which is a novelty.
The Salton Sea has been almost droppt
out of sight lately, but it is still there, ar
from appearances is beginning to assuu
larger proportions again. From some
the nlgner nils north of Banning it can |
seen distinctly every morning at sunrise.
Among the queerest crustaceans a.
lady crabs or sand crabs,'" which al
abundant on sandy shores from Cape Cod /
Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico. The
bodies are roughly siI-sided, white in COLI
and marked with specks OF red and purp.
on the back.
The brain of the tortoise was once SUI
posed 20 contain wonderful stone, whic
was efhcacious in extinguishing fire, an
when placed under the tongue would prs
duced prophetic inspiration. Another ston
possessing the latter property was found t
be IN the eye of the hyena-
One of the most highly priced {
crustaceans is the so-calIed .'stone crab" {
the South Atlantic coast, which is found a
the way from South Carolina to Key Wes
and in the Gulf of Mexico also. 1t lives
holes in the mud along creeks and estuarie
or in crevices among rocks.
"A camel of the largest size has bee
known to drink from 30 to 80 gallons an
then travel without water for 20 days. TIL
water remains pure, and numerous il
stances are on record in which human lii
has been saved in the desert by killing
camel and using the water from its stomach
"A hotel recently built on the top
Pixies Peak, at height Of II, 147 feet abov
the sea level, has been frequently referre
to lately as being the highest point in til
world, but there are mining camps at Caller
in the Andes 10 l55 feet high, connected b
telephone lines, probably the highe5s lines
the world.
Vampires revisit the glimpses of th
moon in the northern Alleghenies as on th
banks of the Danube, and both the Bulgaria
rustics and the Cherokees believe that tn
migratory propensities of the ghoul can b.
cured by impaling the corpse. They more
over agree upon the characteristic symr
toms of the prodigy-blood-red lips and Pre-
truding canine teeth
The Queens courier, who attends he
on all her foreign trips, has to write ou
every night kind of wade mecum to all tn
places Her Majesty proposes to visit, or wi
have to pass through on the following day
All items of interest in connection with tn,
country to be traverSed have to be noted, 5,
that the Queen may be well posted up in al
that may be worth seeing or noticing durin
her travels.
According to recent estimate of tn
glass bottle production of the world, tn
average daily output amounts to about Al. &c
gross. Germany, Belgium and Australian
gary turn out about $1,000 gross, or abou
four-ffths of the product of the worIC
France so small an outDut as 100 gross
Britain turns out about 5000 gross daily.
the other producing countries, SwedeI
makes the highest with Isis gross daily.
The sea yields many precious things
coral, amber and pearls-but it is not ger
orally known that, in certain parts of tn
Mediterranean, a species OF mussel is found
of which the shells contain one of the mos
beautiful textile materials known. Thes
shells are about seven inches long and thre
inches broad, and each Of them contains
piece OF the fiber, weighing half a drachu
from which spun and woven goods ar
made.
in some parts of Australia the native
dispose of corpses by placing them on plat
forms and in trees, so as to protect ther
from wild dogs; but the fact that ravens an
other carrion- eating devour them does no
seem to trouble tine survivors in the leasi
1t often happens that the traveller in tha
country Is informed by the croakings of dis
turbed ravens that the body OF a defunc
Australian is lying in the branches over hi
head. Such aerial sepulchers are mostl
erected for the bodies of old men.
The brick wall of an old well at Olyr
pia, Washington, between 90and 80 feet dee
has for some time been gradually protrud
ing through the ground, until now it stick
up into the air like funnel to the height o
10 or Is feet. The bricks have not been dis
turbed, and but for the clay that adheres {,
them they present as fine q piece of work
manship as the day they were laid. Tn,
bottom of the well mas risen with the bricl
wall. for the depth of the water has no