Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-24
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.
!, al ia Getting scarce.

| English oak Is getting scarce.
| Quicksilver was first used In the arts In
the year 154o.
The machine for pairing apples was de-
vised by Coulter in 1903
Tobacco consumption is said to be on
/ the inc rease in England.
Leather cuirasses were USED py the
| Romans in their early warfares.
Six million dollars are invested IN the
manufacture of dynamite in the United
States.
"A Democratic nominee for Congress in
Tennessee has q mustache that measures 10
inches from Zip to tip.
For 300 years the Genoese were the best
| cross bowmen. At Crecy there were 1900
of them as mercenaries.
The ocean cable, which has had life
of but little more than 30 years, now
stretches over l20, $50 miles
There are reputed to be 119,OOO,OOO OF
the big old copper pennies lying unused
somewhere in this country.
The Haidah Indians of British Co
lumbfa gamble with sticks of spruce wood,
about five inches in length, carved or stained
with totemic devices.
1t is estimated that the cost Of main
tanning the sane 100000 inmates of the vart-
Gus penal 10SC1LQLlOn9 III bulo SO0hbEJ Ga
ceeds SIS, ,0OO, 900 annually.
Paris will shortly have q new theater
known as the "Theater of Pen and Thought"
Performances will be given in the language
| OF the deaf and dumb, namely. Dy signs
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 life of the families under his
| care.
There are but 100 colored voters In
| North Dakota. There are 1900 in the city
| of Baltimore. Baltimore has an area of 80
| square miles; North Dakota has an area OF
70,OOO square miles.
The armies Of the civilized nations Of
the world number 100000 mon. Beside the
| loss of their time and labor, they cost at
| least 81, 900 year for each soldier, and that
amounts to $500, 100000. .f
The use of cork for bottle shoppers was
the invention of blind monk who was en-
| ployed in q vineyard attached to a monas-
| terry. Previous to that time bottles were
| sealed with flax soaked in oil.
Mining and counter-mining were ex-
| tensively praoticed during ancient sieges.
The mine was made, the roof supported by
| timbers; when all was ready the beams were
set on fire and the wall caved in.
The silky little King Charles spaniel is
an expensive luxury, because puppies q
month old easily fetch $50 apiece, and when
half grown 800. There are compar atively
| few of these dogs in New York. and nearly
| every one Is known to the dog fanciers.
There are ex-military officers, e1-doc-
| tors, ex-lawyers, one lord by courtesy, one
Baronet several honora bles, one e1-mem-
Der OF Parliament and O dozen bankrupt
| landed proprietors among the London cab
| drivers.
An Illinois banker put q mark on the
| money he paid out on late Saturday to the
| wage-workers of the town who patronized
| his bank. OF the 500 thus paid out nearly
| half OF It came back to him on Monday from
| saloons in the district.
-Shakespeare's house at Stratford, Mil
| toms at Chalfont-St. Giles, Burns cottage
| near Ayr and Wadsworth's Dove Cottag
| are reputed to be the only houses ofliterar
| Britons that have been preserved for th
| sake of their associations.
Colonel R. 7. Auchmutty, the founde
OF the New York trade schools, has gathere'
statistics to show that, out of S23. 600 600 paiG
annually for mechanics in the building
trades of New York City, less than 81, 10000
goes to men born in this country.
A Canadian electrician states that cleo
| tricity causes the tides and demonstrates
| by electrifying rubber comb by rubbing
| through the nair and then drawing It oyf
| the top of glass filed with water, the
| suit being that the tidal wave follows ii
| comb.
"A device to be used in signaling alon
| a length of fire hose is q recent invention
| Wires are carried in the hose and insulated
| therefrom, so that by making battery cor
| nections flremrn from one end of lin
| can send signal to the other W1tho ut lea
| ing his post.
The latest development in gallanfryi
the practice recently started by the NIict
gan Central Railroad. which presents
| every lady, travelling by certain trains,
| bouquet of wild flowers and an artistican
| printed time table card inscribed, "With th
| managers compliments"
The hill near Jerusalem where the
cruciixion of Jesus occurred is formed of
limestone The shores of the Dead Sea are
| lined with pumice stone showered out of
some volcano that destroyed Sodom and
| Gomorrah, W hich cities finally sank beneath
| the waters of the Dead Sea.
BY saturating bullet with vaseline its
| flight may be easily followed with the eye
| from the time it leaves the muzzle of the
| rifle ntil it strikes the target. The course
| of the fig hit IS marked by beautiful ring OF
| smoke caused by the vaseline being ignited
on leaving the muzzle of the rifle.
New York City boasts of cat which
| patroniZes the soda water fountain OF q
drug store on Sixth avenue. Some time ago
s'pussy' discovered that the cream of the
fountain suited her taste, and she has q
habit of going up to the counter and waiting
until it is served with its iaVorite flavor in
It's own particular saucer.
Bombay. India, has opened magnif-
cent new water works, supplying the city
by gravity with 100000 gallons of water
daily. The water is brought from a great
artificial lake and passes through 81 miles OF
tunnels. The water works, including the
dam and aqueducts, are among the famous
engineering works of the time.
"A novel spectacle of a steam vessel
being stocked with bank notes was witnessed
recently at q Mediterranean port. Forty
five sacks of the apparently valuable paper
were forced into the furnace of the vessels
boiler under the eyes OF the stokers, who
seemed to desire to possess themselves OF at
least handful of what they somewhat in
elegantly styled "rum fuel" The notes were
Cancelled documents of the Bank OF Algiers,
whose manager watched the combustion.