Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-11-25
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.
Barley is an Asiatic plant.

Barley is an Asiatic plant.
! Gloves with separate fingers were un-
| known before the 18th century.
New York city claims to get away with
| 100000 pounds of fish every day.
The glassmakers of Thebes, 40 centuries
ago, possessed the art of staining glass.
There are 5000, 900 drummers in this
country. only three of whom are women.
The London museum contains the first
envelope over made. 1t was used in May,
1896.
An assay office in Philadelphia has
scales indicating the ten-millionth part of o
pound.
Nineteen thousand cooks are turned
out annually by the model kitchen schools
OF London.
by liquor law in Cape Colony no
traveller can be supplied with drink unless
with a bona f1de dinner or luncheon.
The manuscript of Edgar Allen Poe's
"TaIe of the Ragged Mountains" was SOLD in
New York at auction on Wednesday for s295.
The new $500 note now being issued is
one of the handsomest ever turned out and
bears o good portrait of General W. L. Sher-
man.
In Germany aluminium cravats are now
on sale They are advertised as feather.
light, silver-white work-goods that will
wear forever.
-Monaco, with its territory of eight
square miles and its standing army of l26
men proposes to have q universal exposi-
tion next year.
A magnificent specimen of the i'm
perial danlia is in bloom at Santa Cruz,
Cal 1t ia Is feet high, and the foliage
and irfiorescence are 36 feet in circumier-
ence.
Forty acres of the lands in Yakims
county, Wash, are to be planted in Concord
grapes This will, it is claimed, be the larg-
est acreage devoted to this crop in that
State.
-Steeple-pointed caps, sometimes feet
in height, came into fashion in Italy and
France In 1883 They fitted the head ran to
a sharp point above, and at the end the veil
was fastened.
in a late plucking at the Coronado os-
trich farm nearly 300 feathers were obtained
from one bird, which, when curled and
dressed. will be worth s65 The female os-
trich lays 20 eggs year.
-Kalkaska county, Mich, at three cleo
tions during the past six years has elected a
Democratic Prosecuting Attorney by the
following plurality vote: 1886, by vote; 1888,
by votes; 1892, by votes.
"A new mineral has been discovered in
Colombia in immense deposits, with prop
critics not unlike those of asbestos. It is
reported to be the color of amber, perfectly
transparent and incombustlble.
Twelve young ladies met on the first
day of the present year, and vowed neverto
| marry. Nine were married before seven
months, ana two others have breach OF
promise suits on hand The other one is
dead.
The Americans, who live at the highest
nervous pressure, have, as race, the poor
est teeth. Decay is caused by acid-prOduc-
ing fungi, and these thrive upon sugar.
Hence the dental deadliness of sweet
meats.
"A funeral on bicycles lately took
place in an English town. The deceased
| was captain of q bicycle club. and just be-
| fore his death requested that his body
| should be conveyed to the cemetery on
bicycles.
The more the brain works the worse
| the teeth-that is the last word OF physio-
| logical chemistry. Aud the physical in
juries due to loss or decay OF the teeth are
| greater than are likely 60 De lnnlcteu Dy tho
| advent of an epidemic.
A pair of shears for BARRIERS is a late in
vention. The pivot between the blades is
| extended to carry a comb, which is parallel
| with the scissors. By the aid of q nut the
| distance between the shears and the comb
can be varied and the hair cut at any de-
sired length.
1t was on Friday that Columbus set
sail from Palos, Friday he first saw the new
world, Friday lie reached Palos on his re-
turn, the 4O0tt anniversary of the discovery
falls on Friday and on FrtdHy this country
was christened after AmericuS Ve5puciuS,
the Florentine discoyerer.
In making railroad tunnels, cuts, ETC.,
and in sinking wells and pits in Nevada,
Utah and Arizona, salt strata are often
struck at varying depths, sometimes as
much rs a hundred yards beneath the sur
lace. Hundreds OF fish, perfectly preserved,
are found in blocks of this pure rock salt
The long-distance telephone, as well as
the electric light. is now familiar to the in
habitants Of Pretoria, the Boer capital.
The Transuddt Times publishes a telephone
message recording General Jouberts cleo
tioneering speech at village 81 miles dis
tant and says the transmitter's voice was
distinctly recognized.
The annual report of Director Leech
states that tho total coinage of the United
States mints during the last fiscal year was
S5l 976. The total money in circulation is
given ST. 766. l39 735. an average of S2i "a per
capita. The profit from seignorage o. silver
coinage during the past year was 1880 4o7,
and for the past Il years amounts to ST.
73j,O65.
The oldest East Indian man uscript in
the world, and one of the oldest existing
manuscripts OF any kind, has recently been
dug up Just outside of subterranean city
near kuchar 1t is written on birch bark,
and contains two medical sections, two col
lections OF proverbIal sayings and one in-
valuable charm against snake-bites given oy
the Lord Buddha himself to Amanda
"A woman sanitary engineer has been
chosen to represent the English women ae
the cong ress of hygiene. She is q woma OF
versatile genius, a possessor OF certificates
Tor art, music, hygiene, divinity, physioloSy
and sanitary science. She visits professions.
ally slaughter houses, workshops and
dairies and understands all about the lay.
ing OF drains, water mains, connections and
so forth.
"A Scotch engineer is said to have
solved the problem OF making the Iuill run
with the water that has passed. lt IS re-
ported by q Glasgow paper that resident
engineer has devised an arrangement Dy
which all the steam used by an engine Is re-
turned to the boiler. As result IL Is Salo
that as much energy can be gotten out OF
one ton of coal rs is now secured by the con-
sumption of seven tons.
INTO ryTTNNynOM