The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1896-06-05
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.
fore he attained the age of so years.
Net 4 few critics pronounce Web
ster's earliest orations to be his best.
Peter the Great exhibited wonderful
military genius before he was 16.
Nicola Tesla began his career as an
electrical inventor when about Is.
In England there is only one place
of worship to about every 1000 persons.
Bach wrote figures and studies in
counterpart before he was 8 years old.
The peat boys of Great Britain and
Ireland are estimated to be the heat
equivalent to nearly 1000, oOO,OW tons
of coal.
There are 19,146,42O acres of timber
lands in the Southern states, and the
average yield of these forests is 5000
feet per acre.
Telegraph poles in Switzerland are
preserved from rapid decay by being
charged with creosote compound.
pressed by gravity into one end IF the
wood.
The Great Unknown" in literature
was the title given to the author of the
Wayerly novels while as yet only sus-
picion pointed to Walter Scott as the
new literary genius whose works had ST.
suddenly acquired SuCn an eNtfaOrulnarE
degree of popularity.
The parish Of ST. Olave, Hart street,
in London. has an endowment of t60O
prr annum for the poor. and having
none, pauptr from without was en-
gagged to live constantly in the parish
and receive the money. This farce, how
ever. has now ceased.
There is no difficulty about teaching
a goat to climb stairs. 1t viii walk up
a perpendicular ladder. and is quite at
home on, the roof-especially where the
tiles are loose. \ goat will follow its
master like dog, and respond at once
W hen its name is called
England has several parishes that
are without paupers. Among them may
he mentioned the parish of Harghau,
IN the county of Norfolk: the parish of
Nanningtcrd AhbotS, i'll Wiltshire, be-
sides RaverStock. Gravely Woods, and
others in the same county.
"Giny the whole hog" was originally
y piece of butchers slang. In the
colonial days Of America purchasers
rrt UP at home, hence the butcher would
ask if the customer meant to so the
whole hog or wanted only 4 part.
1T is claimed that the purfume of
flowers disappears as soon as the starch
in the PETALS is exhausted and it may. it
is said he restored by placing the flow
or in Il solution Of sugar. when the forma-
ton of starch and the emission of fra
GRANGE will he at once resumed.
"A general, simultaneous census of the
world for the year 1900 is asked for by
the International Statistical institute. 1t
can be taken. if slight notifications in
the time of their regular cenSuses are
made by the chief countries in the world.
-Tassinari in Italy has proved by
elaborate experiments that tobacco kills
microbes. and he strongly recommends
smoking as Il protection against cholera.
Nisalli during the influenza epidemic of
1889, noticed that workers in tobacco
factories almost entirely escaped.
Napoleon. if we may believe his por-
traits. was characterized by deathly
pallor. The same is true of Marl-
borough. Wellington and Give: in fact.
alone among warriors. Nelson retained
the fresh color of youth. The same
is even more true in the case of poets.
TO kiss the Barney stone" is an al
fusion to the famous stone in the castle
of Blarney. The lord of this fortress
being required to deliver it up to the
English. made so many ingenious eX-
cuSes for delay that he was finally per-
mtted to retain his castle for his clev-
erneSs.
For ones wits to go wool gathering
IS an iIuSlOll W d ltllul INDUSTRY SOIne-
times seen in older countries. In parts
of France, Germany and Spain very old
people are sometimes employed in gath
erng wool from bushes in sheep pastures
where it has been plucked from the
feeces as the animals pass too close
to the branches.
Somebody who has tried recommends
putting pn:lyerized potash, ,which, soon
becomes sticky when exposed to the air
in all the rat holes about the house
The special detestation of rat is any
thing which will stick to his silky coat
Some persons find mixture of equal
parts of cayenne pepper and Scotch
snuff sprinkled we'll into the holes still
more efticacious.
A census Of the gypsies in Hungary
has been taken. They number 274, $40,
about half settlers in towns and villages,
while the other half keep up nomadic
life. OF the total number S2.O45 con
only speak the Tsigany or Roman lam
guage; 1O4,75O speak Hungarian, too,
manian, 1851 Slovak, 56S1 Servian, 1896
German and zoos Ruthenian.
One of the English judges in India
is an expert on the typewriter, and it oc-
Cured to him to use it for the taking of
judicial notes. The machine Was con.
veyed into court, and the judge kept note
of the proceedings. The prisoner was
found guilty and sentenced, and he
promptly appealed on the ground that
instead of listening to the evidence, tie
judge had whiled away his time by play.
ing on musical instrument
Knows His Business.
a very tough-looking customer, a
truckman of some 40 years, who had
been in many a rough-and- tumble OH the
west side, brushed rather hardly against
a thin young man in Broadway yester-
day and humbly apologized, says the
New York Press. The youngster looked
the dude all over, and seemed frightened
nearly to death when showed aside by the
ugly giant The sudden and abject apol
ogy enabled him to stroll along and col
lect himself.
"Bcggin' pardon of the sonnies now,
see," said companion of the truck
man, with hideous sheer.
yep. There's too burned many Of
these prize-fghtin' fellows goin' round il
dudes clothes these days l slapped a.
dude in West Broadway t'other da,
what didn't look wider'n my hand, an
he hauled off an knocked me half cross
tn street. Bout er month ago 'nothe
did the same thing. Trouble is 70,
can't tell 'em. Clo'es is everything. Tha
chap might er been Fitzsimmons. er XII
Mccoy, or some other champi'n. Yep
I'm begin pardon now, an not gettin
licked"