Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-04-11

People who Work in the Gloomy Sub
ferranean Vaults.

People who Work in the Gloomy Sub
ferranean Vaults.
THE LUMBER ROOM OF THE DEPARTMENT
THE PRINTING OFFICE AND MODEL ROOM
SMALL FORTUNES FOUND IN THE RUBBISH.
There are about two hundred people who
spend the most of the daylight of their lives in
the vaults under the Treasury. These vaults-or
the sub-basement, it is called, is still lower
underground than the basement, which is dark
and gloomy enough in that dingy stone build
ing. and extends all the way around under the
building, taking up the entire square. 1t is away
underground; the court yard, which Is on a
level with street, is between ten and fifteen
feet above it. 1t is very interesting place to
visit, but the air is bad and the heat op-
pressive. The employees who have TO work
there have petitioned the Secretary of the Treas
Qry to give them better quarters or better air,
and q commission on atm OSphere has been con-
steering the best means OF enticing good air into
yard of the Treasury: its lumber room it is
where all the greasy and sweaty work is hid
away. leaving the rest of the building serene
and beautiful. 1T is the place never shown to
visitors The entrance from the inside is by
way of two flights of winding stone stairs that
look as il they had been cut through solid rock,
and led into cave. One is at the southeast
corner of the building and the other at the
carpenter shops the cabinet and repair shops
the engine rooms and the apparatus for heating
the whole building the printing office and COM
posing rooms, the folding, the paper and the
casting rooms. Here the coal and wood is kept,
and all the rags and waste paper has to pass
through here to be picked over.
THE PASSAGES
are narrow with vaulted roof, and the rooms
are on either side. There is almost a little
world down here-a world without much sun
Or air, however. The heating apparatus is very
extensive, and it takes five tons OF coal per day
to heat the building. All the heating is done
by means of hot water. Twelve-nch iron pipe
enveloped in heavy coat OF plaster runs along
enough up TO prevent your head from striking
IT. The smaller pipes shoot out from this on
both sides in all directions. like the legs of
centiped. These are all filled with water which
Is heated in six immense boilers three in the
southeast and three in the northwest part of
the vaults, and Is conveyed to every room by
means of smaller pipes and coils. This is what
they call the direct process, and is found to be
quite satisfactory. Formerly they heated
by the indirect process. which consisted
In heating the external walls of the building
and was dismal failure. There are thousands
brick walls for this purpose, but it is never used
now. \ constant fire az hot US il can be made
VIII coai ~ htt. W uhutr lhe immense boilers
I'd neat the water which goes up by Ms own
heat and diSseulinates throughout the building
These and the engines used for running the
elevators and the machinery keep the temper
allure OF the vault near them at about So,
which Is made more oppressive by the bad
character of the atmosphere.
The rooms occupied by the shops of the wood
workers take up the whole southern portion of
the vault not occupied by the boilers. Here all
the department is done and the place looks
like young factory with its machinery lum-
Der and sawdust.
THE WEST CORRIDOR
Is wider than the rest and is lighted with electric
lights about 50 small burners being used This
means of lighting had to be adopted, because
the heat from the gas increased the tempera-
ture SO much and the smoke having no means
OF escape, made the air uncomfortable The
stuffy vault rooms on either side of this passage
are occupied by the composing rooms, the
press and ruling rooms the folding room the
paper cutting room, the boiler room, the money
paper room, the old storage and the macera-
ton rooms and the model room EMPLOYING
ABOUT hundred men and women, large NUM-
per Oh thein women The printing force is a
branch OF the Government Printing office and
they have nine presses at work. The model
room is particularly interesting but the air is
90 bad that stranger could not endure il many
minutes, and the chief artist told The STAR
man that all the employees complain of weak
lungs and loss of voice, and some one of them
signs for all the decoration, external and in
ternai OF the public buildings are made. The
designs are gotten up and plaster molds made
and sent all over the country The room is full
OF plaster casts, some OF the designs very hand
some, and the men are working in plaster
some working il wet in moids and others with
fine instruments finishing off the castings The
room Is null OF white dust and the steam from
the hot plaster and the atmosphere is terrific
the oxygen being all breathed over or drunk up
by the plaster faster than it can be supplied
a new fOor has TO be put in every once and
while, "a II rots out with dry rot.
The walls on both sides OF the north passage
are lined with great
BIG CRASH BAGS
stuffed with rags and waste paper until thew
look pot-bellied as if they had fed on a fat
graveyard, and there is damp, sickening
smell about the place. The level of the ground
here is very many feet higher above the floor
, OF the passage than in any other portion of the
building. The blacksmith shops and the coal
vaults are located along this passage and towards
Yer vault with its elevator, that lifts up two tons
al a time. Another interesting room is where
the waste paper Is kept, which is guarded very
careiul1y by a very comedy young lady. who is
an expert on waste paper. All the waste bas-
kets OF the department are emptied into huge
bins, holding several cart loads each and IL has
10 DE all looked over piece by piece before il is
sent out and sold for old paper. The lady in
charge says they freq uentiy save very valuable
papers and even bonds and money by this pre-
caution. sometimes they have found papers
b which could not have been replaced had thew
been lost Five thousand dollars in bonds and
I'VE hundred dollars in greenbachs are the
largest sums ever found in the waste at one
time. Small sums, however, are frequently
found They get used 10 the appearance of the
discover anything out OF the ordinary very
quickly.
Quite a number % those employed down
IN This endorsement are women, and they
remain from nine until four and some two
hours later. The appearance OF every one
The Children's Country Home.
To the Editor of THE EVENING STAR.
The Children's Country Home is about tn