Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-10-22

GHSSE[E those necessary adjuncts
CS- O. of a great city. Hun
dreds of PEOPLE, white and black, young and
/ old, rollicking dirty-fsced brats and squalling
pickaninnies, almost every dsy Of the Sos afford
/ both trouble and amusement to the inspectors
appointed to look after the city's dumping
ground for street refuse. while searching out the
odds and ends of rags. bones. paper and what
: not that go to swell the hard-lined Golfers of
] the Junk dealers and make correspondinglv
! plethoric in smaller ratio the pockets Of the
dump scrapers.
And what stories OF municipal wire pulling.
I loss misery, filth and general wreckage could
not the contents of Wathington's five big dump
grounds tell If speech were temporarily i'm
parted to them? How many finds would
there not be in response TO lost advertise
ments in which the printers type was long ago
pied" and the proof sheets destroyed, without
material benefit to the advertiser?
WHEN THE STREET swEEPERs IRE AT WORK.
Washington's street swoepers generally begia
their work when every body else has gone home.
except newspaper men and the police. They
generally finish when FOUNDERS stagger up tine
avenue and unless there should be a storm.
| Night Inspectors t. c. Quantrell and Howard
Keyworth rarely fail to add some expert
ence TO their rapidly growing stock, which has
| been compiled in some years Of supervising the
big brushing machines operations. MANY
| gallant in immaculate raiment and polished
! foot gear, has emitted genuine homemade
| Anglo-Ssxon oaths at the dust raised by the
sweeper and deposited all over his outfit while
coming from some swell dance reception.
Take nice. warm, moonlight night" said
| Inspector Keyworth to II STAR reporter, land
| somewhere about l O'Clock perch yourself in a
doorway along the avenue. say between 9th and
10Th streets. Wait for the sweeper TO come in
the course of its work and see if you don't ex-
perience big surprise within two minutes
after the machine has gone by. IL you a
man OF pretty wide acquaintance it is just dol
| lars to doughnuts you will find more than one
man whom you know quite well following that
pile of dirt which the sweeper has pushed in a
| line from cross street to cross street WHY,
young man, have seen dozens of department
clerks coming along the asphalt in the wake Of
the sweeper and stirring the mass around with
their canes like the small boy hunting for cop
pers in a puddle when he knows there were
some dropped there. What we're they hunting
for? Why, valuables of any kind-money. lost
| papers. jewelry and the thousand and one things
that are daily advertised for in The STAR as
lost No, they weren't necessarily looking for
anything they had lost themselves; and de-
partment clerks are by no means the only pa
| irons of the sweepings whom have recognized
among the searchers after bit of sudden and
possibly unexpected wealth. What are these
men doing on the streets in so undignifed a
manner at that time of night? Human nature
| sir; human nature and it only goes to show
| tuat We re III ailke anu on the make.
FINDS IN THE swEEPINGs.
"In city of this SIZE" continued the in
spector, lit is natural to suppose the searchers
could generally secure good deal of lost prop
| erty of valuable soff, but when they do il is
| equally human nature that they should keep
| their discoveries TO themselves. OF course we
see comparatively few of the finds. but once in
| a while some lucky pedestrian along the dirt
heaps can restrain his eXutation and we get a
| pllmnsa "A n 81 hill ar gold WA cb hat no
| original owner has lost and nine times out of
ten will never see again. Undoubtedly finds of
this latter character are among the rarities and
money constitutes most of the finds. Personally
| i know of a number of such running from so
up, but the biggest | can recollect WAS made
| near the corner of 9th street year ago last
| July. young man employed in the treasury
and whom knew by sight as one of the regu-
lar sesrchers, picked up a well-filled pocket
book after four or five other searchers had
passed the same spot / happened TO be stand
ing on the curb at the moment and was nat
urally interested in the find. The dlscoyerer
opened the black leather receptacle in my pres
ence and it contained nearly $500 in bank notes.
| There was nothing about it to show to whom
| the property belonged. but the owner adver-
tised for l: next day, and the Young man after
| ward told me that the original possessor, who
proved to be u resident OF Chicago on a visit to
| Washington. was so rejoiced at the recovery OF
his lost wealth that he counted out 500 to the
| finder for his luck and honesty combined.
TELLTALE LETTERS
"More than one blackmail case had its origin
in the street sweeper. too. have seen some of
the searchers pick up lost letters with as much
avidity as if they had been treasury notes of
big denomination, and in at least one case now
before the District courts the plaintiff in d.
vorce suit secured the thread of evidence
against his faithless wife through letter which
the correspondent in the case received from her
and then lost on the street. 1t was found by
some INSCRIPTIONS follower of the sweeper and
sold for SIS TO the injured husband, who had
suspected something of the kind before. but
was not certain until that telltale letter fell
| into his hands The / refer to involves +,
parties who are well known in Washington. and
the beginning OF the suit for divorce created a
sensation when brought some time ago.
AT THE DUMPS.
A District regulation long ago located the
principal city dumps at 9th and y. 25th and
n, 18th and and 2sth and VI streets north
west, Delaware avenue and LIST and 9Th and NJ
streets southeast The dump down near the
! fish commission waters is mainly used for the
dirt and snow cleaned from streets in slushy f.
weather, and the remaining four are generally
made the recipients of pay dirt. Here the city
teams and store wagons, and all other sorts Of I
vehicles from the regulation cart TO the nearest
approach to the Virginia creeper" Washing
ton boasts of, haul their cargoes of rags splin-
tiers, common street sweepings and waste
paper, and the dump inspector secs that every
thing is done in proper form. A dump isn't a /
dump in this neck of the woods unless it can
boast Of an Inspector L. L. Jones, L. Sher-
wood, John Mcnamara, Z. 3. Burt and Ster hen !
TAYLOR are the men detailed TO Keen the fiilincs