Evening star., 1897-05-08

Written Exclusively for The Evening Star.
Street sweeping at night time is by no
means all fun remarked an old driver OF
a street sweeping machine to a Star re-
porter. for have to keep our eyes
skinned all the time, or we will sweep
ourselves into a lot of trouble. 1t is very
sleepy business In other ways, for the
horses do their work so regularly that they
know the routes well as those who
schedule them for u.s. and many of them
s.eep while they are out their routes.
The difficult part of the work is during the
warm weather. for on hot nights 1t IS re-
markable how many people are found
sleeping on the streets. and especially near
the cutters. 1t is to keep a watchout for
such fellows as this that makes our work.
1t may seem peculiar to many, but 1t is a
fact all the same that there Is scarcely
night during the summer that We do not
have a queer experience in the matter of
sweeping up people L remember one E;ght
last summer very well, and l suppose
will always remember it, L was driving
along X street. along the edge OF Mount
Vernon Park, and had just about reached
9TH street. when cries of Murder! you are
killing me-. came out upon the stiffness OF
the night. l at first supposed some one was
being held up in the park. or at least mat
he supposed he was being murdered. but
was even more Mortified when discovered
that | lad gathered up man in my sweep
lie was terribly tangled III ]ly MA
chine. and. though 1 Held up as Qu1csly as
/ could, he kept on crying out that he was
being murdered at the top of his voice. l
carefully untwisted him and pu; him on his
feet. Ii appears he sat down on the curb
TO wait for car, and fell asleep, and must
have rolled into the street, for l was six
feet away from the curb when l picked
him u2 with my sweeper 1 convinced bin
that it was his own fault, however.
< 4 x
1T is wonderful how much confidence
people have in a letter carriers ability to
deliver letters said letter carrier 10 a
Star reporter. Very often we have letters
to deliver with scarcely any address at all,
and even that imperfect. If they manage,
however. to get the number Of the house
and the street right generally Go tine
rest. it matters not how the names are
spelled even if they have been left Off
altogether. In other instances the names
are all right. but there is address. In
nine cases out of ten such letters reach
their destination, though they are often
somewhat delayed. 1 had 4 letter a few
days ago which illustrates my ;dea- 1t was
addressed to a public wagon stand. to be
delivered to the driver of a gray horse with
a covered furniture wagon, the wagon be-
ing painted green Ii was he last word
that secured the delivery, for it happens
there are three white horses which
usually on that stand, but there was only
one green-painted wagon. The JaGShable
part of it was that the letter was marked
Immediate L visited that stand three
times during the day. and. though White
horses were in evidence each time j was
there. the accompanied wagon did not
show up until my last srip- Then the COM
bination was complete. and 1 delivered the
letter. 1t order for the driver to
move some furniture.
"Another letter / once delivered was
equally blindly addressed. 1t was ad-
dressed to Mr.. -, who owns two Spitz
nd he nj her
In note on the back of the envelope, ad-
dressed TO the letter carrier, the informa-
tion was given that the name had slipped
the mind of the writer, but that the man
with the two dogs was known to the car
rier. 1t happened that 1 did know the
man. and had often seen him with his
dogs. but he lived two miles from my route,
though he very frequently came through
il, visiting his son, who lived in my dis
trict- He got his letter. though
X = X
Though there are frequent advertise
ments il. the daily papers OF this city of
persons who offer money to secure appoint
ments in the departments" observed an
old department clerk to Star reporter. II
am satisfied that there has been but little
business done in such matters in the past.
and even less in late years. To tell the
truth. 1 know of but one such case.
and that was fifteen or more years ago.
Since then 1 have not even seen it charged
that such things existed. My experience
has been that the persons who advertise in
such manner do so in desperation, and
having heard that such things have been
done. willing to run the risk. In the
way department places are now filled there
is no chance for what was known as office
brokerage. There is class of broken
down, or broken-up, politicians who like to
make it appear that they men of great
Influence. il IN
give them money they will guarantee to
get them in the departments. or anywhere
else. for that matter. but it is a clear case
OF commence game or Swindle, and they
have no idea of delivering the goods. In
deed. the most of them would gladly
enough take a small place in the depart
ments themselves il they could secure one.
There was an old fellow about the Capitol
several years ago who did quite thriving
business swindling applicants for depart
ment places His specially. however, was
in securing places about the Capitol,
though the entire time he was here he was
an applicant for a small position there
himself. He claimed to have pull on the
Texas delegation. With others. he claimed
that he was brother-in-law of the late
Senator Voorhees,. He also claimed a near
relationship to Ambassador Bayard, and
promised any number of diplomatic ap-
pointmentS- He was lawyer, and knew
enough about the law to go Just so far and
no further. He never took money out
night or contracted 20 do any particular
as
he could from his victims for using his in
huence- Those advertisements do a great
deal of harm out of this city for they are
shown about evidence of great corrup-
ton in Washington AS far as L have
looked into the matter and my service as
clerk in the appointment office of one of
the largest departments has given me
greater opportunity than many could have
1 am satisfied that the whole thing Is done
by Ignorant persons, and that they never
get any answers to their advertisements"
The general delivery window of the city
post office is used for many things besides
the delivery of letters explained one of
the night clerks. only recently. and some
how the case did not get into the news
papers. a Kentucky sheriff arrested des-
perate barn burner through the general
delivery window. 1t appears that one of a
gang of barn burners was arrested and
on him were letters from the leader of the
gang. stating that though he intended stay
ing In Baltimore with some friends until
the excitement about their operations
passed over. he would aPca sionaux- x,I.,t