Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-10-16

"
written Exclusively for The Evening Star
''You may talk about the wonderful dis
coveries of gold in the Klondike region,
said a prominent lawyer to a Star reporter
a few days ago. but one of the richest
gold finds of the year occurred right here
in Washington / will not mention names
but the gentleman referred to was known
ali over the country before he died one
of the wealtniest pension agents and pub
fishers of the present day.
"A short time after the captain q will
call him captain throughout the story
died his executors were engaged in making
an exar.iration of his effects. His will had
been carefully drawn and all of his real
and personal property was supposed to be
distributed among his relatives and friends.
according to his last wishes One day IN
clearing out the safe in the building which
still bears the captains name an Old chest
vas discovered in one of the dark corners
of the vault Il had been there for years,
ard was supposed to contain only some
plates and drawings of war pictures, used
i'll connection with book of war stories.
The executors had passed the old chest by
without examining its contents. supposing,
of course. that it contained nothing but the
plates anu drawings, as lndiCdteQ by the
marking ON the outside One of the clerks
engaged in the work had curiosity enough
to take a peep into the chest When the
loose drawings were removed a sight met
his gaze that fairly took his breath away.
There, Nesting among the sheets of war
pictures. and at the bottom of the chest,
an immense pile of gold coin. which.
when counted, amounted to something over
SJsjHsL
There were gold pieces of every denom-
Il IN 40 discovery
So unexpected that the executors were at
a loss for some time to account for the
pile OF treasure. The latest will was care
fully scrutinized. but nothing in it could
be found relative to the unlooked-for gold
deposit Various theories were advanced
to explain the accumulation of coin, and il
was finally concluded that the captain had
followed the example of other cautious
capitalists during the last raid on the treas
ury gold reserve. and boarded the amount
found in the chest The coin looked as
though il might have been dropped into
the chest carelessly. for the various de-
nominations and dates were in happy con-
fusion The executors were unable to ac-
count for the omission of the gold pile in
the will, for although the captain was d
great spencer. he usually kept clear &C
count of his securities 1t is possible that
he may have been quietly engaged in
boarding gold pieces for number of years
prior TO his death. and when his fatal ILL
ness came on he may have forgotten the
gold lining 10 the old chest containing the
war pictures OF course. the gold was
carefully counted and entered up as a very
desirable part of the estate"
housekeeping in the State, War and
Navy Department building is a very extern
sive matter" SAID an official of the building
to a Star reporter. for it is probably the
eleanest-kept public building in the world.
The slightest idea of its extent cannot be
had until one goes through it. just now is
our busy season. for the building is being
put in shape for the winter. To start out.
there are exactly eighteen hundred and
ninety-eiSht windows to be kept clean
which IN itself is very important unIer-
taking Then there are over five hundred
uansolnS TO be kept clean. AS if this was
not cleaning enough, there are one hundred
AMI six thousand five hundred and forty
square yards of corridor floors 10 clean.
The greater part is scrubbed every week
day in the year. each scruobcr or charwo-
man having fourteen hundred square feet
10 scrub every day. Maybe these figures DO
not giva a clear idea of the immensely of
the work. To state it another way there are
over two miles of corridor. twelve feet
wide. to scrub every day, the distance
from me Treasury Department to the Cap
itOl and return. The corridors all laid
with tiles, and it is not a very difficult
task TO keep them shining. Wagon leads
of soap. scrub brushes. mCps and drying
up rags are Incidental to the work, and
every bit of ii has TO be issued and accu-
ralely accounted for. The most careful at
tention has to be given the fifty-six toilet
rooms Then the walls and all the wood
work has 10 be looked after. which is
considerable item. as there are over one
thousand doors In the consideration. Car
pet enough TO cover an ordinary village is
needed Try and imagine. if you can, the
space that twenty thousand yards of car
pet will cover, for that is about the num-
o. wards being
down This twenty thousand yards of car
PET has to be gone over frequently and re-
paired or replaced when needed. The en-
tire amount is taken up in the spring, by
contract. cleaned. and PROF erly packed away
until the fall, when IT Is laid, also by con-
tract"
1.-THE librarians. public and private, here
found out that there is a Klondike region"
volunteered q well-known librarian to a
Star reporter. even if they have not had
time to read about 1t in the NEWSPAPERS
Since the first news from the Kiondike last
summer there has been a tremendous de-
mand for anything and everything relating
to Alaska in the remotest degree and to
mining in every branch. Ordinarily. Htera-
ture on Alaska has been seldom called for
unless the works were we'll illustrated, and
then it was the pictures which gave the
work any value rather than what was Civ
en- in the book in the way of informa ton
First the demand came for the official re-
ports. those made by this country Canada
ard other countries. After that the seekers
Tor klondike literature were wild to get a
look at anything that even incidentally
touched on the subject The census reports
or 1871 on Alaska, which were drug on
the library market. are now the most called
for books The few that Were left over for
public distribution were gobble1 m faster
than not cakes were ever seized Congress
men who have public documents for distri-
button We're cleaned out of Alaskan litera-
ture weeks ago and are now unable to find
another book to satisfy the demands of
their constituents 1t has been usually sup
posed that the people Of the western and
particularly the Pacific states were the
widest on these Klondike discoveries, but
our experience is they are not in il with
the people of the east. New York and Bos-
ton people have the disease worse than
those of any other city. The Pacific coast
ers know about mining by experience and
they don't banker after book information
on the subject On the other hand, the
eastern man has to depend entirely on
books Just now the greatest demand seems
10 be not on mining. but for information as
To the navigability OF the rivers and streams
OF Alaska, and specially those in the Klon-
dixie region. with IDEAS probably of going
there in the spring. The government can
not have any late official reports ready for
circulation until about May next: for those