Evening star., 1898-10-15

he that in, a f-y. weeks there will be more
needing rrps,frs of this kind than we can
attend to. ana there will be complaints
heard on all sides of slOwEess. The tact Is
everybody in our line has already secured
extra men. and if the work came in there
would be no difficulty about doing ali that
is required and time. Furnaces ana
IatrObes. except in rare instances. to work
satisfactorily have to be overhauled every
year. and it pays to have it done OF course
when furnaces are managed by the occu-
pants OF houses. personally, Fhey VIII run
for two years without oveThauling, but
when servants are depended on II IS an en-
tirely different matter. and it is too late
to md this out when the nrSt rear cpid
snap i on 1t seems then that the heat
Is more desirable tFan during the severest
weather of the winter. Not only should the
furnace Itself be thoroughly cleaned out
and the various dues opened UP properly.
hut the pipes that conduct the neat
throughout the house should be taken down
and brushed out. The fact is that a great
majority Of persons who have furnaces IN
their houses use up from OUc-third to one
half more coal every winter than Is neccS-
sary. II the fues and pipes work poorly
the heat cannot he made TO enter them,
and through them get To the rooms to he
heated. Money spent in this preliminary
work will be doubiy saved in the amount
of coal that is purchased The same thlhS
applies to latrohes-
< : x
The various papers. petitions and the
like which dUrins every session Of Congress
are filed in the committees of the Senate
and House" explained a committee clerk
To a Star reporter AT the close of each
session of Congress are filed away in the
permanent files of the two branches of Con-
greSS Those in the Senate committees are
filed with the secretary of the Senate and
those from the House committees with the
Id
at The request of any senator or representa-
tive and reintroduced. In this way they
can BE- got before the committees for con-
sideration during the following session. In
many instances the preparation of such
papers involves considerable research and
often expense and the whole is lost at the
end OF a session unless they are withdrawn
from the permanent files and again sent to
the committees The breaking out of the
war last spring very seriously obstructed
legislation. especially legislation of a pri-
vate character. and but little consideration
was given private legislation. l do not
know that things VIII be much different at
the coming ses ession, but this / do know, that
there viii be no consideration at all unless
the papers are Withdrawn from the perna-
nent files and reintroduced. Even If the
bills to which the papers relate are pend
ing before the committees or, indeed, are
on the calendars for action, the papers are
not. many suppose. in the committee
room to which they were originally sent
and under the rules of the bodies cannot be,
for the clerks of the various committees
We're required under the rules to send them
to the permanent nleS at the close of the
session. At the end Of each Congress there
is a general cleaning up of the committee
papers. but the same thing occurs, though
to less ex,ent at the close of each ses-
ston-'
3 X X
There are lots of instances of cuts in
the prices of shoes" observed shoe deal
er 10 a Star reporter. and. judging from
the advertisements. there are more shoes
sold at marked-down' than at regular
prices. but it will be noticed that there are
never any cuts or marked-down attach
ments in connection with rubber shoes. The
reason FOR this is there is competition
in the rubher-shoe trade. While there are
many hundred concerns which manufacture
shoes in all sections of the country, all the
rubbers sold in the United States are made
by just fourteen establishments, which are
organized into a trust. thus regulating the
amount of stock that is to be made, and
each concern gets its allotted share Of the
business. 1t i easily seen. therefore, why
there are no marked-dOWn prices. There
can be no mark downs unless "a dealer de-
slres 10 make them al his own loss, which
= not likely, natural or reasonable because
ne cannot Tepien.sh his stock except by pay
ing tAe COMBINATION prices some years ago
there was much competition almost in
the rubber-shOe trade as in the leather
shoe trade. and wnen dealer managed to
Ee, q big stock at low prices he, in turn,
could au9rd 10 sell accordingly. But the
manufacturers stopped all this by going
into combination in which each of the
concerns Interested IS allowed to make lust
50 much goods in each year, and all charge
The same price Tor the same character of
goods. In other words, there WAS an end
10 competition, and the consequent mark
cd down or cuts in prices as far as rubber
SHOES Irr concerned, This combination Of
Interests Is to he run TO the end of the year
I-"H'. and Tho indications are it will be re-
Eswed, Tor the experience has been that il
mas palt handsomely. whereas competition
prove: L" Doe for several years rather dis
aStrguS 90 AL concerned EXCEPT the con-
suIner. But. as in almost everything else
rubbeT-sh"e manufactures are not run for
the benefit II Consumers
For the past five or six years there has
been but little smoking in the departments
as lar as clerks are concerned - remarked
a chief Of a bus eau of the Interior Depart
ment 10 a S;ar reporter. "aHd clerks have
found out that cigar or pipe smoking is
not absolutely necessary. as many Of them
supposed it 10 be. Almost ever since the
departments have been established no
smc king has been the rule but it was like
many other rules. more honared in the
breach than Observance. Every now and
then spasmOdic Efforts were made to ston
smoking. but they We're never persisted in
and as changes came along the matter was
allowed To rest. For the past six wears
however. there has baen constant war
fare on smokers. and they have about
yielded. though not without making a de-
termlned fight While it was a very fire.
qugnt thing 10 see clerks smoking years
ago. Notwithstanding the rule prohibiting
II, II Is very rare nowadays To observe anv
Violation The same is the experience in
the Treasury Deuartm mt. once famous for
It's smokers. as well the Navy Depart
ment. almost equally so. | am not sure
that any great harm was done by smoking
though II was at times somewhat annoy
Ing 70 non-smokers, but the effect of it
was BAD upon visitors in the departn auts
They often went away with the idea that
the clerks spent the greater part Of the
day reading newspapers and smoking ci-
gars. which was entirely erroneous one
Tor my experience and observation for
twenty three years has been that the smok
ers in any department were not ona-sixth
OF the entire number. The occasional visit
or got an exactly opposite idea of il. He
thought nve-siNths were smokers The com