The times., 1898-06-20
A BIG SHOPPER.
--------t-+r
Quartermaster General ISimbaII a
Stupendousi Buyer.

feet, trying by Industrious and careful
shopping to stretch the contents of your
little purses, how would you like to spend
two millions in month and be able to
draw your check for 2,Q0O, just to pay
for one of your purchases; and not only
to draw it but to have it honored without
a question?
There is a gentleman in this town who
does these very things without the slight
est quckening of the blood or the turn
ing of hair. He does not even have to
go outdoors to do them-this wonderful
man OF bargain and sale, the biggest
buyer not only in this big, big town, but
probably in the United States. He sits in
sunny room where he can see the ships
go blythe ships that he has so much to
do with; where he can look upon the
starting of trains across the river-the
trains which he charters by the do-1n to
carry his people far away. And men with
steamships ready for the sea come TO
the eyrie of this man and seek the path
way TO his checkbook.
And yet withal, he is the quietest, most
modest man you ever saw. He does not
like TO see his handsome face in the
papers. He does not wish that you should
write about him and tell the people
even though they be the people whom he
serVes-that he is the man who does it
the wonderful man with the endless
credit, the biggest buyer in New Yo.k.
Let us whisper the name and have it
out Lieut.. Col. Amos w. Kimball u S.
A, is it. He is boss quartermaster of
the General Quartermaster's Department.
He has control of the largest of the grand
purchasing divisions for the United States
Army He spends more money than any
other quartermaster, buys more goods and
knows more about the ways of New York
merchants. And yet if you go up into his
pleasant office on the sixth floor of the
Army Building you will find man who
does not need memorandum books or
typewriters or any of the other modern
paraphernalia of business. He just car
ries his business in his head, and he does
it so well that Uncle Sam, for whom he
does this gigantic shopping, never thinks
of questioning his honesty or fidelity.
Why should he indeed? When men by
the hundred were dying of yellow fever
at Newbern, s. c., away back in war
times, Kimbal was there, risking his
life without a thought and handling the
stores that the sick must have. When the
Apaches were numbering in the West and
Miles and Crook and Custer built wall
of living blue between them and the non
combatants, Kimball was there risking
his life for the country
He has ever been a faithful. unselhsh
servant OF the people, and IL was matter
az hafOr4 ne reached his
present eminence as Biggest Buyer of
New York.
He was sitting at an open desk in
that Office of his yesterday when a
reporter called TO see how shopping
should be done at wholesale. There was
nothing in the room TO indicate that any
thing particular was being done. that he
had just sent a hundred thousand or so
soldiers into the tropics and might at any
moment be called on to send as many
more.
Before him was the usual stock of sta
tonery Of a business mans office desk.
In a tin envelope case was a batch of
envelopes of different sizes bearing the
sign mark of the department. A globe
was the only indication that the colonel
might sometimes have to turn his
thoughts outside the orbit OF New York
| On a file near his good right hand-the
! hand that can sign checks for millions
/ were spiked a number OF orders for
goods; and that was all, unless you ex-
cept the. pictures of Mckinley and Miles
/ and Dewey on the wah. But you will
4 find them everywhere these days.
! 1t is the man behind the desk that 10
! the thing He has a face to study-yes,
/ a face TO study and admire. as you ad-
/ mire the strong face of Dewey on the
wall. Like Dewey's it is a combination
! of strength and refinement. The lines
! are delicate, almost austere. There are
/ touches of the ascetic about this face,
/ but mingled with the asceucism there is
a firmness which might well be there,
considering that its owner has faced the
savages of the West, and helped TO beat
| them. too
II the greatest buyer IN New York? Z?
| No, no. surely. Think of the great
stores"' he said in answer to a question
But Colonel said the questioner
"the big stores employ hundreds of buy
ers, each a specialist in his way, while
you have TO be an all-round practitioner 3"
That is true he said. "In that way
I suppose l may be the most extensive
| buyer. l have to cover many sorts Of
ground-uniforms, tents, equipment of all
sorts and transportation; everything but
subsistence, in fact The food is bought
in another department with which l have
nothing to do
He went on to show how the army s
buying scheme was divided up into sew
eral grand divisions, the idea being TO
economize as much as possible. There
was division in New York, which is the
best market for many classes of goods
another in st. Louis. where the horses
and mules for the army are usually Sc
cured; a third at Jefferson City Ind,
where the harness is purchased; another
at Chicago and a fifth at San Francisco.
They all stand on the same plane from
the high attitudes of Washington. but
the New York office does the bulk of the
business. IKE
1t would take a good many delivery
wagons to send home the results of a
days shopping by this prince of pur-
chasers. Just heaken to a single days
work. Two hundred and fifty-five thou
sand Summer shirts (what washD &C,
900 blouses. $4,000 pairs trousers (much
needed in the volunteer ranks, if report be
trUe), 225,000 Summer drawers, &c, 900 shell
ter tents (halves), 300 double tents, 1,50d
wall tents, 5000 common tents, 600 sets
company books (alasi for some of the en-
tries that they will some day, contain), g.
500 mosquito head nets.
Very suggestive, the last-named item.
And yet they tell US that war is glo-
rious.
The largest check that Col Kimball
ever made out was for the, purchase of
the hospital ship Relief a splendid new
coastwise steamship which has carried
many list of joyous Summer BIRDS but
whose cabins will soon re-echo to the
sound of groans instead of to the songs
of lasses and lads on their way to the
sunny isles of Maine. It was for $3.50 600
You must be a very busy man, Colo
nel'' said the reporter
"Oh, we are having a little respite