Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-03-12
IN HOTEL CORRIDORS.

DO you know that the owners of bottles
have an exchange in all cities of any size?'
said James NJ Van Dorm, a weli-known
Chicago restaurateur, at the Shoreham. Il
refer particularly to beer bottles. You
have often noticed stamped or blown into
a bottle the name of the bother or that of
the brewery. Many bottles were lost or
broken until the persons interested got to-
gether and established d clearing house:
and it is just much of a clearing house
as If money were at stake and drafts and
checks were dealt in instead A bottle Is
treated as If it were cents. Under the old
way only the person who sold a bottle of
beer. charging Is cents therefor would re-
deem the empty bottle. Under the new
system any dealer will purchase an empty
bottle If the bother whose name appears
upon it is a member Of the clearing house.
And 1 want to tell you that 1t is big bust
ness and a financial saving. In Chicago we
maintain a central station. The man in
charge, whose business Is to see that the
bottles are placed in pile for their respec-
tive owners. draws a yearly salary. Any
proprietor or dealer In the organization will
buy a bottle which contained an article
he can take it to the clearing house and get
exactly what he paid for it,
~ saw a novel sight in Washington a few
days ago. observed Robert ]. Smith gen.
eral agent at Philadelphia of the Southern
Pacific railroad. at the Ebbitt. 1T was
that of a stylishly dressed woman having
her boots polished in public street She
occupied a chair in front of Pennsyl-
vania avenue store and, while the colored
fellow was looking after her shapely feet,
seemed absolutely oblivious to the attention
she was attracting from pedestrians. A
railroad friend, in whose office l was di-
rected my attention to the sight across the
street. When the shine was completed she
stepped down from the chair with an air of
a person who had accomplished wonder
and, after fum6ling around her purse, gave
the boy a coin. She then tripped along I'D
the avenue. still apparently unmindful that
score or more OF men had been watching
her | suppose some persons would sneer-
fngly call her a new woman but even at
that. l don't see anything Objectionable to
woman's having her boots polished and
in the street, if she feels SO inclined
THE greatest business mind 1 ever
stacked up against is possessed by for
mer proprietor of a meat market in my
town." said Littleton s. Jones of Canaan
daigua. N. Y, at the ST. James. This
erstwhile butcher has fine, squeaky voice
that can be heard a block away. Tricky?
Yes, that's just what you would call 1t. I
used to watch him sometimes when he was
waiting on customers. and it was positively
amusing to note the ease with which he
would make a two-pound steak weigh an
parently. three or more pounds. He would
grab couple of pounds of meat and
Throw II on the scales SO that the pointer
would show four pounds. and then take II
off before the scales could register the true
weight
There's just four pounds exactly" he
would say to the customer in that saueaky
voice of his. and then continue with the
statement. quickly made:
Four times IL Is IS: call it co.
And unless the customer was watching
him closely he would always get even
change. He Was IN the meat business only
few years and amassed a competency
Then he left 1t. What worries me is how
he Is going to get along now. 1 understand
he has embarked in the real estate bust
he sells piece Of land. The scales won't
help him much there
when I left home a few days ago ex
Secretary OF the Treasury Charles Foster
was confined to his house with an attack
of grip said w. NJ. Tobin of Fostcria.
Chic, at the Raleigh. Mr.. Foster Is dc.
voting mucn of his time to business, and Is
understood to have regained SOM, of the
fortune he lost in bad speculation half a
dozen or more years ago. His mother Ia
still living at ninety-six, and is as hale and
hearty as many women two score years
her junior"
1.-The democrats Of the country ana you
newspaper men will be accorded ar ocular
demonstration of what great western city
can do in he way of entertainment" said
w. 8. Lloyd of Kansas City at the Ma
ticna1. ''The people OF Kansas City, re-
CARELESS of party affiliations, are working
hand in nd to see that those who come
to the democratic national convention shall
be well taken care of. Already a consider
able sum has been raised In addition 20 the
amount contributed to the democratic ma
tional committee, and no trouble will he
apCn nf pa1 in oil