Evening star., 1901-07-27

while / have always contended that the
street car employees of Washington are the
most polite of those Of any metropolitan
city" says a travelling man, there is one
town where the railway men surpass them.
Why. in Richmond. Va. they are regular
Bayards and Chesterfelds In their de-
meanor to passengers, especially to women.
"A street car conductor in Richmond
never permits a lady to get in or out Of
summer car unassisted. He will leave his
place and run along the footboard to give
his hand to the alghting female passenger,
be she young or old. homely or pretty.
1t is a custom almost universal on the
Richmond lines, and very nice one. too.
= X
During all these heat-laden days of sum-
mer there are about twenty-five men IN
Washington who perform their daily labors
dressed in two suits of the heaviest woolen
clothes. besides long, heavy ulster, and
yet these men are probably the coolest In
dividuals in the city A Star reporter saw
one of these overly-dressed gentlemen lean
ing up against the wall of the sunny side
of Center market on one of the days when
104 was being registered by the thermome-
ter in the shade at the weather bureau.
He looked very cool and comfortable, and
when asked for explanation he simply
reporter run his hand around his waist to
his back. II was like putting your hand
into an ice chest. The gentleman then
invited the reporter to follow him, anu
opened the door into the cold-storage room
of a large meat packing warehouse The
temperature inside this room was 2S de-
greeS above zero. You could see Eour
breath as a winters day, and it took
you some time TO find out whether you
were comfortable or not. In the room.
which was a large one, several men We're
working in their overcoats, which were
an absolute necessity for comfort. When 1t
is necessary for them to go on the out
side they keep their coats on and thus
preserve the atmosphere of the room in
their clothes. as it takes long time for
the heat to penetrate through them.
X
"As rule, the 1-cent balances in the
money order office are the most trouble
some" explained a money order office
clerk to Star reporter, lin that the game
is admittedly not worth the candle, but
just the same 1t has to be played to the
limit and the account squared up to the
last cent. The big post offices understand
this. and there is no trouble in their ac-
counts in that particular at least, but the
smaller money order offices think that a
cent way or another is hardly worth
considering, and they give the fact no at
tention. In the great majority of these
cases the odd cent is in favor of the gov
ernment. but under the system of looking
after the money order business Uncle Sam
is just as particular about being overpaid
as he is when the boot is on the other foot.
The overpaid penny is returned with all
the solemnity of a thousand dollars, a
money order being issued on the request of
the Postmaster General, through a SubOrdi-
nate, of course. and a record, indeed a
dozen records of the transaction are made
When the acknowledgment is received that
Is also recorded to show how the govern
ment expended it's penny and that the
proper party received it. 1t Is somewhat
surprising how many of these balance Of
a penny orders are issued. The cost Of
issuing each. If ii could be all calculated,
would be found to be considerable, but,
under the system. there is no way by which
the cost of a money order to the govern
ment can be ascertained. There Is proba-
bly, more fuss and feathers when a post
master Is a penny short than when he
overpays, but the whole machinery of the
money order office is thrown into operation
In both instances. To illustrate the care
fulness that is given to penny balance, a
case occurred in the office week before last
The postmaster is In southwestern town,
and he happened to be a penny over In his
accounts, as far as the total was concern
ed. but the difficulty was to get at the de-
tail - order in which he overpaid the
penny. Every one of his orders had to be
overlooked, all his books examined by two
sets of clerks. The result was that it was
found that he was not a penny over, but
that his accounts balanced perfectly Now,
the Office knew that this was not the fact
through another check. but the overpaid
cent kept on hiding. Finally three sets of
clerks jumped on to the account, determin-
ed to find the penny or demolish some
thing in the effort. After a couple of
hours it was found that somewhere in the
accounts one of the ciphers had been care
lessly made. and three sets of examiners
had taken the figure for one and had SO
counted. This settled the matter though
1t was nearly a half days work of three