The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-04-06
LIVE TOPICS ABOUT TOWN.

Stacked in one Of the corridors Of the
basement of the State. War. and Navy
Building are a dozen piles Of books, all
neatly wrapped in paper. and piled one
upon the other in the neateSt and most
orderly fashion. In all there are about
1I.002 Of the volumes. and they are being
S"nt out as rapidly as the clerks under
Captain Gibson can write out the ad-
dresses which they transcribe from great
ledgcrs bearing evidence of age ana
usage The books are the eleventh vol
une of the Official Records of the Union
and Confederate Navies in the War of the
Rebellion" and they are, by all odds, the
most interesting, the most valuable. and
the most sought-after Of all tie publica-
ttons Of the War Records Office. The
books now being distributed cover the pc
Rod from October, 1864 to February, 1865,
and deal a1-ticuIarlv with the operations
of the North Atlantic blockading squad
ron They are neatly covered IN black
leather. ap3 are attractive volumes II
IS expected that the complete publication
OF the records VIII require twenty vol
Umes. and that when finished, the works
VIII be the most complete. concise. and
accurate account of the work OF the navy
during Tie civil war
A d
corner has put out half dozen penny
iu-the-slot machines of different kinds
1t is the best way OF doing business that
know of he said. when a reporter
who had wondered at the array of ma
chimes questioned him about them The
machines do their work accurately and
well. and you don't have to pay them
ANYTHING. Those machines take the place
of at least one clerk. and do admirably
for selling penny goods, the sale OF
which would take up time and bring but
small return They bring good profit,
too. and I can count as clear gain one
half of all the pennies that go into them.
Standing on this busy corner they do re-
markedly well, and one of them makes
bigger returns than any machine in the
city. l can count on its bringing me in
at least 30 cents 4 day, and the others
range from Is to % cents each, The
pieces with which they are filled cost me
about 81. and s. worth of pennies is in
the drawer when all the slides are empty
The patrons of the machines are of ey-
cry class. rich and poor. old and young.
You would be surprised TO see the we'll
TODD old men who get their piece of
chewing gum as regularly as they trans
fer from one car to another each morning.
Sometimes they come into me and ask
weighing machine out of which l get a
good percentage is also quite a drawing
card Men, women, and children use 1t.
but especially the young mothers %hC
are curious about the weight Of their
children The automatic method of do
ing business suits me. ! think It is cheap,
accurate, reliable, and in every way sat
isfactory-'
The sphere of a donkey's usefulness in
this section of the country is generally
supposed TO be confined TO drawing chill
dren about the streets and through the
parks in diminutive carts at a pace a
trife faster than the best record time OF
a snail To associate them with anything
more important seems absurd, yet today
within eight miles Of Washington. TWEEN
ty-tive Of the little fellows are employed
by the United States Government and are
doing their part toward Graduating q
much-dreaded disease.
At the experiment station Of the Bureau
of Animal Industry, a unique institution
near Bethesda. Md, where all the dis
eases to which the domestic quadrUped
Is heir are being studied. the donkey Is
an important factor. Some time ago
4 twenty-five Rocky Mountain -'burros
were imported from their native cline tC
! Bethesda to be used in producing hog
/ cholera serum Experiments in that Iine
/ had progressed at the time to a point
! where the scientists had succeeded II
/ producing a serum which proved an eff
! IeCtiVe enemy 10 the disease most dreaded
Z by the hOg-raiSers of the country
! Larger quantities of the antitOXin wert
/ needed and the animals already used II
/ producing II had been found 20 take rath-
( er unkindly to the treatment The dOnkeyE
{ were brought nearly across the continent
and since then they have been patiently
[ serving the Government Dr. Schraeder
the official in charge Of the station rules
his little domain by kindness, and he Is
/ especially fond Of the donkeys- They are
/ operated upon quite frequently and g
/ through the ordeal with more patience
/ than any other animals on the place, not
/ excepting the rabbits and guinea pigs
/ which are used in the tuberculosis expert
/ meaIS-