The National tribune., 1906-10-11
announced that he and his guests would
take dinner with the sailors.

announced that No ana ms guests wOuit
take dinner with the sailors.
The necessary orders were immedi
ately issued and the sailors Jumped &
their feet in surprise when they say
President Roosevelt walk in on the af
ter gun deck and takes his place at
table. where he and his guests had tn
same mess that was beiDg served to tn
sailors at the surrounding tables.
One of the men cSserving that Their
were no napkins on the Presidents ia
BILE rushed to the ward room to procure
the necessary table linen. When he re
turned the President thanked him, bu
said he was dining with the boys to
day." and would have no privilege.
which they did not enjoy. The sailors
pleased with the Presidents action
took no further steps until at the con.
ciusion of the dinner. when they sent tC
the Presidents table a box of cigar:
which had been obtained by subscrip.
ton from the navy canteen.
For some time reports of graft
have been made. as well as otheI
charges of irregularity, in the Phila-
delphia or Schuylkill Arsenal. Col. ]
w. Pope. of the Quartermaster's De
partment. was ordered to investigate
and report.
81 looked into all departments of the
depot with extreme care, says Col
Pope in his report, ''and 1 have not yet
been able to find any proof or indica-
ton of corruption, graft or laxity on
the part of any inspectors or others
Inspections and inspectors have been
scrupulous and rigid, and the supplies
received have been as good as could
have reasonably been expected for the
class of supplies and the prices paid
They have generally conformed strictly
to the specifications and standard sup
plies"
4 He did find altogether too many
employees. however, and cut the force
down by 26, with a saving of over
| $4,000
/ Great as has been this gain in econ
omy,' states Col. Pope, the change in
discipline has been even greater from
the previous time, when employees We're
employing attorneys and raising money
and sending delegates to Washington
and bcsieging Senators and Representa-
tives and politicians to aid in an en-
| deavor to influence the War Depart
ment.
So, after all, there was cause for
talk.
Here's what happened to the Navy
| Department in the little "sissylone'
that happened down Florida way last
| week.
| "MachiaS sunk at moorinGs in basin.
Waban sunk at wharf. coal barge No.
| l. Accomac. Vixen, high on beach 1T
west end of yard. Gloucester on beach
outside of yard, west. Wooden dry
dock destroyed. New coal bin almost
all gone. Permanent wharf destroyed.
Some coal saved. Dredge ashore east
end of yard. Center wharf destroyed.
| Piles standing old coal wharf and the
steel dry dock wharf and ammunition
wharf damaged; also Undine sunk.
Barge ashore. Broken up target range;
house destroyed. Isla de LuZon ailoat
in basin. leaking. Steel dry dock ap-
parently undamaged. Much heavy
wreckage in yard; trees uprooted
Wireless top gallant rnaSts gone. All
| electrical wires wrecked. Power plant
damaged and not working. Buildings
generally damaged by wind. One house
uninhabitable. Water damage to ma
chinery on ground floors. No lives lost
| in navy yard
One of the oddities of the Govern
ment Printing Office is the term cow
boys" applied to employees of the docu
ment division of the bindery, said to be
one of the most important branches of
the Government Printing Office. Sew
eral years ago an edition of the report
of the Department of Agriculture was
I
tIre of a number of cows, and when an
employe wished to know the character
of the work being done by fellow
workman he would ask: Are you
working on the cows?" The name has
since remained with the division, and
been adopted by the baseball and bowl
ing teams of that branch of the bindery.
The Year Book of the Department of
A eric ic ha or edition hound
in cloth at the Government Printery,
the usual run being 500, 900 copies. Tn
der the present arrangement the edition
has been reduced to 100000 copies.
The Year Book of 1905 has 97S pages.
and the cowboys bind 276 books for n
days work of eight hours Forty book
sewing machines and 125 hand sewers
are employed in the document division
of the bindery.
Extraordinary results, in considera-
ton of the conditions have been
achieved by the United States troops of
the Department of the Columbia in the
construction and maintenance Of tele-
graph and cable lines in Alaska. The
submarine cable system begins at
Seattle Wash, extends to Sitka. thence
to Valdez, and on to Seward, on Resur-
rection Bay, a distance of 1888 miles.
Two branches, one from Sitka to Skag
way, distance Of Alb miles, and
the other from Valdez to Fort Liscum,
, distance of four miles, make the
total mileage 2,255 miles. The money
turned into the Treasury. as the pro-
ceeds of commercial messages sent
over these lines during the year
amounted II s17S,779. The value Of
the business transmitted for the several
Government Departments aggregated
s104,S07, a total benefit to the United
States of S2S3,5S7. Amounts collected
and turned over to commercial compa-
MES as their share aggregated $16,3
during the year.
Press dispatches from Vallejo, Cal,
state that the boiler which exploded on
board the gunb1at Bennington in San
Diego harbor, in July, last year. killing
G. of the ships crew, is to be shipped to
Annapolis where it will be used at the
Naval Academy for illustrative pur-
poses, in the instruction of the mid
shipmen for engineering work. The in
terror of the boiler has been left in the
condition in which il was found i'm
mediately after the explosion.
A discharged Navy employe has been
bombarding the Navy Department with
story of defective boiler tubes" be-
ing employed in The armored cruisers
Colorado and Pennsylvania. He wrote
that he had been employed in the De-
partment and saw these defective tubes
passed" by the Inspector and ticketed
as all right. The Navy Department at
once proceeded - investigate, and
found that there was not n word of