Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-04-05
DISTRICT A-SHOPP|NG
Bids for Supplies of All Kinds
Are Opened.
SCHEDULING IS BIG TASK
Awarding of Contracts Will Be
Made About May I.
HARGROVE HAS BUSY DAY
Prices on Endless Variety Of Articles
Are Gone over-HousehQld
Goods Included.
SCHEDULING IS BIG TASK
HARGROvE HAS BUSY DAY

ndI grove property clerk, held the basket
| 1t was bit of bargaining and shopping
| that would have delighted the hearts OF
every bargain hunter and shopper tina,
| ever lived, for the District looked at a
million dollars worth OF supplies Of every
character. from finger bowls to harness for
| fire engine horses. Crackers and cheese and
| sardines were sampled, and the loveliest
kind of longcloth and white goods were
talked over, just the way the women do
when they sample things at the store
counters for an hour and then buy a half
yard of cheese cloth.
| The outward and visible signs Of this
great bit OF shopping consisted of a cou-
pie of hundred contractors, who came
down to the District building to watch
| the opening of bids for general supplies
A million dollars worth of everything
under the sun. including oysters and fish,
were figured in the bids. The Districts
| many housekeeping establishments were
| taken into consideration at the opening,
as we'll as the great school Organization,
| which uses UP probably one-half Of all
! the general supplies that Mr. Hargrove
buys in the course of a year. The bids
are In the most technical form, and it is
going to take at least four weeks before
they all are scheduled and tabulated. so
| that no one will know the successful bid
| ders until about May I.
Fuel, ice and forage were not in
cluded in today's shopping. They will
! be looked after in other bids which are
scheduled for opening April IA. Las:
year the District bought more than
| $4,000 worth Of coal and wood and
more than $4,000 worth of ice and
horses that work for the District.
Apple Corers Included.
One does not know exactly what a
big family Mr.. Hargrove goes shop
ing for and what a tremendous guam
| tity Of stuff he buys until the list OF
| articles needed is examined For in
stance. every housekeeper knows that
| when she wants to start in to bake APP
! pies she has to have an apple corer
to be right up to date, but who would
suppose that the District of Columbia
wants to buy apple corers in bulk?
1t does, though, and many a bidder
gave figures on those neat little kitchen
contrivances. The cooking schools use
them. and so do the hospitals. the
| penal institutions, the asylums and such.
And wash basins. by the score, as we'll
as shipload of coffee pots, did Mr.. Har-
grove and his assistants consider today.
Every well regulated household has
to have beds and bedding, and as the
order. the bidders had hundreds of fig
ures on beds. Ham boilers. to cook the
succulent ham and cabbage, were
looked upon with favoring eyes, and
| because there are oranges and grape
7 fruit and sticky desserts to be eaten
| in the places for which Mr.. Hargrove
goes shopping, he had to arrange q
! get a crate OF neat little finger bowls.
Sugar bowls for the workhouse, the
| Jail. the hospitals and the schools, as
we'll as sugar bucket for Kitchens were
| priced.
Cake pans indicate mouth for sweets
| somewhere in the Districts employ. Can
| openers and corkscrews tell their own
carpets and clothes horses and clocks look
| as if the District of Columbia were about
| to furnish houses for the newly wed.
Slippers for Conva1escenrs.
Who supposed that the District wanted
several hundred pairs of carpet slippers?
1t does though. The folks who wear
| them are the canvalescents in the public
| wards of the hospitals, the tuberculosis
Hospital, ETC. Egg beaters-a vast amount
| Of thought will have to be given to
| scheduling the multifarious forms of bids
| on egg beaters. as well as egg lifters, for
| what municipally-paid fingers want to be
| scalded by lifting two-minute egg from
the boiling pot of water?
| ever they are) will be bought in vast
| quantities, IL the wishes of the bidders
are followed. Pie plates and after-dinner
coffee spoons show that there will be
| feasting to the accompaniment of mu-
nicipally bought Injuries.
| Cartridges for the cops" will be bought
at the same time. And myriad variety
Of pills for all the ailments that can be
Hargrove priced today were scheduled
| and tabulated, SO that stomach aches can
be assuaged.
whisky little land also cloves.
Wise Mr.. Hargrove).
Prices for Surgical Needles.
Enough surgical needles were offered
to the District today to sew up all the
wounds in Christendom. Moreover,
gauze bandages and arnica enough for
all the first aid to the injured cases
that the District will need for a year
came in for scrutiny.
But the real marketing came when
the bids for meat were opened. Beef.
boycotted and abused, yet still in the
set Of buyers. Quarters, roasts. steaks,
sirloin and porterhouse. as well as can
ned beef, came in for their share of
looking over.
lunch. for last year Mr.. Hargrove
bought a third Of q ton of 1t.
And it would delight woman's heart
to see the things at the dry goods counter
that the bidders bid upon today. There's
not a bit of use In telling all, for there
Is so much Of it that the story would
read like full-page white goods sale.
but really, it was all there from cotton
to silk and better. Some dinner table is
going to have silence cloths of Mr.. Har-
groves buying Little boys In the asy
iums are going to wear hats Of Mr.. Har-
groves choosing. Little girls are going
to warm their tiny fingers in mittens of
today's bidding and thousand men will
hide their knees in long white night
shirts Of today's figures.
Mosquitoes yet unborn will butt their
sharp beaks against netting offered to
the city today, and an army of men
will rest their feet in socks OF every
design that were scheduled in the
boardroom of the District building
when the Districts shoppers meet tho
Districts shopkeepers
For Fire Department.
Chief Wagner will have his IRE en-
CINE houses filled with the sole leath-
err and fine. strong harness that the
official buyers brought to him in the
DRY today, and laprobes. buggy whips
pads and bits are in the same class.
The groceries mean a feast for the COM
mittee that will pass upon them. For the
Rrocers have submitted q storeroom full
Of samples. Crackers and cheese are now
roxoeip1 in, Z. Of hn ni.<r.oe