Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-01-29


seems tremendous task TO
the average housekeeper, but,
in comparison to the task or
purchasing supplies for the
District her work is mere child's play.
Fifty families are substituted for one
and each of them is composed of many
times six members. In the same fash
ion that the house keeper tries to solve
the problem of the high cost of living
so the man who does the marketing Tor
the various institutions and departments
of the District government must take
into consideration the quality and cost
of all articles purchased. though they
vary from horses and mules to a PEN
Gil. or some item of equally small cost.
The man whose work is to make the
market money! 20 as far possible
In supplying shoes for the orphans, dry
goods and provisions for the hospitals
and asylums, etc, is M. c. Hargrove,
property clerk of the District.
Over a million dollars is spent each
year for these articles. for however small
they may seem as separate itums, they
form a huge total. Even the badges
WSrn by the various officials igu.e IN the
estimate. for they cost the District i'll the
past year $5S1.4 From every school and
blue flag: to the practical eye of the
District housekeeper they mean dollars
and cents. In fact. when his report went
in last year he found that this emblem
had cost him $1.2io9S.
One of the most important and neces-
sary food products purchased by the DIS
trict is the meat for the various aSy-
lums. home schools, hospitals. etc. A
small stockyard is consumed by the
Various institutions each year, and on
the average of so steers are sacrlnced
and some $4,000 is expended for the
purchase CT just this one item on the list
OF necessities.
IN the District. as in the household.
gas, ice and telephone bills are contract
ed To illuminate its institutions the
District pays yearly over $4,000. while
its telephone bill is little less than halt
that amount. During the summer months
IN Washington, when ice water Is as
much a necessity as fuel In WINTER, an
lee bl is gradually rolling up INTO four
figures. in fact. over $4,000 is paid an
nualiy for this article
Not the least of the Districts bills Is
sent in by the grocer. In the past year
the grocery bill as presented TO the DIS
trict housekeeper amounted to S49.sll6o.
II all the eggs purchased by the govern
ment in the past year were piled to-
gether in crates, each one foot wide, one
foot deep and two feet long, to form a
wall one foot wide and fourteen feet
long, ii would rise higher than the
Treasury building. There were 19,OSO
dozen eggs purchased during the year
and as each crate holds thirty dozen
eggs there would he 636 crates. These
piled up in seven piles would tower over
ninety feet in the air, and the Treasury
building is but eighty-seven feet high.
IT. hntr II .lr
numerous repairs, and fguratively speak
ing. * adds a new wing annually. Near
~ Si00JD0 was spent last year for con-
structiou material used in the District.
Important among the items under this
heading was the terra Gotta sewer pipe
which ma6es Washington a thoroughly
iealthful city in addition To its other at
fractions. So great an amount of sewer
pipe was used that by placing the pieces
end to end il would extend three-fourthS
Of the way from this city 10 Baltimore,
for over thirty one miles of pipe Were
laid under District streets and roads. and
of course, Baltimore IS approximately
forty miles distant
Another item in this sum total OF con-
htruct.on material IS the granite curbing.
Enough OF this commodity was purcha sed
to replace the cGrbStone on both sides OF
the avenue from the Treasury 10 Peace
Monument six times in one year and
still leave small surplus: for approxi-
mately 11,6E; feet Of curb.ng were used
in the District during the year. and by
applying this 10 Pennsylvania avenue. as
stated above. which distance is $50 feet.
one can readily see that it Will supply
the needed curbinS six times and still
leave surplus.
There are two possessions of the Dis
trict government which . the citizen APP
parently run SO regularly never 10
suggest repair. lie always feels sure OF
his [. ain If his watch Is set by the gov
eminent clocks. and il perhaps never oc-