Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-12-26
HBARDAND SEEN

! We're you ever in a Swing ROOM"
\ saw one?
Is a blue boy" a friend of yours?
If the answer is NO." you are not
! an employe of the Washington city
post office. for these curious words
are as familiar in the office presided
| over by Postmaster Chance as or
binary English words are to the ma
| jority of people.
Even postal employees in other cities
would be nonplused at ''blue boy"
The other two are common property
among postal workers in the large
city Offices, but the last term is
peculiar to the Washington city post
Office.
Letters or parcels received at the
the proper address are sent to the
directory service" as II is called,
where city directories are combed in
effort to find out the proper address.
The searcher marks a trial address.
secured from the directory. on the
letter with a blue pencil. and from
this habit comes the term blue boy"
applied to letters needing directory
service.
A mike" is not a fairy or other
fabulous creature, even il the word
does sound that way. A mike" is
letter which the distributor. taking
the letters as they come to him. finds
impossible to throw into the proper
compartment because the state to
which addressed contains no city or
town as given.
Sent to the directory service and
! q blue pencil mark placed on il. the
mike" automatically becomes a blue
boy at the Washington city post
office. 1t should be noted that every
letter needing directory service is
bear such addresses as New York.
New" instead of New York, N. Y"
for instance. would be regarded as
such. The real mikes" often get
righted before they ever get to the
directory clerk.
| the post office could blame a certain
student from foreign country who
came there studying American post
offices and affairs. He was shown
through the office. carefully told
about the various departments of
work. and went away apparently
satisfied.
But several days later he came
pack. He made motions with his
arms as OF swinging. and asked.
want to know about this room
where they swing"
me swing room" isFnothing more
or less than the rest and recreation
room of the letter carriers. 1t is
the place where they Swing" from
trip to trip. during the few leisure
minutes they have during the work
Gay. Maybe it got that name because
they nave to swing. in and out of
II SO quickly. Nobody knows.
The champion potato peeler of
Washington worked hard last week.
beginning Christmas eve, to proyide
the soldiers at Walter Reed HOSPITAL
with enough OF these necessary yege-
tables to help form the groundwork
OF the elaborate Christmas feed"
The champion worked all night
alone on the potato peeling job, but
no human being that ever lived could
have completed the job by himself.
He had two automatic potato peeIers
to help him. Not very many of the
soldier-patients themselves have ever
seen these machines.
They are round, tub-like affairs.
into which little water is poured. a
handful of potatoes thrown and the
electric current turned on. Then en-
sues as lively a commotion as ever
was seen.
Potatoes are hurtled back and forth.
striking against rods. which bark"
their skins off, but do not cut much
into the vegetable. The way the
potatoes shuttle back and forth, up
and down and every which way is
comical to watch
CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.-