Evening star., 1926-12-26

II WOuI0 De nara To IlIld dIIoIhVi VI
ficial who has as difficult job on his
hands as that handled each year by
Morris Hacker, superintendent OF
Washington street cleaning depart
ment and supervisor of the Districts
army of white wings" and refuse
collectors.
This stupendous assignment of
maintaining our several hundred
miles of streets, avenues and boule-
wards slightly and attra active, and the
service to the householder of garbage
and trash removal is one which does
not appear spectacular to the general
public until Mr.. Average Citizen
browses through the District engi-
neers annual @report and gets ac-
Quainted with the ever-multiplying ac-
tivities of Supt. Hackers department.
1t is a night-and-day proposition,
this enterprise of maintaining our
streets clear and clean of refuse, trash
and snow Much of the cleanup
work which cannot be performed dur
ing business hours. because of the
Vehicular traffic which congests the
main travelled roads, is done in the
dead of night. About the same hour
that the dairy trucks and wagons
start on their rounds of delivering the
mornings milk supply, the 10 motor
lied f1ushers of the street clean1.y
service swing into action in the bust
ness district. Each night more than
6,500,000 square yards of pavement
surface are washed free of dirt, dust
and Gebris by these gas-powered
'tscrubwomen."
When the thermometer registers
about freezing or colder. the street
flushing has to be suspended until the
mercury rises again. Normally, there
;~L% fIa
when the District fiushers are unable
to work on account of low tempera-
lures. Seven hundred thousand gal
Ions of water are consumed in show
ering and flushing the business high
ways each night during the balance
of the year, total of 225 900, 900 gal
Ions of water being used for this pur-
posed during the II months. The
business district, whose streets and
avenues are drenched regularly in
this way. extends from K street south
TO B street and from North Capitol
street west to Eighteenth street, while
adjoining traffic ways are also
cleansed.
Previous to the advent of motorized
equipment, the District used horse
drawn flushers and squeegees in Civ
ing Washington pavements their
nightly bath. The squeegee was a
motor-driven broom adapted from
somewhat similar equipment used in
Berlin. Its use had to be abandoned
with the rising popularity of the mo-
tor car and the city-wide custom of
parking automobiles along the curbs,
both by night and day.
THE 10 District dumping grounds
where trash, refuse and similar
debris collected by the white wings
from Washington streets are depos-
tied have been the scenes of hectic
and frepzied hunting at various times
during recent years. A certain Wash
ington doctor, for example, mislaid
considerable amount of very valuable
radium. BY hook or crook, the mate
rial, which was worth enough to ran
som the kings daughter, was tossed
into the trash can. Eventually it was
discarded in one of the District dump
ing grounds.
When the physician finally discov-
cred his loss he organized patient
and persistent searching party, which
ransacked the dumping grounds from
one end to the other. The containel
of radium was never found. A minia-
ture fortune awaits some scrap-pile
picker who chances to come across
lhAo 1AiAS5lAAE AldNCAldA, ICCOEHiLC lIS
value and returns it to the owner, who
will pay a large reward for such
recovery.
A Washington society matron some
time ago assembled SIS, 900 worth of
jewels in a compact little package
and then carelessly tossed the package
into the wastepaper basket. The con.
tents of the basket were tossed into
pile Of refuse, which subsequently was
removed to the dumping grounds by
one of the District trash wagons.
When the lady ultimately missed sher
jewels she notified the police. The
case was ferreted down to conclusive
evidence which indicated that the val
uables were repoSing amidst some
pile of refuse in one of the deposi-
tories of discarded debris. 1t was a
long search and a stern chase, that pur-
suit Of the missing gems. With a
large reward offered for the return of
the diamonds, hundreds combed and
scratched over the dumping grounds.
Some may still be continuing the
hunt, for the jewelry has never been
found.
These are typical illustrations of
the hue and cry about missing valu-
ables which are raised every once in
so often. The District dumping
grounds. in addition to being the
burial place of many lost hopes, mod
els Of inventions which went to seed,
manuscripts of prose and poetry
which never found a market. is also
the final resting place Of lost dia,
monds, lustrous pearls, beautiful
rings and costly necklaces, which.
through sheer carelessness, found
their way to the trash box instead of
being returned to their regular quar-
ters, jewelry cases or strong boxes,
where they were kept when not in
use.
A conspicuous sign on a telephone
In one of the Offices of the District
Street Cleaning Department bears the
telephone number of the United States
close relationship existent between
these Federal and District depart
ments. The predictions of the weather
man concerning billiards. and snow
storms which are speeding toward
washington are of vital interest to
Supt. Hacker and his subordinates.
Those few hours of warning enable
them to assemble their battle lines
and prepare for organized warfare
against the avalanches of frozen rain
drops launched from drear and dismal
skies. It's annual onslaughts against
King Snowdrift and Jack Frost;
which seek to paralyZe traffic and
cripple commerce in our Capital City,
rank among the most difficult tasks in
which the Street Cleaning Department
has to engage.
The District now has 20 motor We
hicles. including the f1ushers available
to push the straight bladed snowplows
when Boreas tries to block Washing
toms streets with masses of snow and
Arctic-like drifts. The snow-fighting
campaign is carried on without sus.
pending such other important activi-
ties as ash, trash and garbage re-