Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-07-18

tobS1V ana the Interior department
an average of 6,268.
Only casual records OF the flow of
correspondence are kept by other de-
partments. The executive Offices of
the Treasury Department. for ex-
ample, get about 5000 pieces of mail
day. the Bureau of Mines 1000 e.
day and the Bureau of Foreign and
Domestic Commerce some 600 day.
The yazSety of correspondence
covers the entire range of human
knowledge from archaeology to zool-
ogy. But whatever the correspond
ent may ask, his letter ultimately
reaches some one somewhere In the
Government service who has the an
gwer. Question.and answer newspaper
services operating out of Wasai;l yton
depend very largely upon the Govern
ment departments for their answers.
Many OF the bureaus keep q record
of so-called freak" correspondence.
This includes such matters as offers
TO disclose the whereabouts of buried
treasure, requests for. loans of mil
lions OF dollars on Il. o. us" diets
tor earthworms, requests for instruc-
tons IN sweeping floors, adjusting
dog collars, pairing apples and the
like.
A correspondent asked the Secre-
tary of Agriculture recently whether
the department would lend him the
$240, 1000 that had been collected in
connection with 1918 wool profits, and
for which the department had been
unable to find owners. The letter
writer wanted the money, he said, to
buy huge area OF land in the South.
west, which he proposed to cut up
into small farms. He averred that
should the Secretary lend him the
money he would repay It with 5 per
cent interest before Democrat next
sits In the White House
The department announced, some
months ago, that 1t had been unable
TO find acceptable actors among It's
employees to play farmer roles in the
Government movies. Hundreds of re-
quests have been received from anna
teur actors, most of whom offered to
work without pay for the sake of the
training. The department has been
compelled to turn down the appli-
cants, inasmuch as there are no Civil
Service jobs for movie actors.
The Bureau Of Mines became in
VOWED recently In q voluminous cor
respondence with letter writer in a
Western State, who professed to know
the whereabouts of large area of un-
discovered copper deposits. The let
tiers were businessifke in tone and
composition, and the bureau experts
went to considerable trouble to advise
the correspondent as TO a proper
course OF conduct. Al letter of strange
nature was received then from the
correspondent. the Government ex-,
perts became suspicious. and an inves-
tigation proved that the letter writer
was the inmate Of an asylum.
Would you be good enough to tell
me whether worms have earB?" one
correspondent asked the Department
Of Agriculture. IL they have ears
and can hear" he said. II have in
mind inventing small whistle or
flute and to use It on worms like the
Pied Piper did with the rats. Will
sell the whistles to fishermen so that
when.they want to catch bunch OF
worms they win simply play a tune
on the whistle and the worms will
come a.running. This idea came to
me the other day when i had to
nearly dig up the whole back yard
for few worms.
$50
THE Treasury Department has re-
ceived many suggestions for inn.
proving the strength of paper cur
rency. A correspondent wanted to
know recently what was the system
for making SIS bills. He thought that
he could make them cheaper than the
United States Government, because
he had always heard that the Gov
eminent was very extravaganza" He
said that IL the Government would let
him make the bills he would be Will
ing to do. the work for nothing. as
he could make some for himself in
his spare time.
Agricultural livestock breeders at
q Government experiment farm at
Vienna, Va. recently found a dog
upon which fieas refused to remain.
They would place some fieas on the
dog, but evidently the dog was dis
tasteful to the insects, and the heas
would hop of Immediately. The AS.
ISOLATED Press carried story of the
phenomenon. and the department be-
came deluged with correspondence
from dog fancierS who wanted to
know the dogs antecedents so that
they, too, could produce fiealess dogs.
Unfortunately. however. the Govern
mont men had disposed Of the dog, as
they were interested in producing
heas and not dogs.
Newspaper reporters complain con-
tinually that Government scientists
refuse to inform them of the progress
Of experiments. They try.to convince
the scientists that the experiments
are public business. and that as such
the public should be informed OF the
work. One reason why the scientists.
keep their activities more or less
under cover, however, is that the
newspaper mention of the work re-
suits in the receipt of hundreds of
letters from people who want more
details. The answering OF this cor.
respondence takes the scientists at.
tention from his experiments.
Divining rods, for example, are a.
subject that invariably foods the
Bureau of Mines with correspondence
The Sunday Star a few months ago
published an officially authorized arti..
Gle on divining rods. Stuart B. Stone
OF the information division Of the
Bureau OF Mines declares that he has
received many letters as result Of
the story. in which the writer's de-
clared they. knew where there Is
buried treasure and requested more
Information on diyining rods.
Several cases are on record where
gullible people have been saved much
money by the bureau through expos
Ing the Misrepresentation of takers
selling so-called divining rods or witch
ing sticks.
MO estimate Is made by the public
printer as to the tremendous vol
ume Of correspondents dealing with
Government publications. It 10 not
unusual for organizations to ask for
several thousand copies Of q single
bulletin fer distribution among their
members, end an arrangement has
been made recently whereby such or
gaetzations may be given the priv
lego Of reprinting bulletins, provided
proper Government credit is given.
Many persons show marked diver
atty Of interests by requesting. In Q
single letter, a dozen or more bulletins