Evening star., 1942-09-28
Metal for The Mills
Rolls In as Men
Work in Rain
Holiday Atmosphere Is
Dompened. Yet Salvage
Piles Up on Curbs

Piles UP on Curbs
The scrap may have been water
soaked and those who collected it
may have gotten drenched. but
metal for the mills of America rolled
in Just the same during the Dis
trict's second intensive Sunday
drive yesterday.
Rain, which fell throughout the
morning and torrentially at times.
dampened in the western half of
the city the festive atmosphere
that accompanied the drive last
week in the Southeast and North
east.
During most of the collection
period, it was not the sort of a
morning to encourage neighborhood
gatherings on the sidewalks, nor the
sort of morning when families
might sit on the. front steps to lend
holiday air to the workmanlike
collection of metal scrap by District
and volunteer trucks.
Many Slow to Start.
Indeed in some areas in the
Northwest an early-morning sur
vey indicated that yesterday was
the sort of day when man might
give in to the impulse to lie alCd
rather than get up and brave Sne
rain to carry pile of scrap to the
curb. In some sections block after
block of residential streets were
bare of scrap piles at 8 o'clock,
when collections were due to start.
In other places. however, many
were about early, some placing scrap
metal of their own on the curbs,
others making private collections
from homes of neighbors.
At 4801 Connecticut avenue, for
example, three young girls-Mar-
garet Cameron, Is; Barbara Ben
ton, Is, and Anne Davies, l1-ig-
nored the rain to build pile of
sc, Up they were gathering from the
large apartment house where they
live. Margaret and Barbara are
civilian defense messengers and
have been working, they said, about
a week arranging to get scrap metal
for the drive
I'VE even found a watch made in
Germany" Margaret reported. 1T
was still good, too, and 1t ran. That
is, it ran until we smashed it to
make sure it was scrap"
German Helmet.
Nearby, at 4707 Connecticut,
German steel helmet of the first
World War shielded 11-year-old
Jimmy Estaver as he and John Man.
mis-, 10, another civilian defense
messenger, gathered the apartment
buildings discarded metal for the
salvage drive. Later it went, along
with the German watch. to be re-
turned to its makers in the form
OF bombs and shells.
Another German relic of the first
World War, Spandau machine gun,
turned up to be placed on the grow
ing pile of metal scrap at the salvage
depot at Georgia avenue and Kalmia
road NV. J.. G. Rutter, salvage
chairman for the Sixteenth Street
Heights defense area, said another
weapon of the same type had been
promised and would be sent back
to the Germans with interest.
1t was at this same scrap pile that
a large quantity of electrical fixtures
was turned in-not old and worn
electrical fixtures, but new ones in
their original cartons.
Comparatively small amounts of
scrap metal turned up at many of
the large apartment houses in Wash
ington's Northwest section, apart
ment dwellers not having the space
to accumulate scrap. Nor was metal
forthcoming generally from hotels.
Tons at Wardman Park.
At the Wardman Park, however,
a mammoth scrap pile of several
thousand pounds and perhaps three
truckloads awaited the collectors.
Items of salvageable metal tossed
on it included large floodlights which
formerly lighted the structure, beds
and springs, small electrical
switchboard apparently from the
Wardman Park Theater and various
other miscellaneous pieces, There
even was a discarded stop-go traffic
semaphore.
With the letting up of the rain
late in the morning, the community
holiday spirit made itself felt
Fathers decided it was high time to
drag scrap out to the curb on those
streets the trucks had not yet
reached. Mothers came out on
porches to chat with neighbors and
watch the collections. Children
banged metal toys about for the last
time and stood guard at piles OF
salvage material.
The daughter of the family, the
young American girl was repre-
sented. too, here and there. At one
point Bibby sherwood, 2l-year-old
daughter of Mr.. and Mrs. Walter B.
Isherwood of 4512 Ninth street NV,
and a recent graduate of Brenau
College in Gainesville, Ga, came
out, clad in dungarees for her honest
toll
when is the truck going to be
along here?" she wanted to know.
"I think I can sue the Salvage
Committee or something. I got up
early this morning to work in the
rain to get this stuff out here at
8 o'clock and it's still here. And