GOING, GOING, GONE! UNCLE SAM IN THE ROLE OF AUCTIONEER. Frequent Bargains Are Offered to Washington People—White House Carpets and Pure Food Law Samples Principal Stock. The number of going, going, gone sales which the government con —————-—-j (jnets ought to i qualify Uncle Sam for admission to the guild of auc /utir nm tioneers. T hose U), j,, , VIAKV sales are the real tiling, 100. red Hag shock when he is passing the back p-1 of the Department of Agriculture building and see a big red flag with the usual white letters sewed on: "Auction To-day." He wonders if the government is resort ing to desperate means of raising the wind. But your Uncle Sam is not in the auction business from necessity. The agriculture sales are explained in this way. Whenever an invoice of any ar tii lr> of food arrives from abroad a certain number of packages are taken by.the government for examination to see whether the article complies with our food laws. For instance olive oil, Maraschino cherries, wine, sardines, mushrooms, French peas, preserves and jams—in fact all imported food articles —come under this regulation. But though the government requires half a dozen packages to be turned over to it for in spection—in order to avoid the chance of a single one being fixed up and slipped off upon them —the analysis rarely goes beyond the contents of one specimen out of six. So that of each consignment of six cans of oi!vo oil, six bottles of cher ries or of champagne or six cans of sardines five remain untouched. If graft were really as prevalent as Hie muck-rakers would have us believe the entire six packages would prob ably be opened and a nip taken from each one while all the rest of the con tents would be appropriated as a le gitimate perquisite of office (by the heads of the department). Instead of that five out of six of the articles received for analysis under the law are sold at these auctions be hind tUc department building. The receipts go into the exchequer of the bureau. Any one can attend these sales and buy, or at least bid on, the goods of fered. But most or the patrons are the clerks and employes of the depart ment. The auctions are held at. noon, so as to accommodate these people. They take advantage of their lunch hour to lay in some household sup plies. They admit that sometimes things bring the usual soaring auction prices. Next to foodstuffs. Uncle Sam's auctions run chiefly to carpets. That is. they do in Washington. Of course In New York the biggest auction sales of the government are of goods seized at the custom house. These involve thousands of dollars' worth of goods of every conceivable class, and are too well known to need description. It is the regular second-hand sales which surprise the stranger in Wash ington. These do not occur very oft en. and yet every year there are sev eral. They include carpets, curtains, furniture, utensils and fittings of all .kinds. Ewry visitor to the White House remembers the cheerful red carpet with which the long east corridor is laid. A new carpet goes down every •other year, and the old one is cut into lengths, which are rolled up and auc tioned off, as the children say, "sight unseen." This seems to be a rather shrewd performance on the part, of Uncle Sam. It is related by those who know that more than one woman has wept • copiously when she got her White House carpet home and unrolled it. The unceasing tramp of a two years' grist of tourists wears a carpet till it takes a good guesser to decide what its color and pattern were or whether it ever had any at all. The carpets of the senate and the house of representatives are auctioned off at the close of each congress and are said to bring all they are worth and more too. Like tho White House carpets they are divided into quanti ties more adapted to private needs than the hundreds of yards required for the two chambers at the capitol. There is another annual sale con ducted by the government. The ac cumulated packages which find repose at the dead letter office go under the hammer once a year to clear the way for the incoming tide of the next 12 months. At these sales everything is carefully catalogued and all broken or defective articles are so declared. Even then a purchaser is always forth coming. Accusation a New One. Secretary William Loeb, who car ries as many official secrets under a tall silk hat as any other man in Washington, walked back to the White House offices the other day smiling in spite of the fact thai he had been visiting the dentist. "You must have had a good time," -Aas suggested to him. "The dentist told me 1 kept my moutn open too wide," said the faith ful secretary, "and I told him it was the first tine I had ever been accused of it." UNUSUAL NAMES ON SIGNS. Many to Bs Seen in the National Cap ital and Elsewhere. "Some day, when 1 get time," saM Representative Ryan, of Buffalo, re cent ly as he seated himself in a com fortable chair in the Republican cloifk room and applied a light to a long black cigar, "I intend to write a mag azine article or something on busi ness and professional signs." Mr. Ryan said that the jotting down of odd and unusual names he beheld on signs had become quite a fad with him "Frequently," he continued, "the names on the doors of business places are exceedingly appropriate, and then, again, they are quite the reverse. For instance, I have often noticed on my way to the capitol the sign of a to bacconist. It is Plugge. Another speaking sign is that of Needle, a tailor. Daly & Knightly, on another street, announce that they are en gaged in the business of plumbing. Yet in spite of their implied willing ness to attend to the wants of their customers at all hours, I understand that their establishment is closed promptly at six o'clock every evening. "Barnwell Robinson is a veterinary surgeon, and his- name should appeal to the owners of live stock. There is a tailor on a side street by the name of Makeover. A man by the name of Garden is a tlorist, and 1 have been told of a saloon over in Fast Wash ington conducted by a man named Booze, a very appropriate name. Re minds me of a similar, place in my town ot Buffalo kept by a German named Sauerwein! But I never could understand why two of my constitu ents at. home. Drink wine and Munim, by name, formed a partnership and opened a tonsorial parlor instead of a sample room. Overlurf would seem to be a very appropriate name for a real estate dealer, and a gentleman of that name in Buffalo appears to be doing a thriving business in that line. "When Representative Steele, of the Hoosier state, was defeated for re-election he formed a law partnership with a man named Robb. Of course, there is noth ing in a name, but —er —Robb & Steele does not seem to have exactly the proper sound for a firm of at torneys! And 1 don't know that an other sign, 'Chew, Chew, Chew, At torneys at Law,' sounds much better. When 1 get the time I shall prepare a brochure on this subject. In the mean time, I should like to know how the firm of Irish & English, in Buffalo, got mixed up: English is Irish, and Irish is English! The matter would almost seem to warrant a diplomatic inquiry." Congressional Bell Signals. On the floor of the house the door keeper has bis desk and it is here that the bells ate struck that give notice of the needs of congress. One bell calls for tellers, when the house is in committee ot" the whole; two bells indicate a call for yea and nay; three, declare a recess; with four bells tho red light over tho door goes out; five bells mean a "call of the house" under which the sergeant-at-arms is sup posed to summarily arrest any mem ber on sight and bring him in, wheth er on foot or horseback; any member who is not present at a call of the house is subjected to a severe repri mand. Looking down the corridor, the going out of the red light gives a curi ous suggestion of the tail end of a passenger train dashing through a tunnel. While the red light burns bright and clear it means that con gress is under way, but when the lfjcht winks and goes out, then the visitors understand that the wheels of legislation have ceased to revolve.— National Magazine. No Pockets in His Garments. The story of "A Man Without a Country" is familiar to almost every schoolboy, yet i« many ways an idiosyncrasy of tin employe of the gov ernment printing office at Washington "takes the cake" when considering the fixed habits of the male gender. The peculiarity of this man—and he is old enough to lie a grandfather—is that ho has not had a pocket in any of his gar ments for 20 years. And thereby hangs a tale: Twenty years ago a young man was wearing an expensive overcoat for the first time on the streets of Kansas City. He was also smoking a pipe. Invited into a friend's house, the pipe disappeared into a pocket, of the over coat, and half an hour afterward the coat was a smoldering ruin. The young man swore a fearful oath that thence forth he would not have a pocket in bis garments, and he iias kept his vow. Verging into old age, yet his tailor is instructed not to place a pocket in emit, vest or trousers. Show Sights and Celebrities. "Did you ever notice," asked the visitor to Washington, "that this is the city where every one is always point ing out something? Whenever you take a walk with a resident or a friend who knows the place and the people it is a constant identification of persons or places. " 'That's So and So, the senator from X,' your friend will tell you. "Then he'll indicate to you a su preme court justice or some other celebrity what time he isn't pointing out houses and buildings of impor tance. Almost every one down there docs that mechanically. It's the great pointing out place.' Assistant Secretary Leaves Capital. Alvey A. Adee, second assistant sec retary ol' state, lias left Washington on bis annual bicycle tour of Europe. Mr. Adee is expected to be away from the state department for two months. MAKES FOR SAFETY TELEMETER OF GREAT VALUE TO RAILROADS. New Device Is Expected Materially to Reduce Accidents on the Rail— Is Attachable to Present Telegraph Wires. HEN I hey want the /T/f .. ope rat or, they I \Y\ want him quickly. I\| \IJ If he can't be \ y * v/ reached It means \ •/V / a disastrous \ I wreck and loss of \ 1 life," observed an inventor. "But —— (o witli the teleme- V, ter any point can be reached on a —.„ gj&'.ijj railway system. If the operator —cannot be got by wire, then a sig ' nal can be thrown by tiie dispatcher to hold up any train at any point." He was talking about a device which Is being experimented with on a section of the Boston & Maine rail road. It had been mentioned that In one year 6,000 rear and front end rail way collisions had occurred In the United States. The killed and in jured had numbered in these disasters 11,000 passengers and 48,000 em ployes. and the property loss had been $10,000,000. Some of the greatest wrecks of America have been due to the inabil ity of a train dispatcher to get the op erator at a given point. Perhaps he was absent somewhere in the station yard on the company's business. For a country operator is generally station agent, freight agent and baggagenias ter combined. Or he may have been asleep. At any rate he couldn't, lie raised and the train dispatcher had to stand helplessly by knowing that a train laden with passengers was rush ing to destruction. That is where the telemeter would do the trick, according to the invent or. It wouldn't make any difference should the operator be absent from his post. If he were within hearing he would be summoned by a goug. The same would wake him were he asleep. Should ho bo out of earshot and the train dispatcher did not receive a re sponse to his call, signal could be shown by the dispatcher at the point received by the simple process of pressing a key. For instance, suppose a telemeter were attached to a telegraph line be tween Boston and Portland, Me. The operator would be able to, call any sta tion without disturbing any other sta tion. This system is so organized that it may be quickly applied to line without modification of the existing apparatus. If a train were to pass a given point between these two stations and it was necessary to catch that train at tiie next station to prevent a collision with another—that is where the tele meter would be a godsend. Perhaps the operator at the station the train dispatcher would try to reach could not be got. No answer came to bis frantic call. I? the train passed that point there must be a wreck. After the dispatcher tfijl tried to get the operator and re ceived no answer to his signals, lie would then press his keys to throw the semaphore, and the colored light sig nal which would bring the train to a standstill at that station. What telegraphers say is the beauty of this contrivance is that the dis patcher can call any station on the system, and over a single line, with out disturbing in the least the ordi nary business or working of the tele graph. The telemeter is simple in con struction, is attachable to the present telegraph wires, and requires no addi tional wire whatever. Furthermore, it does not interfere with the usual telegraph instruments in actual opera tion, and enables the dispatcher to place himself into immediate commu nication with any operator on his line. The telemeter seems to be human, only more unerring. For after the dispatcher has failed to raise the op erator by sounding the call and then the gong, he sets the signal for the train to stop. Immediately there comes to him a response automat ically, telling whether the signal has acted or not. It enables the dispatcher to sot and display any semaphore or light on his line from his own office. And it re turns information as to whether that particular semaphore or light lias been set. No operator on the line can tam per with It in any way, so that false signals cannot be shown. There is also an attachment in con nection with the instrument which is calculated to prevent delays anil blockades of trains where freights in isolated sidetracks cannot be reached with orders. For these attachments, placed in small boxes at every siding, can be used by the conductors of such trains to report their whereabouts. By a code of signals they can be notified whether to stop or proceed. The con ductors do not require to know teleg raphy. They have only to ring in the simplest signals. Building Twelve-Mile Tunnel. A 12-mile tunnel under the Cas cade mountains is what the Great Northern Railroad Company is now building, according to a statement made by a man who has returned from the hills. He states that two > large camps are in the vicinity of Leavenworth developing electric pow er for J. J. Hill's line. FOR THE RAILWAY BEAUTIFUL Good Progress Being Made on Most ol the American Lines. Much is hoard—not too much—about the house beautiful and the city beau tiful, but what about the railway beau tiful? Sylvester Baxter discusses it interestingly in the Century Magazine. With the aiil of a profusion of magnifi cent illustrations ho makes an im pressive appeal for the beaulification of the American railway. To Germany he awards the palm for this sort of work. The way stations are artistically designed, the terminal stations are monumental and imposing, and the railroad grounds are every where decked out with flowers and shrubbery. The way stations in Eng land, he says, are without archi tectural pretensions, prosaic and com monplace and disfigured witli adver tisements, though there is an attrac tive neatness displayed along the way side as well as at the stations. Mr. Baxter's treatment of the rail way beautiful In the United States is optimistic. He takes pleasure in show ing the immense improvement that has taken place in late years and that is now in progress. He spreads before his readers a series of charming views of particular way stations east and west, and makes It perfectly plain that before a great while this country, despite its immense spaces and dis tances, will be the real home of the railway beautiful. Nowhere is this improvement more visible than in the suburbs of Chicago. Thirty years ago any shanty was good enough for the suburbanites, but now many of them take their trains from buildings and grounds that would be a credit to any park and that are not often surpassed in any country of Europe. There is a good deal to be desired yet, but the actual improve ment is remarkable. Mr. Baxter has not much to say about terminal stations except to de scribe the new union station in Wash ington as the grandest In the world. But he might have said, also, that there are some great terminal stations in this country and that others are projected, in Chicago and New York, which will leave very little to be de sired in that lino. The day will come when the railway beautiful will moan the whole railway, from end to end. There is no reason why positive ugliness should not be banished from every railroad track, and much of it give place to neatness and even beauty.—Chicago Record- Herald. As to the Speed Mania. In demanding to be carried In the> shortest possible time between, say, New York and Chicago, do travelers relinquish their right to the exercise of due caution by the carrying corpo ration? Even if they choose to so relinquish, is the company justified in neglecting properly to guard them against the fatal effect of their own inclinations? A man is forcibly re strained from committing suicide when the attempt is discovered in time. The railroad officials say they are using the best machinery and the most perfect type of equipment and are constantly trying to secure the most complete safeguards against ac cident. But, meantime, the proportion of fatal accidents, when compared to numbers of people carried, increases. Official statistics have shown that the ratio of passengers killed to those carried is nearly six times greater here than in Great Britain. The rail roads in Groat Brit" *n have faster trains than ours, but the accidents are far less. British Trainmen's Pay Small. British railroads increased their gross receipts by $18,500,000 in 1907, but the holders of ordinary stock re ceived $595,000 less in dividends than the previous year. Neither do the employes fare so well as in the United States. The latest issue of the Rail way News, London, contains statistics showing that the expenses of the 28 leading railroads rose $16,900,000, which nullified the greater gross rev enue. Compensation of employes re quired but $145,440,000, as compared with $1,043,401,267 paid to railroad em ployes in the United States for the corresponding period. In America the employes receive 41.6 per cent, of the operating receipts, while in Britain they get but 26.8. Railroad Built on Ice. The most curious railroad in the world is built on ice. It is laid be tween Cronstadt and Oranienbaum, and is in use only during the winter. Its success has suggested the con struction of a similar winter railway between the two important commer cial centers, Krementchug and Ekat arinoslav, which are united in summer by the steamboat traffic along the Dnieper river. This means of com* municatlon is closed in winter by the ice. A costly, roundabout journey has to be made between the two towns, though they do not lie far apart. Southern Railroad Expansion. Texas has for some years led all the states in railway mileage, having at present a total of 18,021 miles, a round thousand in excess of Illinois, Missis sippi and Tennessee. Florida and Arkansas have each a greater mile age than North Dakota, where con struction has been pushed within the last decade, Railway expansion in the south is keeping pace with, if it is not forging ahead of, industrial develop ment. Of Peculiar Construction. A railway through tho mountains north of the Adriatic sea, constructed by the Austrian government to build up the trade of Trieste, though only 130 miles long, lias 679 bridges and viaducts. It also runs through 49 tun uela. .JPORTINO (iOSSIP Dirl iho baths at Hot Springs weak en the Tiger pitchers? Larry Lajoie says they did, and gives that as the reason (lie two veterans who have worked, Siever and Muliin, did not dis play the form usual for them in the spring. Larry gives his explanation of the lack of speed and points to the Cleevland pitchers of last year as an example. "The baths at Hot Springs weaken one after taking them," de clared the Cleveland leader to M. W. Bengay of Detroit. "For the average man who does not have to indulge in athletics the effects wear off in a few weeks, but for the ball player who must be on edge it takes longer. Es pecially is this so of the pitchers. They don't gain the strength in their arms they should have until the sea son is a month old. Last year the De troit pitchers were down there, you say. They were, but they went earlier and had plenty of games in the south before coming north to work. That made a difference. We sent our pitch ers to Hot Springs last year. Addle Joss was the only man who didn't go, and he was the man who was in the best shape. The baths are probably good if you have time to recover from them before starting into work in league games. Muliin is usually sent against us for the early games, and I've never seen him with less speed.' The Tiger pitchers were at Hot Springs for about three weeks, and this year, owing to extremely rainy weather and delays, they have worked in very few games. There may not be anything to Lajoie's argument, but it Is interesting, nevertheless. It is true lhat the Nap pitchers who were at the springs last year did not do as good at the start of the season as those who did not have that trip to make. "We did not send a man to the springs this year," continued Larry, "and we came north with our pitching staff in better shape than I have ever seen it." Statistics show that shortstops last longer than other infielder3, and yet it. is always said second base, for in stance, is easier to play than short. There are more veterans playing short than any other infield position. Dah len of the Boston Nationals, Wallace of the St. Louis Browns, and George Davis, who until this year played in the short field, are veterans in the game, and no other infield position can claim men of as much experience. Good shortstops are scarce, and when a club gets a suitable man it usually SOS BY~ WA . keeps him as long as he can play any sort of ball, because it is hard to find a youngster who can take his place. Of all ' ■ Inftelders the game has ever producv.i, John McPhee, who a few years ago quit the game, has the greatest record. He played 19 seasons on the Cincinnati team at second base, and for 17 years wore a glove. He was playing as good ball as he ever did when he quit, but found it a hardship to get himself in condition in tlie spring. Baseball men claittv there is a scarcity of catchers now. Fewer good backstops are being developed and more pitchers than guardians of any other position. This no doubt because the boy, when lie starts to play ball, soon finds out that catching is not an easy job. Monte Cross, manager of the Kan sas City club and formerly with the Philadelphia Athletics, when asked for his opinion on the American league race, said: "I pick the Chi cago White Sox to land the pennant this season, with the New York Amer icans a close second. The Detroit Tigers and St. Louis will fight it out for third place. The Browns are ex ceedingly fast and will cause all the clubs a lot of trouble." Cross thinks the Athletics will not figure largely in the race. He is pleased with his berth at Kansas City and says if he can ever get his club to playing the inside ball he tells them to, Kansas City easily will win out. Connie Mack is thinking of buying a uniform and appearing on the coach line for the rest of the season. Connie has not fully decided to leave the ranks of the bench warmers, but the players are urging him to make the move, as Jennings, McGraw, McAleer and other famous non-combatants help win games on their teanis by their en couragement in the coachers' box. MACK FORTUNATE PICKING NEW MEN MANAGER OF ATHLETICS A WON. DER IN DIGGING UP BUSH LEAGUE PHENOMS. IS DISCOVERER OF DYGERT Nick Carter, ftitcher, One of the Latest Sensations of Philadelphia Amer ican Leaguers—Connie Evidently Able to Secure Man He Wants When He Needs Him. Connie Mack is a 'sure enough win ner. When it comes to digging up bush league phenoms, you must hand the hero medal to Connie. When Mack needs a man to strengthen his team, it seems he knows just where to get. him and nine times out of ten he delivers. Connie Mack discovered .Jimmy Dy -1 gert in the Hudson River league and sent him to New Orleans for a year's seasoning before bringing him into the big league. "Jack" Coombs was discovered by the old fox in the wilds of Maine. Jack's home is in Kennebunk, Me., wherever that happens to be, and the only pitching he had ever doue be fore joining Mack was for Colby uni versity. When Monte Cross showed: that he was about ready to drop out of the majors, Mack started to hunt around for a shortstop. He secured Nlcholls from the Southern league, carried him a year and then made him a regular, allowing Cross to become a minor league manager. When Rube Waddell was sold by Mack to the St. Louis team, critics all over the country figured that the pitching staff of the Athletics would be weak. The slim manager evi dently knew what he was doing when he made the sale for the Ath letics look better than ever. Ths team is playing fine ball, harmony reigns supreme and the pitchers aro working better than ever. Mack figured that "Rube" Vickera was due to deliver this year, and it looks as if the dope is right. "Rube" has been showing up in great form and gives every indication of becom ing a regular. Bender, Plank and Dygert are slowly rounding into shape and several of the heaving re cruits look mighty classy. The latest Mack find is Pitcher Nick Carter, no relation to the fam ous dime novel detective. The mem bers of the Phillies, however, ar>> willing to testify that his assortment of curves is more perplexing than any case the original Nick eve worked on. Carter was used in the first game of the city series at Phila delphia and made good with a ven geance. The Phillies were shut out, getting only two hits, the first one in* the seventh inning. Nick Carter is a big husky chap and has great speed, good curves and an excellent spitter. lie was with Syracuse in the New York State league last year and his work made a big hit with the tall manager of the Athletics. Mack evidently kept him under cover in the south, for he received less advance notices than any of Mack's twirlers. Carter, how ever, made good right off the reel with a vengeance and now he has all the fans in quiet Philly whispering his name. It is true that the other managers pick up star players in the different leagues, but no manager manages to get players as cheaply a,s Mack and sign them to as small salaries. It seems as if Mack had scouts every where, for he picks up stars that no other manager ever heard of. Catcher Smith, who received Car ter in his debut game, is said to be a great catcher. He was dug up by Mack in the Southern league and is an improvement over Milte Powers. PITTSBURG TO TAX PIRATES City May Impose Assessment of $75 Per Game. Mayor George W. Guthrie of Pitts burg, Pa., has refused to accept an an nual pass from the Pittsburg Baseball cb'ib and refused to allow any of the city employes to take a pass. As a peculiar coincident to his ac tion Common Councilman Hugh Fer guson at a meeting of that body intro duced an ordinance which provides that for all professional baseball games played within ths city limits a tax of $75 shall be paid. Inasmuch as the Pittsburg team plays TO games at home, this means that the Pittsburg Baseball club will have to pay a total of $5,250 for the season if the or dinance passes. Up to the present time it has paid $l5O a year and the city of Allegheny, 112 here the games are played did nut make any special effort to collect, as each councilman was provided with a pass. This year, because of the consolida tion of the two cities, the games are being played in Pittsburg. Barney Dreyfuss, president f>f the Pittsburg club, did not send passes to the coun cilman of the greater city for the sea son. In a statement he issued re cently, in refusing to issue passes, Drey fuss said: "The club must adhere to the policy it has mapped out or close its game." Wiggs a Contract Jwmper. Jimmy Wiggs, the former Detroit pitcher, has been refused reinstate ment by the national commission and has been proclaimed a coutrao jumper.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers