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Show - u. vr Vv-tt $s Tt-f 'vtaT Vv-'tt r"r- i'l Washington Residents Fleecing the Patriotic WASHINGTON. "Most persons are greedy." The words were spoken by a Washington woman who hud been observing with some disgust the way many of her fellow Washingtonians were exploiting the war situation. "Some I know," she said, "have au apartment that they used to rent unfurnished for $45 a month. They have furnished it simply and tastefully and they are now getting $150 a month. I call that performance per-formance simple extortion." It is, obviously, extortion. And it is a typical case. Many of the sufferers suffer-ers from the extortion have come here out of patriotic motives and are working work-ing for the government either without pay or for very much less than they are used to getting. A capable man l I ONLY $l7f2. tMflX) A MONrM FER THIS came here and offered his services to one of the most important of all the war boards. He was told that he would be given a position if he would agree to take 40 per cent of his average salary for the last three years. He did agree and he went to work with a will and he wrote to his wife and children that he would send for them just as soon as he could find the right kind of house. He finally was driven to thinking that it would be best for him to take an apartment that was furnished. But he couldn't find one. At this point he decided to go home. The government lost an able worker through not taking care of him properly. Now it realizes and it has provided an agency to see that the war workers are properly housed. With Blood in His Eye Dog Cop Seeketh the Sly THIS is the tale of some cops and a hound; a taxi adventure, and the district dog pound. The cops are now mad ; the hound is quite dead, while one taxi chauffeur is some bucks ahead. Murphy, dog cop at the capitol grounds, f WATCH ME JH7 GET A REWARD gL FEK THIS espied a big bulldog while making his rounds. He picked up the canine with great expectation of fetching to owner with hopes of remuneration. The other policeman with hopes of some fun, with much speed and action to phone booths did run, while Officer Boyd said to Murphy, you see, "you call up and find who the owner might be." When Murphy called up, the wires were "pulled," and Murphy, unknowing, was thoroughly "bulled," for instead of the owner the officer spoke to the other policemen, "in on the joke. He asked for reward; the answer was "yes," and Murphy was given a "phony" address. Exultant, the victim the bulldog did grab, and made a wild dash for a near taxicab. The address he shouted and off they did go, whereat quiet reigned for an hour or so. Later Murphy, the dog and the taxi came back, with Murphy bewailing alas and alack ! that the address he'd sought he never had found and the confounded mutt he would send to the pound. Murphy was busted ; he hadn't a cent, so the chauffeur to Officer Calkins he sent. Calkins, amazed, heard the taximan blare that he was expected .to pay Murphy's fare. At that there were signs of a violent fight, till the capitol cop captain hove into sight. So Calkins, bewildered, dug deep in his jeans and greased the chauffeur's palm with sundry odd beans. There endeth the yarn of the cops and the mutt, the taxi, the joke, in fact everything BUT The fact that Cop Calkins is waiting to know by whose low-down scheme he was ordered to blow the most of his pay for a darned taxi-toot and then get a call from the captain to boot. Girl War Workers Are Not Afraid of the Dark THAT prewar girl who was " 'fraid to go home In the dark" is very much among the missing. Girls, especially war workers in Washington, think nothing about going about alone late at night. There's so much to do that girls cannot be bothered with escorts. They found that the bugbear around the dark corner hasn't materialized. Especially is this true of the group that is working under the direction of Miss Stella Osbourne at the District campaign headquarters of the Red Cross. There are girls from several government gov-ernment departments that have been doing clerical work for the Red Cross every night since early in April ex- I M NOT AFRAID tW2dkVi 0 J iTo co home- ifsifw Y 1 cept the night after the parade when they all were pegged out with marching. They are preparing for the big drive that is to take place soon for the purpose of obtaining funds for the Red Cross. Their services have been devoted gratis to the cause and should the hours they have put In be counted in the final reckoning up of the fund it would be found to be quite an item. They have a complete organization. A girl was chosen by the chief clerk in each government department to be a member of the clerical committee. Under each of these girls is a corps of six assistants. Those in turn have reserves. As the headquarters would not hold all the workers some of them work at night at the library of congress und(4 the direction of Mrs. Woods. Others are at the interstate commerce commission at night, and still others are burning burn-ing the midnight oil .for Uncle Sam In the post office. "Central" No Longer Is Bureau of Information WASHINGTON, the most talkative place in the United States, if press bureaus of the various departments are to lie classed as "word producers," Is one of the first large cities of the nation to eliminate talk among its telephone (CM MOT ALLOWED To v &rmlK operators. By an order issued by the company operating the capital telephone tele-phone system unnecessary and frivolous frivol-ous questions will not be answered by "central." If you forget to wind your watch at night and wake up early In the morning oblivious of the time of day the ever-convenient "hello girl" will not be your savior. It' you are held in your office while the Yankees and the Senators are Iiutnmellng each other at. the ball park and you pine for the "score," central will be a blank if you ask her. The White House and capitol could be raging torrents of flumes, and you in your suburban home might seek knowledge of the location of the lire by taking tak-ing down-the receiver, but central is prohibited from advising you. Wif has trebled the telephone service In Washington for purely legitimate business, and no longer Is there time to be wasted by answering unnecessary questions, say officials of the company, who declared that more than an hour's time each day Is saved by the company's decision to prohibit operators from answering unnecessary questions. Another war move that saves time In Washington Is the decision to close Oil departments to the public. Admission to the While llonse, except to the executive offices, is now refused to everybody. The time-saving process has even been extended to the street-car systems, which now havo Installed the skip-stop plan, by which Hie service is expedited. |