Page Fourteen
'building' no.' 29-negro VILLAGE WASH-HOUSE
Horatius Hatley, the captain of the
gate, has the shade of the old tentmaker
green with envy. What verse is com
parable to the Charlotte Observer or the
Albemarle News, even if Aiken Mm
will write poems for it? A spreadjj
bough is but a flimsy substitute at ^
for th, conning And .ho lo^
and i»g » but . stop away m tho to
of delectable sandwiches and Coca ^
from Bob Crump’s cafe. As for
a thousand thous are his for the a
■ng_for who would not sit with him »
day for a single chance to turn the n'O
drous crank?
Yes, the Negro Wash House is a n'O ^
of its own, and well worth a
is a credit to the Construct.on Dep^
ment. for many features
had their inception in the l‘«le ^
office south of Building 39.
Building No. 29
The Negro Wash House, or as it is
officially known Building No. 29, has
been completed and in use since early
in March. This one-story and basement
building, measuring one hundred and
fifty by seventy feet, built of red brick
with concrete trim, was started m July,
1918. , „ .
It is admirably located, where Grant
Street meets the Plant site, north of
Roosevelt Road. The convenience of this
location is unsurpassed, and it saves
many steps from the village to the Car
bon and Aluminum Plants that formerly
were wasted in weary walking down to
the old building near the Railroad Sta
tion, where the colored force changed
clothing and clocked in. A broad con
crete road and sidewalk run down a
gentle slope, connecting the new Wash
House with the main passageway thru
the plant.
The new building is the last word in
fireproof design, with one hundred and
seventy-nine washbasins, twenty-four
shower baths, and nine hundred and
forty lockers for the men, located on the
main floor, and forty basins, four show
ers, and one hundred and eighteen lock
ers for women, in their own wash-room
in the basement. The building is so ar
ranged that the lockers, showers, etc.,
may be used without the necessity of
clocking in, and are thus available at
all times to the people of the colored
village.
The clocking arrangement is unique,
in that the “In” and “Out” lanes are
provided with turnstiles, whose operation
is controlled by one man. The operator
is in a nice little glass cubby-hole be
tween the two stiles. And when the
stiles get to clicking and whirring like
Liberty motors, as they do on payday
when for instance the seven to three
shift comes off, he can grip his control
levers, close his eyes, and imagine easily
he is in the NC-4, bouncing off Punta
Delgada Bay, Lisbon bound, the blue
sky over him, the blue sea beneath him,
a fifty-thousand-dollar prize at the end
of his trip, and the world ever after a
paradise of perfect metal, with low car
bon consumption, and a copper content
of nothing.
And while we are talking of unique
things, you should see the mechanically
operated plant gate at Building 29. They
do say Saint Peter has been deviling
Chief Early for the gate tender’s job
(or would angeling for the job be bet
ter than deviling? I don’t know). At
any rate, the gate is operated by a crank
within the control cage, another little
glassbound structure, shyly sticking to
the southwest corner of the building.
You come to the gate. The man looks
at you. If you have business within, the
gate will miraculously open. Should you
appear to be an undesirable citizen, Bol
shevik, or an insurance agent maybe,
sans pass, outside you stay. And the
superior person in the conning tower,
heedless of your pleading, puffs on, and
reads the last Bulletin, at peace with
the world. And why not? Omar had
nothing on him.
“A book of verses underneath the bough,
A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and
thou”—
UiilV^C
inspiration to the men and women _ ^
use it, and it is a monument to the
that clean bodies mean clean work,
play, clean minds, and clean hear
Noted Names in A. E. F-
The first name on —
ical list of the American j ?
force is Private Aaae, and ^he
Corporal Zzeppenfelt. Betwwn
names, are more than two million
George Washington, Abraham
Ulysses S. Grant. Robert E. Lee.
row Wilson, several Caesars, an
Bismarcks, adorn the ranks witn
mittent frequency. j^{»
Excluding the commander-m ^
the army and navy, there is J
Woodrow Wilson. He is a pri' jj?
according to Star* and Stripes. ^
been placed in the working per^
Base Hospital Ko. 27. which was
ized in Pittsburgh.
There is an abundance of tne
great men, including se'enty-fou
Washingtons. The name o jy.p ,
president is surpassed *>>'
Robert E. Lees, who hold the
bearers of the names of great w ^
are but two Abraham Lincoln ^ {o'
seven Grants; twelve Caesars, ^ ,
Bismarcks. „ '*
Among the “common *
about fifty-one thousand
to their traditional predomina
d'rectories of most cities, t O
the American expeditionaO'
number*. There ar«
22.500 Jone*e», and a liW
the alph»
number*.
22.500 Joiie»«=», —“ - ■ „
Green*. Sullivan* a«re^^.
Brown*, 9,000, and Cohens,