Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 89, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1913 — CLEANERS KEPT BUSY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CLEANERS KEPT BUSY

MUCH WORK IMPERATIVE IN GREAT RAILROAD YARDS. ' -v. Housewife Would Be Delighted With the Thoroughness and Efficiency Bhown —Most Modern Appliances Are Put to Use. * Jr. - - - liousecleaning on a railroad is a continuous performance. It is done

with a thoroughness and frequency that would delight the tidiest housewife, and on a scale so enormous that it would make her throw up her hands in amazement Think of going through

the throes of spring cleaning in a house of over 11,000 rooms! It sounds Impossible, but something very like it is done in all the great railroad yards of the country. In fact, a bouseof 11,000 rooms could be V little matter for the men in charge of cleaning railroad cars. In the immense yard at Sunnyside, L. L, over 11,000 cars are cleaned every month—more than 350 a day—and only the cars on long distance trains and dining cars are handled here. When, the Sunnyside cleaners begin, first the carpets are removed. The housewife takes up hers once or twice a year, but four days is the outside limit iu a car. They are taken to a platform constructed for the purpose and every particle of dust removed by the suction of a vacuum process. In the meantime, what has happened to the car? Here compressed air has been at work. , The blowers, as the men are called, have turned a purifying, all pervading steam from their hoses into every nook and cranny. The seats are gone over and the dust swirled out of the window, giving the Impression that the car is afire. When the nozzle is turned on the window itself myriads of particles of dnst and cinders take flight from their hiding places around the sash. Next comes a man with a mop. The floors of the steel cars are made of a mixture of cement and ground cork, and are much easier to clean than wood. After they have been scrubbed thoroughly, women with cloths go over the steel framework, polishing it to the shining point Finally, after the carpets are laid, there is another careful dusting with cloths and the car is ready for another trip. So much for the interior, but do you think because the outside of the - cars are usually a glossy red that they would stay that way without care? Cars coming from the south are covered with a fine white dupt that la very difficult to remove. After a rain the dirt sticks on the smooth steel like a coat of paint. Housework on a dining car is even more elaborate. There are the silver and kitchen utensils to polish, soiled linen to be changed for clean, and cupboards to be washed. When this is done the car is stocked, and then, though it has been subjected to the process already described, everything is yubbed off with cloths again before it goes out The men who do the work may not look as neat as the housewife in cap and apron, bat let her pat her finger where she will when they have finished, she will find no dirt