RIVERS OF INK AND MINES OF GRAPHITE.
WASHINGTON, D. C., Sept. 27.—The office material used in the executive departments here is sufficient to keep thousands of operatives busy the year round, and foots up surprising aggregates. Rivers of ink, forests of cedar, and mines of graphite are reasonably mild exaggerations when applied to the total of clerical supplies for the Governmental service. The War Department annually uses 861,408 pens, 32,500 pencils, 1,927 quarts of mucilage, 4,634 quarts of black ink, 3,167 bottles of red ink, and 7,000 gross of rubber bands of different sizes. There are used annually by the Post-office Department 8,250 pounds of rubber bands, 300,000,000 facing slips, 3,500 dozen indelible pencils, 240,000 black and colored pencils, and 13,225 gross of pens. There are 300,000 penholders used annually. Each of these is inscribed, “Property of the United States Post-office Department.” The headquarters of the postal service uses each year 12,000 quarts of black ink, 1,300,000 pounds of small jute twine put up in half-pound balls, 9,500 steel erasers, and more than 2,228,000 black carbon sheets. The Interior Department uses annually 146,000 lead pencils, 6,925 gross of steel pens, 5,000 quarts of black ink, and 2,500 quarts of mucilage. Unestimated millions of pins and uncomputed reams of paper, with millions of envelopes, are used each year in the Governmental service. The Treasury Department and other branches of the public service use supplies in proportion to the figures given for the War, Post-office, and Interior Departments.