A "WASH" UNDER DIFFICULTIES.
Raw Recruit Tried to Bathe in Fed-
eral Building Sink.
"I don't know, I s'pose that feller meant what he said, but how can I get a good wash here unless I get right into it, and how am I going to get in even if he does want me to," ruminated C. L. Johnson, a raw recruit for the navy, in the public wash room in the federal building yesterday.
W. J. Vickery, chief clerk in the postoffice inspector's department, heard Johnson's soliloquy and called in Quartermaster Freese of the recruiting station. When Freese arrived on the scene Johnson was just removing the last articles of his apparel preparatory to the bath he was about to take.
"Now, how do you ever expect a feller to get into that?" exclaimed the recruit, while pointing at the porcelain sink used by the janitors of the building. "I simply can't do it, an' if you want me to take a good wash, I guess I'll have to do it a little at a time. If I did get into it, I could never get out."
By this time an interested group of spectators had gathered, and Johnson concluded to postpone his bath, and hurriedly donned his clothing. Quartermaster Freese explained the situation.
"I told him to go out and take a good wash, so that I could get a record of his finger prints, which we keep on file in our office for reference. I didn't mean for him to take a bath. He'll get all of that that's coming to him when he gets to Mare Island."
Johnson is 18 years old, and said he had parents, but did not know where they were. His physical examination showed far better than the majority of applicants. He was sent to San Francisco, where he will enter the apprentice schools at Mare Island. He said he lived at Anderson, Mo.
