Potatoes For Penwipers

One of the Milwaukee hotels uses a bushei of potatoes a year, one at a time, for penwipers on the desk In the office. Every morning a potato as big as an apple is put in a compartment of the pen box, and after twenty-four hours ! the potato is removed and another is put in says the Sentinel. Pens in i holders are stuck into the potato, a half-dozen at a time, giving it the pearance of a porcupine. When a man registers he flnds the pen there. : ing the year 365 potatoes, and on leap years 366, are furnished to the public at this hotel as pen-wipers. The potatoes are bought in open market with due regard for their globular form, the Early Rose and Kidney Flake being the j varieties chosen when they can be obtained. It is claimed by those who pretend to know all about potatoes and pens that a potato pen-wiper is the best preservative against rust and mildew that can be secured for the pens, and that the sponge used by some hotels and shot used by others are not comparable to potatoes for efflcacy. Sponges, it is claimed, rust the pens, and shot I does not absorb the ink rapidly enough to prevent it from clotting and spoil-ing the point. A hotelkeeper in speaking of the reason why he did not like shot for an ink-absorber, said: "Shot is all right as far as the pens are concerned, but the reason I object td it is that there are so many sportmen around, who are always ready to take a handful of bird shot for future reference. I used shot on my hotel counter for a few years, but gave it up because twenty pounds of bird shot was used up during one woodcock season. The shooting men came and took the shot before our very eyes, and laughed at us when we asked them to leave the shot In the pen box."