rket
basket method. This was as true of the fairly well-to-do families as of
the laboring classes.

HOW RATIONS WERE ISSUED

The head of a family made out a requisition each morning stating his
needs for the day. This requisition was presented at any of the supply
depots, and on it were issued rations consisting of potatoes, canned
meats, prunes or preserves, beans, biscuits or bread. Men, women and
children with their baskets were seen in the streets throughout the day.

Most of the absolutely destitute were cared for in one or another of the
buildings comprising the huge plant of the National Cash Register
Company, which is on high ground at the southern end of the city,
untouched by the flood. On the ninth floor of the administration
building, known as the office's club, and where there is a dining room
with a capacity for 1,000, more than 5,000 destitute persons were fed
daily. The menu for Sunday was a typical one, as follows:

Breakfast--Oatmeal and milk, coffee and bread.

Dinner--Vegetable soup, stewed canned meat, stewed corn, coffee and
bread.

Supper--Bean soup, potatoes, coffee or tea and bread with butter.

John F. Patterson, head of the plant, had his dinner in this general
dining room on Sunday. The only luxuries enjoyed by him and not provided
for the others were hard-boiled eggs and preserved peaches. Among the
most active of the uniformed waitresses was Mr. Patterson's
nineteen-year-old daughter. Volunteer waitresses helped out their paid
sisters during these days of hardship.

Monday in Dayton was much like the days that immediately preceded it,
except that rapid progress was made toward the restoration of the city
to a habitable condition. Electric current was supplied Monday night in
a limited residential district and in a few downtown buildings, and the
narrow zone of street lighting was extended. Automobile fire engines
were brought overland from Cincinnati to assist in pumping out
basements.

Ample telegraph equipment was installed in the Beckel House. Thousands
of telegrams remained undelivered, and it was still impossible for the
telegraph companies even to attempt delivery. The line of citizens
waiting in front of the Western Union's temporary office, to ask for
messages from friends, extended during the morning a full block.

The Bell Telephone system promised partial restoration of service by
Tuesday. Its plant manager, John A. Bell, complained of his lineme