Bullfrog Skeletons, 18,000 Tons of Soft Coal, Earthworms And 5000 Barrels of Oil in $1,268,349 Maintenance Budget

All kinds of odd figures and queer items poured forth from the mute pages of the 1931-32 records of the purchasing office yesterday, when they were pulled from their steel filling-cabinets.

One by one as they were examined, came reports of the Maintenance Department, Medical School, Heating plant, Chemistry Department, and Marine Biological Research Laboratory. The grand total for the year, up to date, is $1,268,340, made up of 22,000 items varying from the lowly earthworms to 5000 barrels of fuel oil.

The Maintenance Department, because of its huge scope necessarily furnished the largest report but the Biology Department, not to be outdone, when the more essential guardians of the appearance of the University demanded 18,000 tons of soft coal to add a weighty $90,000 to their budget, retaliated with an order for three Praying Mantel Ootheca, which the International Dictionary says is "an egg case, especially those of many kinds of mollusks and of some im insects, as the cockroach," to swell their total by $3. Oddly enough, the Purchasing Agent was forced to buy one gallon of Cidol disinfectant and four pounds of Cidol powder to drive a flock of ants out of the basement of University Hall.

Although the order for soft coal came to 18,000 tons, the hard coal was limited to 6,000 tons, which cost $80,000, but this reduction was taken advantage of by the Marine Research Laboratory, when it proceeded to file a report for 10 dozen Squalers, large plain, at a cost of $110. In one of the folders, which were revealed when the cabinets were opened, was the record for one skeleton of a bullfrog in a glass case at $15, while, at the same time, the Medical School sent in its inventory containing an item for $15,000 worth of necessary chemicals.

A few of the other figures gleaned from the files include 3 dozen live horned toads, $9.15; 11 dozen live necturns, doubly injected, $318.40; electrical supplies, $66,000; six 27-inch average alligators, $19.50; and general hardware, $16,000.