Weekly American. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1858-1858, 1858-01-16
CORREsPONDENCE N. Y. HERALD.

/ SOhiO ioi thO PoiiOsiS PNiPNoS Va Ft~'o r.
some plumber, either from Congress or from
Mr.. James Buchanan am not particular
which have been ather unsuccessful so far,
though dd<hink, at first, | might have got
into the printing ob-not that know anything
about printing, but you of course understand
when fellow undertakes Uncle Sans work
it isn't necessary he should know how to do it.
"On the contrary" as Mr. Cutie said, at Bur
tons theatre in New York, where was cou-
pie of years ago, sits quite the reyerse." But
there were chaps ahead of me in that job who
knew as little as did about the work; and as
they wore as seedy clothes, had as few bits IN
) their pockets, and were as profuse of promises,
why, of course, did not succeed. They had
the inside track for they had for their hackers
several small potatoe members of Congress who
were to he pulled up in their local papers, as
pay for their services. .
Te tell the truth when left Mississippi my
| ideas were rather modest l thought if Old
Buck would give me foreign mission, or a
clerkship, G vernon of Territory provided
it was not Kansas) or a comfortable place as a
/ messenger in one of the departments, that
would be all hunk But coming along in the
cars from Fredericksburg, Virginia, (and, in
parenthesis, whatever comfort there may be in
your Northern railroads, our roads possess but
one advantage-they test mans courage and
! patience) happened in the vicinity of several
loud talking persons. At first | suffered from
the tone of their voices-they were Bucks
Cabinet out on an excursion for the benefit Of
their health, or, at all events, prominent mem
bers of Congress or Justices of the Peace
They laid down the law and the gospel upon
every imaginable subject, from the Presidents
foreign policy to dissertation on the relative
merits of poker and brag- practically, however,
showing their superiority in the latter. One Of
the party was great on the foreign branches
and he piched into some fellow by the name of
| Puffendorf, whom be declared was the d-st
ass he ever knew. Presently the conversation
changed, and little fat boy with loud voice
began talking about some "job," and how
much money was to be made out of it. They
all seemed greatly interested "When we get
to Washington" said the diplomatist tive
must fix things without moments delay.
Half million dollars, think of it'll" The idea
seemed too overpowering; human nature re-
quired some artificial aid to recuperate its ex-
hausted energies and thereupon out came a
bottle, and they liquored all round. "The
devil" thought to myself 81 am mistaken
in these folks They amt cabinet officers or
senator's and now look at them more closely,
they are not respectable enough looking to be
Justices of the Peace. haveit. They're go
ing to rob the treasury, for where else is there
half million dollars2" A second look con-
WINGED me they must be burglars; thought l
detected villanous expression, and volunta-
rily buttoned my breeches pockets and open
ed my ears; found that my suspicious as to
their intention of getting into the treasury
were correct but learned with admiration, /
confess, that they had hit upon a scheme by
which this could be done, and they would run
no risk of the psnitentiary in consequence.
This job was the printing for Congress, and to
secure it you required neither brains, money
or knowledge of the business. Brass and pro-
misses in the future to divide the plumber was
all that was requisite, and these materials the
party sitting opposite me in the car felt conf
dent they possessed in abundance Now, sir,
when it comes to question of brass don't
allow that any man south or north of Mason
and Dixon's line is my superior, and it natural
ly occurred to me to look into the matter my
self when arrived in Washington, and see if
| could not get a slice of the half million job
But as / said at the commencement, | failed.
Why, Mr. Bennett, l afterwards discovered
those chaps could give me two to one, where
the stakes were brass and distance me at that
The confession is humiiating- unhappily
for me it's true.
Banks editor Of one of the papers in the
village we he had just left, was, it appears, of
the party in the car, conversing about the
"job." He had been North some time before,
looking after members of Congress aud trying
to secure their votes for himself as candidate
for Printer of the House Of Representatives.
judged from the way in which he spoke that
he had not been "emincntly successful" as
our Senator, General Davis, says when he is
making one of his great speeches. When in
your city, he had given dinner to the New
York delegation, at some restaurant-and, as
l understood it. they all went-for, as the dip
lomat expressed it. "a Northern man will al
ways dine for nothing when he gets chance"
The difficulty in the way seemed to be that
the old printer Wendell, was likely to get a
good many votes. 1t was, however, arranged
to break him down Gf he would not agree to
divide) on the score Of his being black repub.
lican. Whether he is or not, you know better
than do.
Upon arriving in Washington, made all
the enquiries could, and found that whilst
nominally there were but three candidates in
the field, in reality there were dozens, for the
three represented the most picturesque set of
half starved, broken down political hacks
small country newspapers and small fry men,
bers of Congress that you can imagine. I've
seen menagerie, but it wasn't circumstance
to the collection which was scrambling, goug-
ing lying and sneaking to get hold of the Job"
Banks had the Virginia delegati n all right
Pryor, Of the Richmond South, was in with