The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-05-26
The Misery Of Office Seeking.
From Halls N. Y. Journal of Health.

L.
There are fifty applicants for every vacancy.
and no more will be received" was placarded
on the post Office door on the Inauguration of
our new postmaster the other day. In any
large city there are dozen applications, YES,
hundred within half day after the pnhli,
cation Of any vacancy. On the incoming of a
new Governor or President, the 'place seek
ers are numbered bv hundreds, thousands, and
tens OF thousands; and sometimes the - out
side pressure" Is SO resistless, that the very
highest officers in the Government feel them.
selves obliged to favor persons who are stran-
gers to them in preference to men to whom
they are under special and personal Obligations
and whom they know to be fully qualified for
all the duties Of the station.
fu0llc men who have offices in their Gift
often feel themselves compelled to bestoW
them on persons whom they know are not the
best adapted to the position, as rewards for
past political services, for present political in
tuence, or for those cancellations of opposing
parties which seem to them are Indispensable
to the situation of affairs. Yet OPPOSED to
these accepted applicants are men of integrity
undoubted, OF refinement, of q culture, and of
a once soclai position, which ought to guaran-
zee success, brought to this suppliant attitude
for "place" by sickness, by accident. by pecr.
mary revulsion, or by the perfidv Of men.
against which no human foresight could pro.
vide. Recently high name in this commu-
nifty, which five years ago welded he wand of
power in financial circles, was handed in for
place" OF trust and profit. Gray-headed and
bald and bent, he craved the Influence of
influential men with hot tears; and after weeks
and months of such debasement and of aoon-
izing suspense, he failed of his object. the
poor house looking himself and helpless family
full in the face.
Young men and yound women, within a
week OF this writing have been driven into
suicide in New York, city, having vainly
sought places, until on the verge Of starva-
ton, and to escape it, took the rope and the
poison. Why all this {? Because thew grew
up without positive occupation, without hay-
ing Deen instructed in any handieraft There's
truth in Franklin's saying, that the parent
VINO brings up son without q calling teaches
hm to be thief" Let that father, then, who
wishes to be assured that his son shall not Ian
gulsh in penitentiary, or perish on gallows,
give that son trade.
Let the mother who desires to make it Ger.
tain that the daughter she so much loves shall
not pine away in some ehserless hospital, ay,
some insane asylum, teach that daughter a
parteet use Of her needle, or, better, the skill
iul handling or sewing machine and, more,
how to Keep tidy house, how to prepare q
comfortable meal how to spread a well-ap.
pointed table-to do all these things with
th0roughness. Such young woman can
never come to want; can never fail TO find a
well paying price in this country.
There are thousand families in New York
any day who would consider themselves '.for.
tunate in having such seamstresses, house.
girls, nurses and cooks at 20 per cent higher
wages than generally prevail. A good me-
chanlc can always find work for his )" victuals
and clothes, with increasing wages as his
fidelity and skill become known, and thus pre-
vent that distressing sadness, that debasiny
inging- that eating out all life's gladness,
which wither the heart and, waste away the
health, until the friendly grave ends the
torture