The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1867-01-25
Son Being a washington
tsie (tlpPk,,9


correspondent of the Mac-a-Cheek
Press for the following graphic sketch
of the career, trials and tribulations Of
the Washington clerk. Many will re-
,cognized and fully appreciate its lights
and shadows: E7n d soa.
= Sir, Washington is the devil-fsh de-
-scribed. by Victor Hugo. | have been
fourteen years struggling in its embra-
ces.. 1t sucks your blood with its myriad
paralyzing mouths of landlords, gro
GERS, bakers aud butchers-its wood
-venders and coal dealers. When Icame
here first, fresh from the Miami Valley,
l had blood in my veins; I was young,
sir, and, felt the, impulse of youth. My
coming hefe was the first yielding to a
temptation. Ny purpose, as held it
then, was to get little ready peeuniary
capital to begin life. Ah, as Burns has
said, .'the one false step is ne'er retriev-
ed" The sap IS gone out of me, sir
I am no longer young. / am in the
grip of the terrible vice, and the iron
has entered my soul-and it is not a
tonic. Sir, this .officeholding business
is indeed rice-s vice like that describ-
ed by Pope, suebs isrtaso si 20 =a-'e
As to Be hated needs but to be seen,
But seen too oft, familiar with its face,
Ws -. endure, than pity, then embrace,
We do not see the vice at first; it is
the tempting mask yelsee-the rouged
face Of the terrible syfen-soon we de-
tect the wretched features underneath,
which We endure from certain force
of incipient habit; then comes feeling
of pity indescribable-it is partly self
pity, then we embrace it for good-ir
fact, we have aHthe while been embrac.
ling it. Come to Washington for {
clerkship? Go to the devil, sir, at once
| have been there, sir, as l said before,
| for fourteen years. am forty years
Iold. The heats'of youth cooled off Oh
the anxieties of small salary; the
strength of manhood has ebbed in the
pinching trials Of caring for a large
family. Never the cheerful warmth o.
competence, in-doors--always the chill
y wind Of poverty prophecying starva-
ton, out Of doors. For, the fact that
there, comes day when the mourner,
(mourning the loss of their offices) GO
Iabout the streets, is always in youl
waking first thought, and always il
your last consciousness before sleeping
My friend, you are young--look a
these gray and palsey shaken fellows
| they are. clerks grown ODD Ask any
one of,them how it has been with him
he will tell you that he has been living
| from year to year with the constant
dread Of hearing the official voice say
(through the nervous lips of the yellow
envelope,) ."GO." Go. Whittier will
he go ef--whither would he goa The
lpfops zofi oself.support are taken away
when you accept an Office; the longer
you remain, the weaker and more help
less you 3become--there will dawn
morning when the ahnond-bough shal
flourish and the gtasshopper shall be
burden, aud desire shall fail, Business
and the ways of theworld have growt
long unfamiliar; you are distrusted BY
your friends--yeu will be so unhappy
because ioftoo little Importance, as no.
10 have or deserve 40 enemy. lie who
trusts in Providence and does nothing
himself but trust is not worthy of hui
man confidence, and the gods will fou
at him. :, I -, +. y ''2 n5f' ~ /
Put yoni;, owjl shoulder to the whse
tlrst and [ ,oiH help you wa, said by
Jupiter to the driver of a stalled wagon
who Sat down upon the fence and pray
ed tile gods to give him lift. Go home
Goato work. Be a man.. But---suppose
you get an office; what thenl dYor
come here and 60 to boarding, Then
after a while you get married; you &C
to boarding with your wife. That lit
tie Paradise where two emet together
and have one lifc-I mean Home, sir
you will never see, have an old frient
who has been living here, boarding
here, forty years ! expressed my sur
prise one day, that with his family h
should never have taken house.
"Oh, you kno,e, Henry, Ihare 'oal..
been 'iigikg here temporarily" was hi
answer. Temporarily. That is it
everything is temporarily here, sir
There is a wind in Dante's He'll that
l,by fits and starts, sweeps certain lovers
away-they cannot pause and rest
That dreadful wind blows in Washing
ton, sir-look at these Treasury clerks
men and women; how soon they vii
lfselth that breath which indeed blowetl
whittier fand hen) it listeth! Temper
karilH sif! baa's''.i11 =. ,. p ..,9 .. 2 20