The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-01-30
FROM THE CAPITAL.
Perquisites and REGULATIONS.

] lNDlANAHOLlO, - dI. IL. 1OOt.
Editors Journal:
1t was a question of stamps, which
in the old colonial days turned Boston
Harbor into mammoth teapot,
wherein was decocted the most un-
savory dish of that T" soothing beyer-
age" that ever saluted the rubicund
and aspiring nasal protuberanee of an
irate, taurine headed Johnny. 31oi
1t is simply question of stamps
that in nine cases out of ten decides
those purely commercial transactions
which result in what, in the facetious
language Of the reyerned clergy and
a few old fashioned people, is dignifi-
ed by the ludicrous fiction of !" the
holy state of matrimony.
In all times and among all peoples,
stamps have played a conspicuous
part in the affairs of men, and have
exerted controlling influence upon
the destinies of nations and individ-
uals.
OF course this all-pervading ques-
ton would come up in the lower
House of the General Assembly Of
the State Of Indiana, and gentlemen
whose magnanimity was fifty illus
trated in a strenuous effort to cut
down the pay of few little boys
employed as pages, proved their con-
sistency, as we'll as their eminent
ability in fnanciering, by voting them
selves forty dollars worth of station
cry or postage stamps.
Stationery and postage-stamps would
not so well serve their purpose, fe
paper, envelopes, inkstands, and seal
ing-wax are bulky, and not always
readily convertible into cash. But
stamps are money, very slightly
diluted thence, in view of this
fact (to quote an elegant and con
else form Of expression from the, cele-
brated and animated" report of
Prof Hoss) the word "or appears
in the. resolution. loa % a5lai# ~
No sooner had the Librarian an
nounced his readiness to fill orders
than his Office was besieged by as inn
patient and greedy crowd as ever beset
a commissary after a ten days march
on half rations; and no furnished
soldier, his grinders broken by vain
contact with ancient " hard tack, - his
skin jaundiced to salmon color by
long abstinence from fresh and whole
some food, ever went for" suit
tiers soft bread with half the a9idity
that some of these gentlemen dis
played in their frantic eagerness to
clutch the stamps.
One gentleman whose chirograph1c-
al education stopped short of the al
phabet in the misty region of pot
hooks and cramels, f" wisely conclud-
ing that he had no use for writing
Materials took his forty dollars, at
one draft, in stamps, and several 9th
ers Appropriated his figures. aaJ
Stationery was drug in that mar
ket A few lawyers, their brains
pregnant and their minds in travail
with embrio g acts Z destined for the
further confusion and befogment of
our laborynthine statutes, called lust
lily for legal cap, the e : swaddling
clothes for their intellectual progeny,
but the main part of the invading
horde demanded" stamps, . and adj
hered to the demand as pertinaciously
as did Shylock to his pound of
flesh" ao ,mtfH Z madHbHa 9Iiili g
The people will not probably feel
very indignant at this little expert
ment in the line of perquisites,iq but
they might perhaps prefer thatatheir
Representatives should obtain their
whisky and tobacco money. in a more
diignifed manner than by setting up
shops all over the State to compete
with the post offices in the sale Of
postage stamps.
However, if they will send men
here who have no use for stationery"
if one of the largest cities in the
State must be represented by Dim
ikrat, to whom pen and ink are as
useless as spectacles to blind man,
they may expect the monotony of
legislation to be relieved by such cpl
sodes, and may be thankful if they
are not favored with a repetition on a
grand scale Of the achievements of
that great light of the Democratic
party, who, few years ago, figured
here so successfully as to fill his dor