The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-21
Forty Cents worth of Candy.


There has been a great deal of fuss made in
some of the newspapers over certain alleged
corruptions at the Custom House in this city
and the official conduct of Collector Smythe.
A committee of Congress sat for thirty days
and thirty nights at the Astor House, collect
ing fund of tattling and gossip and listening
to all the tales carried to them by disappointed
applicants for Custom House ''plums," dis
charged officials, and political brokers and
iobbers. This trash they made up into a
lengthy report, written in the most approved
style OF yellow-covered literature; which they
published with a flourish of trumpets in
tended to astonish the world, and make the
Collector of the port and the President OF the
United States shake in their shoes Some of
the newspapers seized upon the sensational
document with an avidty which at once indi-
Gated that Collector Smythe had not properly
appreciated their friendship and influence
but the public soon discovered that there was
not in the whole report, from beginning to
end, one particle of evidence connecting the
Collector with any corruption or fraud or NAL
practice OF any description in relation to
money matters, excepting in one single in
stance, which, strangely enough, was stricken
out by the committee.
This solitary piece of bribery and corrup-
tion which was brought home to Collector
Smy the by his own admission was the be-
stowal upon one Of the Presidents daughters
of forty cents worth OF candy. When asked,
upon his oath, if he had given money or any
article or thing of value costing money, to
any person in Washington his reply was,
eyes, sir; | once gave Senator Pattersons
lady forty cents worth of candy" This was
the only instance in which the use of money
was proved against the Collector, and this
yU.G Str NV fha
mittee, together with another piece of evil
dence which connected a pious Republican
journal notorious for its abuse Of the Presi-
dent with the Custom House pickings and
steaings.
We are now furnished with a second edition
of this report in a terrible speech by Mr.. HUI
buTd, in the House of Representatives, in
which he seeks to alarm the Collector in the
true BOmbastes Furioso style. But the speech
s as trashy as the report. There is not a single
act in it, from beginning to end, which in any
way duplicates Collector Smythe in corrupt
practices. There is rascality enough in the
Custom House, outside of the Collector and in
the forty thousand dollar job got up by
''ring'' who were anxious to secure for them
selves the general order business; but either
Mr. Hulburd and his committee were too
stupid to find it out or had no desire to do So
The fact is, there is one very curious feature
/ connected with this investigation. While the
Hulburd committee was sitting at the Astor
House another committee was engaged in in
quirlng into the enormous whisky frauds COM
mltted in this city and Brooklyn, as well as
INTO other cOrruptions in the internal revenue
system. Nothing has been heard of the latter
committee or their labors and discoveries.
Yet 1t Is an admitted fact that the Govern
ment has been robbed TO the extent of mil
lions of dollars through the negligence of reve-
nue. officials. Some developments have been
made which show that most gigantic frauds
are yet in the background but scarcely a
WORD OF the testimony taken by the committee
has been given to the public What is the
meaning Of this Collector Smythe is no
politician, and the people laugh at his open
ness and candOr. He probably believes that
he has committed some very heinous ofenses,
bewildered as he has been by the tricks OF
political brokers and sharp Congressmen but
OF what public interest is his forty cents
worth of candy as compared with the mon
strous frauds, involving millions ofdollars, per
petrated in the Internal Revenue Department
II looks very much as If all this outcry made
by the Hulburd Committee over the Custom
House humbug were designed to divers public
attention from the internal revenue frauds
NO doubt seme OF the Republican managers
would be glad to cover up this matter and Il
ralsesa fuss over the Hulburd report so thai
the silence of the other committee may no
attract observation. But we insist that th'
public are more interested in ascertainins
what officials are implicated in the gigantic
frauds in the Internal Revenue Department, by
which the Treasury has been robbed of mil
lions OF dollars, than in all the Custom House
squabbles and intrigues put together, including
Collectors, Congressman, Copperhead Senators
Presidents relatives, veteran lobbyists, politi
cal jobbers, forty cents worth of candysolC
Mrs. Perry and all.
DraIka NJ MASsnYarH.