Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1867-01-05
A Washington Clerk

We are indebted to the Washington
correspondent of the Mac-a-cheek Press
for the following graphic sketch of the
career, trials and tribulations of a Wash
ington clerk. Many will recognize and
fully appreciate its lights and shadows.
Sir, Washington is the develfsh de
scribed by Victor Hugo. i have been
fourteen years struggling in its embraces.
1t sucks young blood with it's myriad par
alzing mouths Of landlords, grecers, ba-
kers and butchers-its wood vendors and
coal dealers. When 1 came here first,
fresh from the Miami Valley, / had blood
in my veins; Twas young, sir, and felt
the impulses of youth. Ny. coming
here was the first yielding to a tempt
tation. My purpose, asI held it then,
was to get little pecuniary capital to
begin life Ah," as Burns has said, 'the-
one false step is ne'er retrived" The
sap is gone out ofme, sir; | am no longer
youns. Iani the grip of the terrible vice,
and The iron has entered my soul-and
it is not tonic. Sir, this office-holding
business is indeed vice-a vice like that
described by Pope, such
"As to be hated needs but to be seen,
But seen too oft, familiar with its face,
We first endure, then, pity, then embrace >
We do not see the vice at first; it is the
tempting mask we see-the rouged face
of the terrible syren-soon we detect the
wretched features underneath, which we
endure from certain force of incipient.
habit; then comes feeling of pity indie
scribable-it is partly selfpity; then we
embrace it for good-in fact, we have
all the while been embracing it! Come
to Washington for clerkship? Go to
the devel, sir, at once! | have been here,
sir, as said before, for fourteen years
am forty years old The heats Of youth
cooled off on the anxieties of small sala-
ry; the strength of manhood has ebbed
in pinching trials of caring for a large
family. Never the cheerful warmth Of
competency indoors always the chill
wind of poverty, prophesying starvation,
out-of doors. For, the fact their comes a
day when the mouners( (mourning the loss
of their oficcs) go-about the streets, is
always in your waking first thought, and
always in your last consciousness before
sleeping.
My friend, you are yonag-look at
these gray and palsy shaken fellows; they
are clerks grown old. Ask any one of
them how it has been with them |; he will
tell you that he has been living from year
to year with the constant dread of hear
ing the official voice say Through the nerv-
Gus lips of the yellowi envelope, "Go."
Go! Whittier will he go? The props
of self support are taken away when you
accept an office; the longer you remain,
the weaker and more helpness you be-
come-there will be dawn morn
ing when the almond d-bough shall
flourish, and the grasshopper shall be
burden and desire shall fail. Business
and the ways ofthe world have grown
long unfamiliar; you are distrusted by
your friends will be so unhappy,
because of too little importance,) as not
to have or desire any enemy. Ile who
trusts in Providence and does nothing
himself but trust, is not worthy ofhuman
confidence, and the gods will fout at
him. 81.
Put your own shoulder to the wheel
first and l will help you, was said by
Jupiter to the driver Of stalled wagon,
who sat down upon the fence and prayed
the God to give him q lift Go home.
Go to work. Bea man. BUT suppose
you get an office; what then? You come
here and 60 to boarding. Then after
while you get married you go to board
-s