Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1869-04-30
Onfcc-seeISerS and Com
-rosslnCn.

There Is good deal of truth, well
lexpressed, in the following extract
from Mrs. Ames' Washington letter
to the Mdependent: '.." s'e
III were man and could earn
an honest living with my hands,
should certainly do 1t, instead of
coming to Washington in search of
an Office. I'd rather eat the bread of
spontaneous toll, though earned by |
sweat of brow and weariness OF brain |
than to grind 1t out as a machine in
the Government employ. Yet l see
many faces to sympathize with in |
these lobbies-honest country faces, |
careworn sickly ones, who really look !!
as If they had right to whatever
they may have come to ask for. orr
course somebody has right to the
Government patronage; perhaps
those who come after it have rs good
right rs anybody. But 1t strikes
me very oddly when hear members
OF Congress and their wives speak
ing loftily and eontemptously of
"oftice seekers as Ii belonging to
a totally different genus from them
selves. My opinion is that they are
all oflice-seekers together; the diff
ference being only in degree, In the
fatness of the prizes which they seek
after. / don't know why II Is not a.
honorable and as modest for man 10
try to get Post Office, consulate or
clerkship, as for man to spend
half his fortune, and sell his soul
perhaps in the bargain, toget to Con-
gress. Looking down Oh this luxu-
rious Senate chamber, on those black
coated, high chokered gentlemen,
spreading about so utterly at ease, II
is difficult to realize that they are
not to Senate born, that they did not
glide into these cushioned chairs by
the graceful grooves Of natural
birthright. But there Is not man
here who has not worked hard, or
hired other men to work hard, for
this Legislative chair--how hard
many would not care to tell. The
heart burnings, the iealousies, the
hates, the lavished fortunes, the bar
tered honor which bought some of
these seats, their occupants would
not dare to have known. There are
men sitting here for whom thous-
ands of other men have worked rs
for themselves to place them where
they are. Before their triumph they
did not feel at all demeaned to ask q
poor man to vote for them they
deemed no man too lowly to work
for them they themselves stump
ed" "canyassed,n "electioneered,n
till they were hoarse and sick, and
thought the Office they wanted well
worth the trouble. But the honor
once won, it is easy to forget the tug
and turmoil that brought it !; so easy
to forget the poor man I'm the shabby
coat who voted for you SO easy to
snub the poor man In the ante-room
who ventures to stammer "Slr, /
worked for you; will you do what
you can for me?" so grand to play
the great Senator, by waving your
hand majestieally toward guarded
door, exelaiming In an awe-inspiring
voice, ~ have no time to attend to
you, my duties are in the Senate
chamber" All this is easy and so
mean. The Senate il tho nations
guard of honor. IL L were q man /
would not stop short of being a Sen
ator myself; but having gained that
high estate, l hope that should
have grace to remember that 1t was
the people as much as myself who
made me one, and when / complain
ed to my wife that was almost bored
to death by Office seekers, hope she
would reply In wife's most aggra-
waiting tones, "My dear, when you
wanted en- Office, remember how
dreadfully you bored other people. +"
I have seen some fearful taking on ot
airs of late on the feminine side oi
official life by women in themselves
ordinary to the verge of stupidity,
whom the people have elevated as SC
many dead weights appended to
their husbands honors. 1t would
be amusing to see them avert their
eyes and sniff their noses at ''oflice
seekers and Mt common people, y
If their new places did not give them
the power to wound the feelings ol
, strangers. a