The Portland daily press., 1872-11-13
,ERMs SIS. 90 PER ANNUM IN ADVANCE.
Won MOltke's Snuff.

The Berlin correspondent of the London
Daily Telegraph recounts pleasant story,
Illustrative OF Prussian administrative thrift
ness, which has Just gone the round oft
french and German papers. According TO
the narrator-the correspondent of a we'll
khown Belgian journal-Count Won Moltke.
temporarily resident at Versailles during the
winter OF 1901, one day ran short of snuff.
anu iaiilng to find any ''sneezin'' of the brand
ne especialiy affects in the local bareaur de
td0oc. instructed one of his subordinates of
the War Office in Berlin to forward 70 bin, a
packet OF MS own peculiar rappee without
delay. The snuff was bought. naid for and
sent on to Versailles with military nromnti.
tude, and was duly charged to the account of
the nation. When, peace having been con-
cluded, the time came for examining the
books of all the different departments that
had been spending money with horrible
prodgality for nearly three-quarters of a year
when the indemnity began to drop in by
small installments of e20,000,000 apiece or
so, which were at once appropriated TO the
betrayal OF the actual war expenses-one of
the officials intrusted with the revision OF all
the petty cash transactions of the War Office
came one day upon the follolowng startling
and acknowledgements item: ''For one
pound of extra fine, with-of-T -Ton-quin-bean
perfume highly-impregnated snuff, by his Ex-
cellency the Count Won Moltke commanded,
three thaers seven and half silber-
grOschen."
The rigid conscience of the accountant did
not allow of his passing this Irregular, un-
precedented item; ; so he made memorandum
of the entry, and referred it up to his imme-
diate official superior. with an explanatory es-
say, learned, parenthetical and exhaustive,
going good deal into the origins of things,
and logically demonstrating that snuff could
not be held TO be material or munition of
war-ergo, that outlays incurred for its plr-
chase could not in equity be saddled upon the
national exchequer, or betrayed from the in
coming property of the State purchased by
the lives of Germanys sons-and so forth.
The demurrer thus raised was submitted by
one authority to another enriched with an
notations and "opinons,' the official manip-
ulation OF the question lasting some sixteen
months. Eventually the crown LAWYERS hay-
ing considered the whole case and pronounc-
ed the snuff-clam to be one that the State
could not admit, Won Moltke was officially
addressed upon the subject, and requested,
with peremptory politeness, TO pay for his
snuff-a demand with which he at once COM
piled. There is nothing grossly improbable
in this story, which has ELECTED a good deal of
unfamiliar moraliZing from some of the most
hght-hearted French newspapers of the day,
and has been gloated over with intense enjoy
ment by local Journals of the true Parisian-
blue tint. Se non zero, bere tFOUdtd.
No country in Europe is so much and at
the same time so cheaply governed as Prus-
sia. Thrift is as integral a part Of the ma
tional character as incredulity itself. The
Administration wastes nothing except time;
and government employees are so badly paid,
that their time represents much smaller
money value than that of the officials OF other
countries. 1t is true that there is more of
them, perhaps, relative to the number of the
population, than in neighboring States, but
they are cheap-very cheap-hard-working,
and, as rule, honest. 1t is in the army ad-
ministration, par excellence, that the infini-
tesimal economy, of which the above anecdote
contains so striking an example is shown off
to the best advantage. The War Department
has succeeded in attaining maximum of eff
fectiveness and minimum of expense. 1t
can and does spend money when an army re-
guires smashing; but when the day of reck-
oning comes, woe to the official who may
have exceeded the exact limits of his instruc-
tions, or neglected to account fully for every
pfennig of the moneys. committed to him for
outlay on behalf of the government No al
lswances are made, no margin tolerated.
Snch an item as general expenses" is not
known in any Prussian bureau; no sums so
small that detail of its expenditure is not
required