The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1874-03-12
From the New York Tribune.l
GONE GOLD TOOTH-PICK."

We would not do the United Senate
Injustice. 1toccurs to us we may have
done so in neglecting to give it credit
for at least one exhibition Of economy
in it's contingent expenses. Among the
items of the stationery account OF the
Senate for the session of last Winter,
which continued about four months,
was one modest entry which reflects
credit upon the American Senate. 1t
| is about the only thing that has APP
peared in any department of the pub
lie service in fulfillment of the some
what lavish promises of retrenchment
and reform made in the campaign in
1872. 1t should not have been over
looked. We blame ourselves for neg
lect that it was. But we recur to'ft
and make amends. zone gold tooth
pickw And, so far as we are able to
discover from the items of the account,
only one. Think of it! For the whole
American Senate, consisting now Of
seventy-four leading statesmen-every
star, to use the lofty language of blank
verse, having been restored to its place
in the galaxy, and each State being
represented in that august body; many
| of these good men having obtained
their seats as the chief Captain at Je-
rusalem did his freedom, with great
sum'-for these seventy-tour, one tooth
pick. Gold, to be sure; but why not!
Has the American people grown so
sordd as to suggest a quill tooth-pick,
or even a bunch of them, for a whole
Senate? We think not. The Senate
having made up its mind to contine it.
self to single tooth-pick, it is hardly
possible that any right-minded person
should complain if it was made OF dura-
BILE though a little more costly material.
The problem of craftsmanship, as
President Grant has officially announ-
ced, and as now universally admitted,
is what to do with the products of our
mines. The employment Of some OF
them in the construction of tooth-pick
for the Senate is very delicate sugges-
ton ofone direction in which the precious
metals may be employed, while the limit
ola single'tooth-pick to which the Senate
confined itself is as neatly suggestive
Of the necessity for economy in public
and private expenditures. Not the
least encouraging and pleasing feature
of the transaction is the modest aud
unassuming manner in which the Sen
ate has illustrated its ideas of ccono-
my. There has been no parade of il,
no Boosting about it. Even when the
press, with power so frankly and ele-
eantly described by Mr.. Butler as forty
times his own, was inquiring by what
authority Senators had visiting cards
engraved to be paid for by the people,
the Senate did not point with pride IL
its single tooth-pick, did not, in fact, al
lude to it, though il might thereby have
put stop to the clamor and contribu-
ted to 'the cessation of craftsmanship
especially in the agricultural regions"
Indeed there is something of the hero
ic quality in the manly and digniied
way in which that distinguished body
has borne the assaults upon it for ex-
travagancc when it had all the time
serene consciousness of virtue. and
could have silcnced its maligncrs at
any moment by pointing to the single
tooth-pick There's a strain of real
greatness, an element of moral grand
eur in it that. upon the whole, is more
wonderful than the singlcncss Of the
tooth-pick.
And yet there are men no doubt
the temper of the time has come to be
so curious and prying-who in the
same spirit of disloyal inquisitivencss
which went poking around the Attor-
ney Generals Office asking why the
horses and carriages of that officer
were paid for out of the department
contingent fund, and why his servants
and household expenses were largely
paid from the same source, will turn
up their noses and in vinegary way
ask what has become of the tooth-pick
Such persons very likely would have
the Senate's tooth-pick fastened secure
ly by lock and chain to some accessi-
bic public place-as, for instance, the
Vice-President's desk-so that Sena-
tors might pick their teeth in the order
of succession as they entered the Cham
Der, Conkling succeeding Flanagan,