Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1875-02-19
OUR wAshrcro~ LETTER.

House adjourned.
OUR WASH NGTON LETTER.
WAsHSGrok d. c., Feb. Il, 1878.
The Civil Rig bill having passed the
House by good majority, and the debate
in the Senate having run out and the in
terest therein dieh natural death. the
proceedings of sngress assumed their
ordinary phase, hich is sort of dog
srot sameness Of he general account, but
interesting - various classes ofindiyiduals
in proportion to the amount of money in
VOWED in their several pending claims.
When man has y claim of 100000 be
fore Congress. on which he has labored
tor many long and weary years, and the
session is getting on to the last four weeks.
and the last three weeks, and the commit
tee has not reported. and there is only one
day in the week when il can report, and
the report can only be made by the mem
Der of the committee having charge Of tie
matter, and the day comes round, and
everybody is pushing tn get report in
who is not Directing To everything report
ed. and the member in charge don't care
whether the claimant gets his money this
year or next or ten years hence, and while
on his way from tie committee room to
N chamber with the report in his hand
mee>some fascinating female friend wear
frs q a'>mond cna Z and bracelets and
,.nSs .hat sparkls 8 at midnight, and
stopping to chat her a moment or
.Sa, and thus loss De chance to make
ePort To the He for another week
mat Glazing lay be considered
prS an inter .the proceedings.
"a 1.ch persg Dol alone interest
- Van has iilA wife anL-ehiL
itea4 a. rarner not a
sina 49, : - rs sif~ have wives
and lobby wsh wives
and A.prs teo1sli e whom
bal . Sys fgEr sLs.
wss' % c1a!e VI 80 ~ j heir Van gets tbs..rh
The -amiiicatiou> - claim OF half n
million that has been pending fos ten or
| fifteen years become immef sc. reaching
through almost all trades. occupations and
professions, and the claim becomes like an
ever expanding fungus. on witch all sorts
Of persons plant themselves and subsist.
I know several men who hare claims, or
rather the claims have then. There is
Mr.. B. who has one of 100000. lie began
upon il fourteen years ago. II has been
to him a PROFESSIONALS daily work and
nightly dream. lie has talked il at the
break fast table, At lunch, at dinner. at tea,
and when he has donhed bis evening slip
pers and gown and pat his feet on the fen
der To toast, il has been the theme of con-
versation. He has aithese times told what
he should do when b, got the money-how
John should go TO college, and Susan should
90 to Paris, and til. whole family should
have this. that and the other thing. He
has given hundredsnt dinners to Congress
men 10 gain their will, and myriads of
evening entertainments TO secure interest
in the claim. Some of his children have
grown up to manhood hearing no other
question of any Importance. He follows
Congress after Congess, daily and weekly,
and yearly, and hammers committees, and
button holes members and punches Sena-
tors, and treats dooikeepers, and fees clerks
Of committees, ant organizes lobbyists,
and haunts the corridors of the Capitol
week in and week out while the session
lasts, just as little Miss Elite haunted the
Court Of Chancery in the Jarndyce case.
He lives on the claim. He buys groceries
and provisions ano furniture and pictures
and pianos. to be paid for at three times
their price, when the claim passes. He
borrows money at foar per cent month
to be paid when the claim goes through.
He engages lawyers and labbyists, and
writers, and pretenders to influence, who
work for the claim, using up his money
borrowed for part of their pay and taking
assignments of moieties OF the claim for
the remainder, SO that bankers and bro
kers, lawyers and claim agents, butchers
and milkmen, grocsrs and cabinet max ers,
tailors. jewellers. piano dealers, milliners,
and all sorts of people, and the people
these people owe, are all hanging on to
Mr.. b. and sucking the life-blood of his
claim. He thinks he is on the point of be-
coming rich, and has thought so for four
teen years. A half million has been lying
before him during all this time, almost
within his clutch, but just evading it by
hairs breadth, and he has gone on farm
ing it out in Jumps of thousands, hundreds,
tifties and tens, and to-day has not the
slightest conception of how much has been
hypothetical. The millions ofpeople who
read the newspapers, read every year of the
failure of the claim, but little dream of the
heartache and disappointment that the
failure has carried to hosts of hearts and
families. Itgoes over to another Congress,
and this means that all the work is to be
done over again, all the anxiety is to be
experienced once more, and all to the same
possible end Only think of 4 family of
children being brought up and subsisted
on expectations of this kind, and of a life
all of whose manifest years have been de-
voted to the pursuit of a phantom that
has kept just out of seeming reach!
Among the claims k Tiled finally, was the
Choctaw award of $2,O00,O0O, and the
Chickasaw, $2SO,0OO, both of which had
got into the hands OF spectators SO large
ly that had they passed poor Mr.. Lo would
not have been much benefited. The canal
improvement schemes Of the West also
had some damaging blows dealt them, and