The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-12-31
WASHINGTON CHAT.
Getting Into Congressional Harness-Im
pecunious Ex-Congressmen.

Getting Into Congressional Harness.
pecunious Ex-Congressmen.
The Washington correspondence of
the Chicago Tribune writes
Congress gets INTO work slowly, and it
is evident that not much work will be
accomplished before the holiday recess.
Horses, which have been all summer out
Mt grass, are evidently not happy when
in the autumn the harness once more
presses on the old places, while younger
nags vince and plunge when they first
find that they cannot go ahead without
pulling Mt their traces. So with the old
stagers and the newly-elected M. C.'s. !;
they are FESTIVE Mt first, and not disposed
to work in the Congressional harness,
! but in month or six weeks they will
be plodding along like good fellows,
perfecting legislation, and anxious to
finish the work of the session.
The old members appear unusually
reluctant to go to work, and they recall
| the position of the unfinished bust
ness of the last Congress with diff
Guilty. They are like man who has
taken up the second volume of n novel,
the first volume of which had sunk into
an indistinguisheble chaos in his memo
ny, and finds himself compelled to re-
fasten the old threads of association. 1t
may be really doubtful to them whether
the relaxation was to them a blessing or
a curse.
The new members, who came here
from the fields of their local fame,
crowned with the laurels of their local
triumphs, have already begun to discov
er that man may be powerful III the
Twentieth District OF Florida for ex-
ample), and yet be mere cypher Mt the
National Capital. The snubbings
which these Legislative neophytes re-
ceive, at the Departments and at the
Capitol, makes the first month OF their
experience period of almost I'M
mixed disappointment and misery.
Their ambitious day dreams OF advising
/ the Administration and counselhng Con-
gress are dispelled like infantile illu-
sions, aud instead OF obtaining Offices
for the political retainers who have fol
lowed them here, they have to loan
them money to get back to their homes
again. Barriers of red-tape arrest their
progress in every direction, and they
have about as much freedom of action
as Il cat allows to captive mouse. The
very fare Mt their hotel or boarding
house tables grows unpalatable, and
then it is that the adroit lobbyist such
as Sam Ward, or Gardner Hubbard, or
DR.. Chaff'ee, begins to make Washington
life endurable by invitation to delightful
dinners.
One of the most melancholy sights
here is the phalanx of eX-members of
Congress, who not only imagine them
selves, like Mark Tapley, victims to
"adverse circumstances, but labor
party with which they have acted owes
them place. Those who were Repub
licans when in Congress, want now to be
appointed to foreign missions, Consul
ates, Indian Agencies, or Revenue Su-
pervisorships, while those who were
Democrats clamor for positions in the
House army of subordinates. Failing
TO receive these coveted situations, they
will fall back into the ranks of the lobby
ing ex-members. Having admission to
the floor of the House, they will I'M
blushingly use, or rather abuse, their
intimacy with their former colleagues,
and attempt to trade upon their votes III
the most shameless manner. 1t was
once proposed that the United States
Government should establish and lib
orally endow an asylum for these impe-
cunious ex-Congressmen on the slopes
of Mount Elias, where they might find
home, food, and clothing, under
penalty of imprisonment at hard labor
should they everafterward break bounds
and return to Washington. Some of
these days, may have something to say
i'll detail about these lobby-leeches, and
the schemes for depicting the Treasury
which they have been the engineers of.