The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-05-13
OUR WASHINGTON LET TER.


The strange Discoveries AMONG the PA
pers of n I0bbyist-CarI scaiurz aud
His Attempts Mt Civil Service He
forni-The Question of AbolisRsing tIse
Army.
WASHINGTON, May 8. 1877.
Some very curious documents have recently
come to light in very odd manner, the which
will, peradyentnre, serve to give pain to sundry
statesmen, and mayhap will end in some such
another earthquake Of great regulations 40 hap
pened four years ago, when Oakes Ames opened
his memorandum book-that is, at least, to cay,
upon D small scale. The story Of these do,u-
ments reads more like romance, or like
/ THE TALE OF BAD PENNY,
than like sober fact In the history OF the lobby
Within some tears there has been In the midst
of things here lobbyist, who erstwhi.e lived
upon the fat Of tho land fed upon the fare Of
| Welcker, and disported himself in tho raiment of
tho fashionablesf tailor on the avenue. Likewise
he had horses and buFgies, and women in the
prousion Of Turk, and smoked twenty cent
cigars, fer
| THE LOBBY e
was great in those days, AMI no man could
approach Congress- but who had paid toll to
this Same lobby, chief Of which WAS seen our
same q. But in latter times the good things
which had come over the devils back began
to 60 under his belly, and the lobby saw
approaching that eeaHon which has since become
midwinter OF discomfort. Among the first to fall
was g., and some one, not needful to spscify, to
whom he hhd become indebted, seized upon many
large trunks and boxes of books, papers and the
] InbH bad IL -. n,lu
Of our hero continued to wane and nowhere could
he find resource wherewithal to get his effects
out of soak, whence recently they went to the
auction-block and were bought by lawyer who
imagined he might fiud in them some books and
pamphlets Of value. With ha.chet and hammer
openings these boxes OF treasure-trove, this law
yer came upon some things that caused him to sit
down right there and reflect upon the har dness Of
the way Of the trangressor. There, carefully
packed awayfn bunches tied with twine and duly
marked and numbered, we're the materials for a
new School for Scandal" G. had been
MAN OF METHOD.
To him bad faith and good faith had been totally
alike in that he had kept an impartial record OF
either and both, and forasmuch ns he had dipped
q finger in many jobs during the period Of
Christian craftsmanship, so he had kept book
accounts and memoranda OF the same, as il he
had been cattle dealer. At this date and dis
tance from the time OF C.'s operations, which was
the halcyon time of the lobby, those memoranda
running to painful exaettude of names, dates
and amounts Of slush that went to form congreg.
sional yiews in respect to many celebr ated joby
now come to the surface TO plague men about
things which it had been supposed were forgotten
along with their perpetrators.
/ have myself come into possession OF aome oI
these papers, which are now undergoing classif
cation and other preparation by me for the variet
uses Of journalism. / engage that they shal
make interesting matter fjr the reading OF tn.
people in these days OF civil service reform; tha
they shall point out how many, who wer,
touched and defled by the lucre of the lobby
have been reformed out of public life, while some
others, likewise touched and soiled, have been re
formed yet within the walks Of public life, and al
this moment hold high office, monuments of The
saving grace OF silence and already stuffed pock
cts. Possibly, I shall edit these voluminous pa
pers in sort OF Brio a-Brac series, under the I'll.
tie of
sTHE MEMOIRS OF BRoKEN-DowN LOBBYIST
Edited by an Obscure Journalist"
Itseems that our o. labored constantly with
view to provide against the natural defects o1
memory, for he has jotted down all sorts of me
m 5randa in this wise:
"Jan. 18th, -. called upon and
broached matters. He spoke kindly. Placed sos
shares Of stock with him through -. He
is perfectly sound on tho previous question"
Also in this wise:
tnino1 ,r;4 w,~n,Iou,, Ei,,o5 :;
upon basis of $50 shares for which he is to pay in
monthly installments, or cfteaer if circumstance.
should be prophious.'
And thus:
FEB. 9th-Called ON
4 JOHN MoRRIssEY,
at his room. Ho threatened to kick me do1r
stairs il ever / made another such proposition tt
him. Said he had always dealt square game
and did not come to Washington to make
money"
Again:
date blank.) "Went to see sprague. Cou,t
not do anything. He said the thing was d
fraud, and that he would expose the whole thing
but finally cooled down, and said he would pa,
no atten ion to il, as it would not come before
any of his committees"
"March -. Saw -, as per appointment
He came down right, and is sound on previous
question. 800 shares. No foolishness."
These samples may read like inventions. Bu
/ am at this moment glancing at the original doc
uments and copying them word for word-ex
cept that | am leaving somo blanks where The
original spells out names in full Meanwhile lei
me say that while the bulk OF these document,
relate to men who are not now in public life, ant
hence beyond the most effective range Of jour
na'ism, yet many OF them touch upon men ye
alive and aspiring in q way that may tend to dis
turb the equilibrium Of things by and by when
get ready to come down with the specifications
From these discoveries, like old
BAg RELIEFs
dug up out of Mesopotamian saads, I proceed /.
wonder how much OF such history may still b.