Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1878-05-13
LETTER FROM WASHINGTON.
ESPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF THE MosrroR.l

resent US IN congress, ana the INTELLECT
ual lights who serve their country at the
heads of the various bureaus of the Ex-
ecutive Departments, the aggregate form
ing what is known as bureaucracy,
never, according to the regulation yer, |
sion, provoke them to strike back lest
they prejudice their prospects. Ridicule,
satire, irony, metaphor, in short every
resource of the brilliant Washington
correspondent" has been exhausted to
the end of making them so odious and
loathsome as to deter others from both
ering and worrying in like manner the
souls of our great men whose minds are
so pre-occupied with the great problems
of craftsmanship that it is not to be ex-
pected they will unbend to listen to the
prayers of nobodies who have neither
money, influential friends nor votes at
their command to insure even civil treat
ment, let alone favorable consideration.
So far as subordinate Federal positions
are concerned, about all the ncumbents
of the higher positions who never yield
them till forced out, and many of the
correspondents who are never known to
refuse one, are agreed that they should
be avoided as we would pestilence.
Excluding from the list all that make
office the aim of their lives, and who can
urge not one valid reason why they
should be grati6ed by receiving appoint
ments. there is large residuum of wor-
thy people who seek employment under
Government as the most remunerative of
anything offering. If we may credit the
testimony of hundreds of them who come
from distance, they have been encour-
aged to believe-some promised abso-
lutely-that they may rely on the would
be member of the House or the Senator
who is seeking to represent them to Sc
cure them Offices. By sacrifice of vari-
GUS kinds they are enabled to get togeth-
er enough to bring them here, and not
few arrive without enough to pay
weeks board. They find a vast differ
ence in the manner of the cordial, SYM
pathetic ''hail fellow wet met" individ-
ual seeking votes at home, and the frig-
id, formal member of Congress here,
whose memory has to be vigorously jog
ged by the trembling constituent, even
to secure recognition at all, if he has
been unsuccessful in evading them and
is met face to face. If sought at their
own or their boarding house, the caller
is insulted likely by the impertinent and
supercilious manners of the mental who
brings word that the gentleman is mot
in" in response to the card sent up. If
able to withstand the contemptuous, Of
ten insolent airs of the professional liar
confronting them, and they venture to
inquire when the great man may be ex.
pected, the cup of the poor inquirer
humiliation is made to run over by the
naughty reply Of this colOred gentleman
or son of Erin. Those with ordinarily
thin skins are only too glad to be able
to borrow or beg sufficient means to take
second class passage home at thi
: point. thoroughly chilled and their self
! respect sorely wounded by their expert
ence. If still determined to persevere +;
y long line of disappointments is in store
q for large majority of applicants anc
after period of time, varying from
few days to few months, during whicl
= they have most likely been subjected t
all manner of impertinences and insults
;. those who have homes and are able t
g reach them, turn their faces away fror
= the National Capitol, glad to escape
10 though poorer by all they have spent i
"a pursuit of this ignis faiths of Govern
ment Office Sex makes little differenc
in the treatment accorded those here o
is the errand in question, except where til
e. average statesman has particular re;
I'd sons for modifying his demeanor in pa
a ticular cases. The reputation of SON
We of the employees of the Departments hel
or is notorious, and few care to inquire t.
l closely into the alleged relations exis
Oh ing between them and some of those SCI
Ill here as representatives of districts ar
ut States, or are honored by high position
IN other capacities under Government
'r- Every one long resident here has hea
in how the brothels are recruited by tho
ne lured here by promises of office viii,
ad are never realized, and by those cast o
DIS Of the Departments when their .'infl
ia ence" fails of reelection or is bounc
he from the fat position-perhaps sir
he cure-he has held for years. The dow
an ward course is rapid and certain. HI
es- many fill suicides graves in the Potte
bes Field. or who are hurried to untimt
&c, ends by the interposition of the Mads
I'll Restills, who ply their vocations he
in will be revealed at the last day. Roo
ing rented of parties 'not inquisitive'' ;
20 said to abound in the most fashional
,an quarters. The illicit character of oil
ook houses sumptuously fitted up and be;
sly tiful for situation and surroundings n,
U.s. no advertisement to make them sour
of great profit to their owners. {