Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1878-03-08
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
Correspondence of the Bulletin.
WASHINGTON n r. Mar

goes over as usual till Monday. 1t
wiped out the Presidents veto to the
Silver Bill, and rested of course from
it's labors. There was no excitement,
as Mr.. Ferry, the acting Vice President,
had directed the Sergeant-at-Arms to
arrest any guilty of disturbing the peace,
and SO quiet were all the proceedings,
that the visitor looking down from the
galleries, would not have supposed the
most important act Of the Senate this
session was before him. Mr.. Speaker
Randall and scores of the members of
the House were on the floor to see the
fun. But the work of the Senators
surprised all, and it took only a few
minutes to dispose of the Presidents
objections, and get the Senate back
again into it's dignified rut. Everybody
supposed Mr.. Conkling would rise and
explain himself, but he was mute as a
mouse, save in voting aye. In the
House, however, the scene was quite
different, for it became a bedlam Of con-
fusion in a moment after Speaker Ran
dali announced the veto message. Sam
Cox, in his usual harum-scarum way,
charged that the message was a fraud
ny Iiduu, WHlCH VI COURSE DIouSho
the Republicans to their feet, and elic-
tied a regular hurrah from the Demo
Gratis, and some minutes elapsed before
order could be restored.
The happiest men among us are the
Mexican War Veterans, since they have
every promise of securing pensions on
the same basis of the War of 1912 sol
diers.
The radical silver men are d%isgruntled
because their sweeping ideas have not
been adopted, while the gold men are
also in an uncomfortable state of mind
because Congress has made even a med
ium concession to the clamor for remOn-
citation. Tom Scott sorrows because
he can't get a huge subsidy for his Pa
citic Road, and so ON throughout the
whole horde of hungry applicants for a
share of public money, the refusal Of
Congress to give them their desired
slices has caused great discomfort. The
Mexican War soldiers, however, with
their hopeful prospects, are as jubilant
as it already in possession OF their pen
sions. While we do not object to this
measure, in itself, yet there is rather an
unpleasant reflection connected with it.
At the bottom of all the agitation and
demand that Congress shall recognize
the Mexican War soldiers after thirty
years, precisely as it did the soldiers Of
the Revolution and 1872 Wars after fif-
ty years had elapsed, is one claim agent
who expects to reach a rich harvest in
collecting the pension of the beneficiar-
les. He has his drummers everywhere
manufacturing public opinion, and with
them has such arrangements made as
will enable him to secure to himself the
collection of the majority Of the claims
of the survivors. TO us this sudden
patriotic impulse, which varies the rule
extended to other veterans of past wars,
smacks SO largely of our public virtu-
Gus Indignation against gifts to other
Pacific railroads, which the Union Pa
cific has so zealOusly spent its money in
arousing everywhere throughout the
country, that it often is difficult to treat
the matter seriously. We would give
our wild lands to any corporation which
would construct a railroad through
them. But the Union Pacific thinks it
an erroneous policy, and we submit with
a smile, however, at its shrewdness in
moulding public opinion against our
views. 1t reaps a rich harvest by its
monopoly, and makes more money each
year through it, than the government
receives annually in gross for all its pub
lie lands. Our observation here is, that
every virtue which has public money or
property, directly or indirectly connect
ed with it, is as duly bought and paid
for as that directed against gifts of
Western land to opposition Pacific Rail
Roads.
The President held his last reception
on Tuesday night, and the White House
was, as usual, most uncOmfortably
crowded. 1t required an honr, nearly,
to get from the cloak room to the Blue
Room, where Mr.. and Mrs. Hayes re-
ceived. There is such a dull sameness
in these receptions, that attending one,
~sufices to crafty ordinary curiosity,
and yet there are those who attend all,
and who, not satisfied with passing
through the jam and shaking hands
once in the same evening with the Pres
ident, will repeat it as often as time
will permit. Those who have never
seen the glittering display worn by
handsome ladies, and the richly furnish
ed rooms of the White House, under
the glare of gas light, accompanied with
the fascinating strains of music from
our marine band, cannot but enjoy a
reception. The utmost good humor
prevails. The owner of the richest silk
and costliest jewels submits apparent
ly with best of grace to the elbowing of
some rather plainly dressed plebian.
Policemen are at every turn to keep the
crowd in line and to preserve order, eX-
cepting in the East Room, to which
each caller must at ono pass after the
President has shaken hands with him.
this is large enough to permit comforta-
BILE expansion for the large numbers
who pour into it. Lent will soon end
our gay season of receptions and parties,
and to non will it come more welcome
than the family of the Cabinet Minister,
as the labor imposed upon them by the
etiquette of receptions is:simply an out
rageOus demand upon poor human ma
ture Every card left at the house Of
the Secretary, by a caller must be re-
sponded to by IA call from the Secreta-
rvs family, hence lent is hailed almost
as a deliverer from evil, since it puts a
stop to these senseless compliances with
so termed official etiquette.
1t is not generally known that crows
90 no further south than, this during the
winter. They congregate here by the
millions, and have roosting places with
in three miles of the city. Early in the
morning in huge hocks they course
down the Potomac, and late in the eve
ming return to their roosts in the pine
groves. which lie adjacent to the river.
They follow the tide swamps whenever
barred by the ebb tide, and subsist upon
the crabs and other water-animal life,
which may be left exposed. But why
they do not remain some 20 OIL 30 miles
down the Potomac, where the pine
groves are a hundred times more extern
sive than here, and where ice never
forms, is unexplained. We have gone
near a roosting place of a few acres ex-
tent, about dusk, and was surprised to
note the immense number of these birds
clinging to the branches of the trees.
They keep up an incessant cawing all
night long, and when disturbed, literally
fill the air with their confused masses
and cries. When warm weather comes,
they leave us and are as rarely seen
here during the summer, as they are
further north. FELIX.