Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-10-29
WASHINGTON.
TEE OLD AND THE NEW ADMINIsTRA-
TON COMPARED.
About Cabinet Appointments-A Tall
President-Widowers and Bache-
lors-Personal Notes.
wAsHISGroS, October 20, 1851.

names chosen for his Cabinet advisers, is
looked for here with feverish interest. 1t
is city Of place-holders, and the fortunes
of many lives turn on the appointment OF
one man or some other man to the head of
Department. The uncertainties of the
past eight months have seriously affected
the local business interest of the city.
Outgoing clerks, or those who are not
sure but they may soon be such,
are scanty buyers. The patience of our
retail business men has been wonderful,
hoping against hope for the early dawning
of a brighter day. July lst was the time
chosen by President Garfield for beginning
to overhaul the Departments with reference
to removals to make room for new favor
ties. The lists for decapitation were. in
many cases, already made out, when the
cataclysm of the following morning
changed the face of the future and broke
many slate that was adjusted to suit
the men on the topmost wave of power
It is believed that removals viii be quite
sweeping under
THE NEW REGIME,
And this occurrence would be by no means
an unmitigated evil. A great many clerks
have been in Office SO long that they
have grown arrogant and supercilious
toward those below them in authority,
and rings to defraud the Government in
ways large or small are as thick as rats
nests in corncrib. 1 do not believe there
has been In many years an administration
covering up more disrepntable secrets than
that OF President Hayes, or wherein more
unworthy men were rewarded with better
positions. When General Garfield came
into power, his inaugural address promised
systematic amendments to the evils con.
nected with the appointments to the civil
service, and optimists hoped much from
its tenor. while certain others less sanguine
said This man is but doctrinnaire.
We know already of his fine theories in
other directions. Let us believe no further
than we see definite results arising"
CHANGED to stand about three feet behind
him during the delivery of that address,
and at my left, conspicuous upon chair,
stood Senator Roscoe Conkling. an atten-
tive listener and a marked and interesting
figure, only less so than the President. 1t
struck me strangely soon after, when this
man, this shining mark" was the
first to be smitten by a shaft from
the new hand of power.
a day or two following the sending in of
Judge Robertson's name for the Collector
ship ex Congressman Newberry, an infu-
entail and very wealthy business man of
Detroit, came down from New York, sum-
moned by telegram of request from Sec
rotary Blaine, TO confer with him here.
He talked freely and candidly to your cor
respondent OF the existing state of things.
He was an admirer and devoted friend of
President Garfield, but he said to me: 81
am sorry Garfield has taken that step. II
necessary at ALL the time was not ripe for
it yet. It is a significant step, bound to
have long train of consequences. Then,
In his earnestness, dropping his knife and
fork upon his plate, he slowly added !:
HE has killed just three men by it, and
their names are Garfield, Blaine and Conk-
ling" OF course he meant political de-
mise but was there ever an expression of
opinion that came nearer being prophesy
than this!
ARTHURs DESIRES.
The belief generally is that President
Arthur will not especially care to remove
Collector Robertson, but that he will pre-
fer to SO officer the Treasury Department
that the latter's power as Collector will be-
come nullified to great extent. All ap-
pointments made by the Collector must re-
ceive the sanction of the Secretary of the
Treasury in order TO take effect, and Mr.
Robertson, under the new state of affairs,
will naturally find himself "cabined,
czibbed and confined to an extent that
would exasperate a less tenacious office.
holder to resignation. The present Admin
istration is evidently going to be less pic
torial, if may SO express it, than the two
that have preceded it. In an artless and
harmless way there was considerable
posing in these latter. The Hayes Admin
istration seemed to live, move and have It's
being chiefly to manifest to the sons of
men the graces of Mrs. Hayes as woman,
wife and mother. It was the per-
petual toast, forever being proposed
and responded to. Then came the
Garfield era, with the new President
in his role of husband and son. President
Arthur strikes an observer as keeping the
emotional man distinct from the President.
He has neither wife nor mother to kiss,
but should he acquire wife and mother
in.law while he remains our Chief Magis-
trate, there is that in the mans face that
leads you to believe that he would do his
kissing of them loyalty and well, but do it
behind the scenes. All parties agree that,
for minister's SOD, he has turned out
very well indeed, and that this new Goliah
among Presidents-this tall, stately, su-
perb man of the worlds the most ele-
giant in manner the nation has seen for
many years. Ben Perley Poore, the vet
Gran journalist, remembers, in forty years
sojourn at the Capital, no predecessor who
was his physical equal. In the rotunda
last Friday, when our French and German
visitors were presented to him in the pres
ence of the Cabinet, the Supreme Court
and the Senate-a most interesting occa-
sion
THE PRESIDENT
Was not only the tallest man in the room,
but the most striking in appearance. SEN
ator Farley and Congressman Frank His
cock, who both stood near me, each six
feet one inch in hight, were visibly eclipsed
in stature. He has great ease and hexi-
bility of carriage. Our Western Presidents
have not been without certain gaucherie.
Ga that day, during the presentation, he
held his hat, with the broad GRAPE band
upon it in mourning for his predecessor, in
his left hand. carelessly but gracefully
against his Prince Albert coat front, and
no man present seemed more thoroughly at
ease. AS a speaker. men critical in the
graces of writing are calling attention to
the smooth and flowing quality of his style
"a gift that only comes with thorough lit
erary culture His address at Yorktown
yesterday might almost be printed in blank
verse, the cadence is SO regular, though
without apparent effort to make it SC.
There is one species OF courtier thus far
absent from the new Presidents side, who
fiourished like green bay-tree under the
last two administrations, VIZ : the college
classmate. We had Keynon dished up to
us in season and out of season by Presi-
dent Hayes. Private Secretary Rogers