The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1882-08-25

Joslyn, has had stamp made OF his sigma
ture, which he uses TO sign unimportant pa
pers. He found that I'm the ordinary rout-
| Inc of daily business he had to sign his
name two or three thousand times, and he
came to the conclusion that IL involved a
| useless amount of manual labor. He has
examined the law and found that the stamp
ed signature answers every purpose. There
are thousands of leaves of absence and a
food of letters which require his signature
every day, and with the stamp he can ac-
compllsh the work in half the time. He
has not yet attached his signature In this
way TO pension certificates, but Is of the
| opinion that he will do so. He always signs
the patents with a pen. If this method of
signing official papers came in general use
| In the departments 1t would relieve the Of
hcials of an immense burden of work and
| give them leisure to attend to other more
| important matters. At least one half the
time of the heads of the departments is oc-
cupied In attaching their names to official
| papers, and, while there has been great
complaint ON this score, there has been no
effort made to remedy the evil. The rea-
| son for this is that the opinion has become
traditional that it is against the law to use
stamped signature.
''CAT's FEED"
"Cats feed" is one of the items that make
| up the miscellaneous entry in the accounts
sent to the post-office department by the
| postmasters in all large. cities. This ex--
! penditure is to furnish food for the small
army of cats which are kept to wage war
| against the rats and mice that raid the mail
| bags for flour, rice and other eatables sent
through the mails as samples. In their eff
forts to get at the food the rats destroy the
matchmaker. For years all the large Of
fees have kept cats, and their board bills
have been sent in and audited by the de-
partment. The amount paid out for the
purpose averages from IS to $40 per quart
er, and the cats flourish. The New York
office has the largest corps of cats, and then
in order comes Chicago, Cincinnati, st.
Louis, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and San
Francisco. AS the cats are not allowed to
associate with outside or unofficial cats,
they become rather naughty in their bear
Ing. MIR. Albert Scott, who has charge of
the accounts of postmasters, has found that
there has been some increase in this item
and Will probably, after investigation, sub
init report to the postmaster general on
the ACCESSIBILITY. of fixing a certain limit for
the support of these official cats.
DEMAND FOR AMERICAN PRODUCTS.
The State department has received from
MIR, John Davis, commercial agent at Glou-
cester, England, the following interesting
report: -,
cry city, town, village, and hamlet in this
district, and in view of the fact that swine
slaughtered in large numbers to prevent its
spreading American bacon and hams will
be in increased demand and the price con-
siderably advanced. The swine fever has
been in this district in some localities for
the past two years, and during that time
every means has been tried and used to pre-
vent its spreading. 1t has now increased to
such an alarming extent that royal COM
mission has been issued to inquire into the
cause, and devise means to prevent its
spread, and If possible stamp it out This
and the adjoining county of Berkshire are
both noted for the number and breed of
hogs, and this disastrous fever will have
distressing effect on the bacon market. The
London market Is supplied largely. from
public market for swine in this and other
cities will be closed in short time. A
number of hOg-breeders have been served
with notice to keep their hogs confined to
their own premises, and to use every means
to cleanse and fumigate the same. We can
not hope for supply of bacon from any
where but the United States, and the de-
mand in the near future must be very large.
UNPOPULAR WITH ARMY OFFICERS.
Secretary Lincoln seems to be peculiarly
unfortunate in his relations with the Of
ticers within the control of the department.
His relations with Gen. Sherman have
never been of the most cordial character,
of the secretary to encroach upon his do
main. His repeated revisals and Overrul-
ings of Judge Advocate General Swain
have caused serious rupture between him.
self and Swain that has not as yet been
healed. Now there is a report of disa-
greement between Quartermaster General
ingalls, and the secretary regarding certain
appointments in the Office of the former. It
has been the habit of the Quartermaster
general, as well as that of other heads of
bureaus, to appoint the clerks and other
employees under his control. When the new
quartermaster general took his office, q
short time since, upon the retirement of his
predecessor, Gen. Rucker, he attempted to
exercise this power, which he supposed
vested to himself, when the secretary took
the entire matter out of his hands. He call
ed upon the secretary and demonstrated
against this subverSion of his prerogative
when the latter informed him that he was
in his position but little more than clerk |
under the department. and the head of the
department should make the appointments
In that Office. 1t was in vain that Ingalls, |
pleaded that he was responsible for the |
good management of his bureau, and that |
he ought, at least, to be consulted about |
those who We're put in charge of its details, |
and should have a hand i'm designating the |
mode and manner of running the depart |
ment. The secretary reiterated his state |
ment that the power lying in the hands of |
the secretary could not be delegated to any |
officers, and Gen. ingalls, was forced to sub /
nit. That he is doing this with very bad |
grace Is evident from the fact of his COM
plant among army officers against the sec
rotary.