Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-03-22
THE GARFIELD GHOULs.

THE GARFIELD. .GHOULs.
The Greedy Artempts OF the Hyena Crowt
Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.
The evidences thicken to prove that th
illness and death of President CARTEL
have been made the occasion of the mos
disgraceful expenditures and the mos
disreputable attempts to cheat the gov
ernment with false or extravagant claim.
for services. From the surgeon genera
of the army down to the lowest lacke,
of the White House, there are only few
honorable exceptions to the general lul'
of an indecent and greedy attempt to ex
tort money out of Congress on the strength
Of a tragedy that should have warned Of
this hyena crowd by the awful dignity o.
its circumstances. Not even all OF thu
physicians have resisted the common
temptation, but some of those who die
least for the president and whom the dying
man finally drove from his bedside, art
found among those who are pressing ex
orbitant demands for unearned rewards
while all sorts of people in Washington
and elsewhere have aocked like carrion
crows around the congressional committee
room, eager to share in the plunder that ID
to DO divided over the bier Of the dead
president of the United States.
Perhaps the very worst feature Of all
this disgraceful business is the participa-
tion it it Of members Of Congress itself,
the body that is to pass upon all these
claims for expenditure in President Gar
fields case. Hitherto the committee has
guarded the itemized bills that have come
before it with close secresy, and well it
may, if there is any truth in the fragmen-
| tary statements that are gradually leaking
out. 1t is openly alleged that in connec-
ton with the funeral expenses, there is an
item Of 81, 700 for champagne, brandy,
whisky. cigars and lunch. and $500 for
cocktails, and another of Il, 200 for white
gloves. Ice men, who had been charging
the general public s3 for ice, have sent IN
bills for ice furnished to cool the White
House at tina rate of S., with extra claims
for carts and help. Persons who rushed
in unasked to give advice as to the best
way to cool the White House, and whose
advice was not taken, have sent in bills for
their t. ouble. Some of the personal bills
of expenses made out by members of the
HOnse in connection with the funeral are
said to be of an extraordinary character.
Whether the House has manhood enough
in il to call for these bills and vouchers re.
mains to be seen. 1t may we'll bedoubted
until it is put to the test. There must be
some men there, with sufficient sense Of
the outrage that has been put upon public
decency in this matter, to set themselves
right with their own consciences and With
the country at large. That the exposure
will bring disgrace with it is no doubt true.
But it will bring the disgrace down to the
men to whom it belongs and will relieve
Congress itself OF the intolerable odium of
sanctiOning these indecencies. The men
who turned the Garfield Obsequies into
caruusc and the ghouls who have swarmed
around the congressional committee seek
ing to reap their foul harvest from tho
presidents grave should be placarded be-
fore the county, whoever they may be,
and get from Congress only their true
desert, the ob1oqay of national exposure.
Cor ressman RACES ConspieuOui Shame
ie.sDess.
Times.
The conduct Of Representative Page, of
California, seems to have been altogether
remarkable. The bills were turned over
to him for examination and report, andoit
is stated as with entire authority that the
items were all brought together in one
voucher SO that it should be impossible to
show by investigation just what the money
had been paid for. To render this more
secure the bills in detail which had been
rendered were destroyed MIR. Page
boasts that SO much is free from scandal
in any event. This seems to us, however,
only to make the scandal deeper and more
disgraceful.
1t does not occur to Representative Page
that there was anything wrong The
bills had all been paid, he says, out Of tho
money voted by Congress early in the \
session, and "it was nobody's business If
a congressman who had accompanied the |
funeral train had purchased jug of
whisky to take along, even though the |
government paid for it," Representative
Page may some time learn that the people |
of this country are not taxed for the pur-
pose Of keeping congressman in whisky. |