Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-12-23
WASHINGTON LETTER.
cFrom our Regular Correspondents


Congress is beginning to excite
the alarm of its friends. 1t has
caught the American contagion of
what Mr.. Spencer calls "overwork."
For two consecutive weeks there
has been no adjournment The
annals of Congress furnish no SINH
lar instance. Still the reader need
not fear that his representative in
Congress will not survive his in
tense application to civil service re-
form, tax-reduction and appropria-
ton bills. Congressman have died
and worms have eaten them, but
not from s'overwork." Washing
ton malaria" which is a polite
synonym for gluttony and drunk
enness, has claimed more victims
by half than the Moloch of legisla-
tive work. The American states
man, as a rule, is not a narrow
chested, knock-kneed, pot-beIlied
specimen. Those who win in po-
litical races have need of physical
stamina, hence the cadaverous, con-
sumptive and dyspeptic specimens
who reach this goal are compare
lively few. But whether they
come fresh from the Sierras, the
cOtton-felds, the bluegrass region,
or the manufacturing or mining
towns, the great objection that they
and their beloved country have to
contend with is their freshness.
Most members of Congress are "too
fresh" Mr.. Kelly, of Pennsylvania,
vulgarly called "pig-iron," and APP
propriately called, on account of
the length of his service, "the ia
ther of the house," is not too fresh;
neither is Mr.. Cox, and l could
mention others who have no fresh
ness about them. But the majority
of members come here untaught,
unread and unskilled in the most
perilOus work ever attempted by
man-the work of legislation. The
worst of it is, that they no sooner
learn the primer of craftsmanship
in the routine of legislation, and
the intricacies of the executive de-
partments and bureaus, than they,
by an idiotic rule of rotation, which
is the unwritten law in most of the
congressional districts, must give
place to another Open-mouthed
country pumpkin whom his party
has sent here to make laws for
great nation and to make history for
all time.
During a residence of eleven
years in Washington, / have seen
Congresses come and Congresses go,
and if it were possible for me to
hold up a mirror to show some of
the congressional constituencies
how they are reflected here by
their elect, l would like to do so.
In the language of the exhibitor of
the fat woman and the learned hog,
this show would be "bOth moral
and instructive. 1t is no eXagger-
alton to say that when the average
member first comes to Washington
he is dazzled and dazed by unfa-
miliar sights and sounds, and until
he has ceased to be a freshman, or
has been we'll "hazed," as it were,
has gone through seasoning pro-
cess, he is no more fit for his place
than he would be to drive loco
motive of a lightning express.
Every one who has seen three
years old colts first appearance in
town, or a rural dogs city debut,
will recognize the picture. Not
that the colt may not achieve fame,
as many horses do, or the dog
prove both honest and sagaciOus, so
that he may deserve the name of
"the Watchdog of the treasury"
But what am trying to denounce
is the custom of continually supply
ing fresh, raw, green Congressman,
and recalling to private life those
who have learned in the very ex-
pensive school of experience.
There are many pitfalls in the way
here, and many Con-
gressmen in the way of pitfalls.
The lobby assumes thousand
pleasing DISCUSSES recognizable only
to the initiated and wary, resista-
BILE only by the strong. The lobby
that hangs about the corridors of
the House and the Senate, that PEN
etrates cOmmittee-rooms, and lures
Senators and members to little sup
pers, where other women than their
wives are invited, is the least dan
gerous because the least disguised.
The better and more influential
class of Congressman cannot be
caught in such meshes. But there
is a lobby IN which there Is great
er display of fineness and refine
ment. The man of experience, the
man of the world. the scholar, the
"the glass of fashion and
the mold of FORM" in short, what
is known as the best Washington
society-the Army and Navy cir
a lobby through which
the greatest wrongs have been COM
mitted against the country and the
treasury.
Washington, Dec. 10, 1882.
THE Jackson Tribune and Sun
wants somebody to "set down" on
the turkey-begging editors, and