Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-09-05
HUBBELL's BUSY QUARTERS.

Ho,c They Compare uith he Rooms of IA
Democratic Compaig,s ContB.ittee-Re
suits OF the LOce Clerks Feel for the Ole
| Party
| Washington Correspondence N. Y. Sun.
No contrast could be greater than tha
offered by the rooms and facilities of tn.
congressional campaign committees OF
the two parties. The Republican or Hub
bell committee occupy a spacious edifct
on Thirteenth street, furnished with all the
| material OF permanent governmental bu
| reau. The Democratic headquarters is in
Mr.. RandalFs committee room in a seclud
| ed part of the capitol. This room, it may
be said incidentally, is historic ground
In the early days it was occupied by the
committee on ways and means, and here
were elaborated the present revenue and
tax systems Of the government. Later it
was the scene of the Credit Mobilier in
vestigation, and later still of the Potter
committee transactions.
The activity in the two places differs as
widely as their outward appearance. At
Mr.. Randall's committee room Represen-
tative Phil. Thompson, Jr., the secretary of
the Democratic committe. has desk and
two or three helpers, who are engaged dur
ing most of the day in folding, packing.
and despatching campaign speeches. 4
large table is Uttered with stray papers.
Heaped against the walls, huge pile of
mail bags, well filed with tightly packed
documents, testifys to the industry of
the group of workers. The
money, and makes virtue of its poverty.
The walls how -
chrome likeness Of Garfield. the room is
paved with brick. three or four tables and
twice as many well-worn chairs comprise
the furniture, and an air of untidiness and
indifference pervades the place.
A very different scene meets the ewes of
the visitor at the mansion in Thirteenth
street. Here all is life and action The
house is old and moldy, but has been
smartly refurnished, and has a cheerful.
business-like air. All the four stories are
put to good use. Immediately at the en-
trance. like the lodge of sentinel. stands
the office of Treasurer Jay A. Hubbell.
Here the new secretary assessmets has his
desk, and here the clerks call and settle.
Immediately above the treasurer's Office
Is that of the secretary, Representative
Henderson Of Illinois To the rear. on
this floor, is the room of Mr.. Cook, for
several years the chief clerk of the bu-
reau. and very valuable man. Mr.
Cook exemplifes the regard of the com
mittee for a fixed tenure of clerical ser
vice based upon merit. Figure heads come
and &C, but efficient Mr.. Cook is a fixture.
Mr.. Cooks room is the furthest limit
to which the curious visitor can
penetrate. Here he is stopped by
notices OF the walls that no visitor is al
lowed above or beyond this point. In fact.
an ignorant stranger might think from
the placarGs on the walls that he was at
the headquarters of the Prohibition III
stead of the Republican party. Turn
where he may, he finds himself forbidden
to follow his natural inclinations. mo ad-
stares him in the face at every
door; and in the treasurers Office, the seat
of authority and fount of knowledge. his
eager spirit of inquiry is daunted by
large poster bearing the legend:
No conundrums answered here.
On the second floor the visitor is told
that in the inaccessible heights above him
clerks on clerks arise and that piles of
speeches, ever shifting but always there,
develop like snow-drifts, thence to descend
districts OF or broad land.
The habits and functions of the denizens
of these upper heights are largely matters
profanes the mysterious stairways.
and the congressman who might
climb higher know better than to do
so. They go straiget to Jay Hubbell's Of
flee on the first floor next the street door,
or at most times ascend to Secretary Hen
dersons room just above. They want the
crisp figured and engraved, green-backed
public document which win coy victory
where large pouches of ordinary campaign
mail matter might fail. They want to
know how the departments are doing gen
orally, and to get practical evidence of the
love of the clerks for the grand
old party. Franking documents they
tell Hubbell, is tedious work on
hot day; will he not sign his name just
once under a check? That, they think,
would lift their district above the line of
doubt. How to accommodate these claim
ants is one Of the most difficult duties of
Treasurer Hubbell. He pleads poverty
He is not satisfied with the clerks. He
denies that the sum raised by the COM
mittee is as large as represented, and no
doubt his success has been exaggerated.
He explains in answer to the
numerous calls for aid made per-
sonally and by letter that the
booty is not so rich as the newspapers say,
and that economy must be practiced if all
are to have a share in the spoils. Possibly
at times, when harasssed by powerful
claimants who will not take no for an
answer, he envies the virtuous poverty of
his Democratic rival young Phillip Thomp-
son, Jr., smoking and telling stories with
his three clerks in Mr.. Randalrs commit