News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-08-16
FROM WASHINGTON.

Albert +. Boone, the Star-route
contractor, has sued Flora b. Cabell,
reputed wife of Samuel G. Cabell,
another Star-rOute contractor, for the
recovery of $17O0 alleged to have
been loaned to her in August, 1880.
Boone declares that he has been beat
en- out of $4,000 by the manipula-
tons of Mr.. and Mrs. CabelI; that
being interested in certain routes
with Cahell the latter turned them over
to Mrs. Cabell and gave her an order
to draw the pay, thereby shutting
| Boone out from the benefits of the
contracts. 1t is asserted that should
the Star-route bona cases ever reach
| trial it will be proven that the entire
scheme of straw bonds was concocted
by Cabeil, Flora Cabell and Charles
H. Dickson, a nephew Of Flora Ca
bell, who is clerk in the Indian
| bureau.
From the number of inquiries
which daily flood the Internal Reve-
nue. Bureau it would seem that people
generally do not understand the man
ner in which payments are to be made
for check stamps held when the law
abolishing them went into effect.
| There are several millions of stamps
piled up in the Treasury Department
awaiting cancellation, and upwards of
| fifty girls are kept busy cancelling
them. All claims for rebate on &C
count of these stamps have to 60
through the regular course, and about
four months will pass before payment
is made for those received at the In
ternal Revenue office. Upon receipt
of package of checks they are first
counted and cancelled and the value
fixed by the Revenue Bureau. The
| claim is then forwarded to the Fifth
| Auditor, who, after examination,
passes it to the First Comptroller.
When that officer has rendered his de-
cisiOn, the claim is sent to the warrant
division, where Il warrant for the
amount is made out. The warrant
passes back to the First Comptroller
for approval, and subsequently to the
Treasurer, who forwards a check to
the Internal Revenue Commissioner,
| by whom it is transmitted to the
claimant. Scores of complaints are
daily received from those who are I'M
familiar with the length of red tape.
There seems to be great deal Of
difficulty in the way of enforcing the
law prohibiting the importation of
Chinese into this country, and evil
dence accumulates that there is an or
ganized system of smuggling the Ce-
| lestials across the border from British
| North America in successful opera
ton. A telegram was recently re-
ceived at the Treasury Department
from the Collector Of Customs at
Tacoma, Washington Territory, in
which it was stated that two men were
captured in the act Of smuggling
Chinese across the border. Two Chi
namen were also captured in a slOop.
The Collector also thinks it very prob
able that a great many others have
been successfully brought into the
| United States in this manner, and he
asks to be empowered to appoint a
sufficient force to prevent this snug
Cling. Thus far no answer has been
made to the request, as Secretary
Folger has not yet returned. Gov
eminent officials say there is some
difficulty in the way Of enforcing the
law, as nothing appears in the act it.
self defining on which department the
duties of enforcement shall devolve.
1t is the rule in the War Depart
ment to permit clerks to make up the
80 days leave allowed by law entirely
from working days. Sundays are
not counted. The Treasury Depart
ment clerks have also asked that
the same rule be applied to that
Department, and have petitioned
Secretary FOlger to so rule Judge
Lawrence, law officer of the Treasury,
when asked how he should decide the
matter, said that it had not yet come
before him officially; "but," he added,
''if they want me to decide that the
clerks do not get any pay for Sundays,
and | should do it, it would save the
government very large sum. The
salary list is made up by the month,
and the days in each month counted,
Sundays and all, to see what the
amount should be. If the law does
not intend a clerk to be paid for Sun
day ''then we should cut that out of
the mems monthly amount"
The contract for furnishing the
terra Gotta work for the new pension
building was awarded to the Boston
Terra Gotta Company. The Presi-
dent of the concern recently forward
ed to Gen. Meigs, Superintendent of
the building, two fine lawn vases for
the Generals private use. If there
is anything that General Meigs hates,
it is a present from a contractor.
The reception that the eXpressman
met with upon the delivery of the
vases was forcible and expressive.
He was ordered to return the vases to
the donor by the quickest method pos
sible. and was not even allowed to
unload them at the house of the Gen
eral. A very tart note has been writ
ten to the President of the Boston
Terra Gotta Company, who will not
be likely to forward any more pres
ents to Washington.
Senator Edmunds will urge his pos
tai telegraph scheme upon the Senate
again next winter. lie says it will
be adopted sooner or later,