The National tribune., 1883-05-24
SMALL TALK
About Men and Things.

Ex-senator Willard Warner, of Alabama, was
in the city the other day. Hes says he has quit
politics and gone into the iron business. He
was very active during the anti-convention
campaign in 1880. Turning from the discus
sion of iron to that of the stirring times at
Chicago during that week in June, he told an
anecdote of Garfield. Said he: About day
light of the morning on which Garfield was
nominated / met him coming down the hall in
the hotel. We stopped at a window to talk
over the situation. He looked fatigued and
disconsolate beyond description. He thought
that Grant would be nominated that day. As
you know, my delegation from Alabama was
for Grant, with the exception of myself and
one other. I was for Sherman, and Garfield
headed the Sherman forces from Ohio. His
prediction, therefore, that Grant would be
nominated was not very encouraging. asked
him why he thought so. He went over the
situation, recalling the wonderful tenacity
with which General Grants forces stood to-
gether for him, while the rest seemed unable
to agree upon any consolidation which would
break the deadlock. Said he you know we
have been working all night and have done
nothing. We are as much at sea now as when
we adjourned yesterday. If General Grants
strength comes into the convention this morn
ing with 3 solid front, l fear he will be nomi-
mated I told Garfield that l thought he was
wrong. I told him why thought so. I had
been at every convention since the one which
first nominated Lincoln. At that convention
Seward was never so strong as on the night be-
fore Lincoln was nominated. The very fear
that he would succeed arising from this strength
was what caused a coalition of the opposition
for his defeat. l thought now the same thing
would occur in the present instance. The
demonstration of Grants great strength would
cause panic in the ranks of the various fac
lions, and the result would be that some one
else would be nominated TO secure his defeat.
Garfield had not much faith apparently in
the force, of my reasoning and took gloomy
view of the situation"
So
An old custom, which originated in the Senate
when that body consisted of about thirty mem
bers, has been continued until it has grown
into the proportions of an abuse which should
be stopped An employee of the Senate yester-
day explained how the custom operated when
carried to extremes. Said he: yesterday
Senator Morgan came up here and asked if the
team could go and move him. OF course, the
team went, and three men have been employed
about day and half in the work Those
men get nothing for it and, of course, do not
do the work because they like to, but through
fear of incurring the displeasure of Senator.
This moving of Senator's costs the Government
several thousand dollars year and is one of
those little frauds which, while small matter
in each particular case, in the aggregate is a
very large one. / don't know who started it,
hut I n l-,,nTr ftotr
wants to move his family and household effects,
he simply comes and asks for wagons and men,
With seventy six members of the Senate, this
moving on the part of some of them happens
about once week. The sergeant-at-arms al
ways keeps heavy team for carting heavy
goods back and forth between the Capitol and
the depot or other places where it is necessary
to go. OF course the expense of maintaining
the team, to say nothing about the two or
three men employed is all paid by the Govern
ment, and there is no reason why a United
States Senator in order to save himself the ex-
penditure of $40, should have their use for
nothing. Last winter, when Beck wanted to
move from his place on K street out to his
daughters about five miles out in the country,
he sent for the Senate team and men to move
him, as usual. This is one of the things which
some new Senator like Van Wyck will hear of
some day, and will make sensation in the
Senate by a speech on the subject. George
Bliss will never hear the last of Van Wyck's
TRADE at the close of the last session, wherein
he exposed the 800 day business.
#*#
Colonel Ingersoll has hard work to weave
any matter of an entertaining nature into his
speech in the Star Route case. He is doing the
best he can, however. The trial, it is posi-
lively announced, will come to an end during
the first week in June. The wonder is how
any jury is to arrive at conclusion in a case
atrtnin oh, cit
day of last December
There is story current to the effect that the
British Minister in Washington is in great fear
at times lest the legation here should be blown
up by dynamite. Although the notion is, no
doubt, either the result of excessive timidity
or of ignorance of popular sentiment in the
United States, the Secretary of War was asked
for detail of dozen soldiers to protect the
legation the day Joe Brady was hung in Dub
lin. A private soldier stationed at the bar
racks here is authority for the story that
dozen of his company were ordered there in
citizens clothes, and actually stood guard over
the legation that day and night.
''We wont hear from Crook for thirty days"
said General Sherman yesterday. "He is gone
three hundred miles into Mexico. In about
thirty days he win turn up in Chihuahua"
1t is thought generally among Government
OFFICIALS Gnab CrO0k Is IN lar more danger OF
embarrassment through diplomatic causes than
on account of any hostile Apaches he may meet
on his jaunt. His force is so large that the In
dians will not willingly fight him, and it is
difficult to see how he can cover them when
they desire to escape in the Businesses of their
native mountains, where he is stranger. 1t
is impossible to see how Crook is going to JUS
tify his present campaign into Mexico under
the terms of the international agreement, and
should the Mexican government become dis
satisfied with his operations the affair may ter
inmate in q court-martial of the General Our
relations with Mexico are such that the Presi-
dent cannot fail to investigate the matter
should the Mexican authorities call his atten-
tion to an alleged violation of the agreement
by Crook. The treaty between the two gov
ernments provided that the troops of either ma
ton might cross the boundary when in hot
pursuit of hostile Indians. and that they were
to so no further after the forces of the other
government had taken up the trail. SUISSE
quent arrangement was made, not Incorporated
in the treaty, which extended the field of OPP
erations Of either party to some extent. This