The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1883-05-31
appointment Brokers and Confidence
Mem


one of good many queer occupations
that grow out Of the peculiar life Of the
Capital Personal acquaintanceship
and influence is more Of a commodity
among men who haye.au acquaintance
ship but no influence than would be
generally supposed A number Of men
of this class are rather conspicuous
about the Washington hotels, some OF
them even ia this dun time, who have
10 apparent business here. They are
not applicants ion office. probably for
the good reason that they couldn't get
any. They are nod lobbyists IN the
moral sense Of this term, and are sell
dom seen at the Capitol. Their field OF
operation seems to be the departments
and the hotels They are men who
have been mort 81 less prominent IN pol
itics, and can claim to be on good terms
with officials of all grades up to Cabinet
officers, and will no doubt claim to be
on much better terms with the Presi-
dent than they are. Their acquaint-
anceship gives them an entree in some
of the departments which it is expected
they put value upon when they take
In friend to be introduced and com
mended. Some of them are on the
lookout for contracts, either for them
selves or for others. People who have
some patent continuance which they
want to have pushed in some depart
ment have been known to employ some
of these men with the idea that their
mountaineering with leading officials
would make their aid valuable. There
are many ways in which such men can
market their supposed "influence."
Their faces are probably not unknown
nj the White House, where they may
drop in to introduce g friend who Is
pressing for a place. Meanwhile heads
of departments and others may have
an uneasy sense that all is not right,
but they can not lay their fingers on
anything. 1t is the right and privilege
OF patriots to live at hotels, in expensive
style, without any apparent occupation
except to discuss the state of their coun-
try; and the fact that these patriots do it,
however imp ecunious they may be sup
posed to be, is no proof that they are
doing any wrong--certainly no proof
that makes it easy to cut off intercourse
Nth old political acquainances.
Another of the peculiar occupations
of Washington is one in which some OF
this same class of men are supposed to
DO engaged. This is the collection OF
secret news for brokers and specula-
tors in Wall street. Ii any action is
about to be taken by any committee of
Congress or by the Treasury Depart
ment which is at all likely to affect the
stock market, it is of great Importance
to brokers there to get an advance IN
timation of tiff possible. Men who have
a large political acquaintanceship have
facilities for dropping into the secrets
of committees and departments which
are not so likely to be enjoyed by other
people; but as rule the men employed
for work of this kind are keen newspa-
per men, who do not correspond with
papers requiring all their time. Some
Of them have grown rich at this work
and operations growing out of it, and
keep up connection with newspapers
only in order to be able to call them
selves correspondents. They keep Wall
street well showered with points, y
and if the news is of n nature requiring
it to go TO the public also they usually
manage, as one of them once testified
before n Congressional committee, TO
let the broker have it - little ahead. !"
They work in unison with speculative
Congressman, the number of whom Is
greater probably than the public sup
poses, and is apparently on the in
crease. Perhaps the way in which men
of this latter class look upon their
responsibilities rs Legislators can be IL
Illustrated by the response one of them is
said to have made to question by u
newspaper correspondent not long ago
as TO the action of his committee on a
measure which would probably affect a
certain stock "lf YOU want TO know
for the newspapers, won't tell you. If
you want to know for yourself, l viii.
Well, you see, the Committee will re-
port the bill some day, but the idea has
got around that We are going to do
it and the market has gone up on us.
Now we're going to keep quiet for a
while, and let the market settle down
again so as to give the Committee a
chance!' But probably he was SANDER
ing the Committee.
But the occupation most peculiar to
Washington of all is, perhaps, the dealer
in Government documents. Everybody
remembers. probably, Edward Everett
Hale's amusing story, written when
paper was bringing its highest war
prices, about the young man who col
lected handbills, and circulars, and
prospectuses, and other gratuitous lit
crature, and had soon placed himself
beyond the reach of want by the accu-
mutation of fortune in waste paper.
This extravaganza is sober fact in
Washington. There are men who have
not only lived comfortably, but have
acquired handsome competency in the
business of collecting and selling Gov
eminent documents. IL is business
with all the advantages on the side of
the dealer AS with Bob Toombs,
when he was Secretary of State under
the Confederaey, the dealers office is
wherever he happens to be, though he
can not carry bis archives in his hat as
Toombs used to say he did. The dealer
need pay no rent; he can store his stock
at home, and the United States Govern
ment furnishes him with his capital.
These men make il business to get as
many copies as possible of every avail
able document issued by the Govern
ment, and there are very few that are
not available They store their collec-
tons away. After q few years Che docu-
ments become scarce under the careless
and Lavish system OF distribution that
prevails here, and they begin to com
mand price. AS the years 20 on and
the stock of the junk-shops is swept
away into the maw of the paper