Omaha daily bee., 1883-10-20
lnE HAIIuNnL uRriIRL.
The OflCial Report Of Lieut., CARING
Ton, Commander Of he
Wrecked PrOtPHS.
The Ignorance and Inefioiency Of
the Captain Fatal to
Success.
Int: esting Pension Figures
From the Annual Report Of
the Comm sSioner.
THIS I'm nj 'nr 4 ms Ia, IN n1nysIreIs,, L.,
The Qunl lc' { ,ns liz, a CIerkship I'm
the State Department.
CAPITAL NOTES.

as 20 what qualifications should be possess.
ed for service i'll the State Department :,
the Secretary of State declares that it is
IL, cessary that most clerks in department
of state should have at least sufficient
knowledge of IL or more foreign Ian
guages t. read original documents; never.
theless it is not absolutely necessary that
every clerk should have this qualification,
as ability in other directions may NOR.
than compensate for its lack. But it is
always necessary that twenty employees
of this department should have a fair
knowledge of French and German, Span.
ish or Italian.
DARLINGTON RXoNERArEB.
The report OF Lieutenant Darlington,
commander of the recent Arctic expedl.
ton for relief of the Greeley party, is a
complete vindicatiOn of Darlington 80 far
as any disobedience of orders is con.
cerned. General Hazen, in q letter
transmitted the report to the Secretary
of War, says the structures made OH
Darlington in this connection are entirely
u~nwarranted.
The report is very long and goes fully
into all details of the voyage and wreck
of the Protcus and the retreat of her sur
vivors in small boats to the North Green
land settlement Of Upernavik. The
principal points of the narrative have
been covered by previous accounts from
various sources, but the comments and
explanations of Lieut., Darlington arenew
and interesting. Some additional par
ticulars with regard to the management
of the Proteus are also given aud tend to
show that Captain Pike was not as skill
full a navigator as had been supposed.
Among such particulars are the facts that
on the 9th of July Captain Pike ran past
the harbor of God Haven in entire ignor-
alce of its proximity, although the
weather was clear. That on July 10Th,
he ran his ship aground near the mouth
OF Disco Ford, IN consequence OF neglect
ing to take soundings, and that on the
10Th he went entirely out of his course
and ran in towards Cape Walker, at the
bottom of Melville Bay, supposing it to
be Cape York, while the latter III reality
lay $50 miles to the westward.
Lieut.. Darlington, however, does not
charge Capt. Pike with any neglect or
bad judgmentinc. nnection with the nip
by which the Proteus was crushed. That
he seems to regard AS an accident pure
and simple, without contributory negli-
gence on the part Of anyone. He con-
firms, however, the statements FIRST made
by Commander Wildes, of the Yantic,
with regard to the behavior of Captain
Pixies crew at the first alarm of danger.
He says they entirely abandoned their
post and ran to save their own property
i'll the forecastle. and as soon as
the stores began to go over the
ships side they commenced to
appropriate everything they wanted,
breaking open and rihlng boxes and bags
of private clothing and stealing their
contents. Capt. Pike said in reply to
Lieut.. Garlington's protests that he was
powerless to prevent this plundering of
his ship and that the men of his crew
were the worst lot of scoundrels he ever
saw. In explanation of his course, in
starting southwark after the wreck of the
Proteus, instead of Warrington the Yantic
Lieut. Darlington says that he did not
believe the Yantic could get to Littleton
island through such ice as they had en-
countered, and second that he expected tn
Ollu AZ SapC loth Nv o"GulSn bUcttlCI
Sophia and to avail himself of her assist.
ance i'll carry ing out as far as possible,
notwithstanding the disaster, the plan
for Leut. Greeley's relief. With regard
to the much discussed ''supplemantary
orders" Lieut.. Darlington says: "'The
only instructions ! eYer received are the
original instructions published at the
time. An unsigned written paper was
enclosed i'll the envelope with my ~instruc-
tions. This paper was simply An anthem
ticated copy of the memorandum pre-.
pared by an officer in the signal office.
was informed this memorandum was to
have been furnished the Secretary of the
Navy to form the basis of instructions to
be given the commander of the vessel
ordered to accompany the Proteus."
II PENSION EroRT
The report of the Commissioner OF
Pensions for the fiscal year ended June
30, 1883, shows there were 303, 658 pen.
sioners on the roll at the end of the fiscal
year. During the year the names of ~
whose pension had been accepted pre-.
viously were restored to the roll, making
3S, 95S persons added during the year, All
excess Of l0,6i5 over the prec, ding year.
The average annual value of each pension
is $J06 and the aggregate annually of all
pensions is $32 245, 1872, an increase OF
SO, 9D4 900. The amount paid for back
pensions is $50, O64, 900.
Attention is called to the fidelity and
ability with which the unprecedented
disbursements of the bureau has beer
made by agents for payments of pensions
an average of 1857, 337 having beer
disbursed from each of the eighteen
at an annual expense Of SIG. O08, ant
without the loss of a dollar tn the Gov
ernment or complaint Of delay from
benefciaries. OF the special examina
ton system, the commissioner speak,
in commendatory terms and say.
he will be disappointed if the saving t.
the government effected by this division
will not be sufficient TO defray the cost
of its maintenance. He does not think
it incumbent upon the government to be
at any further expense in underwriting IL
settle Indian pension claims, when the
result 1T the special commission sent out
to Indian territory are considered.
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.
At the request of the President mem.
bers of the civil service commission
called at the white house this afternoon
and had a long talk with him. The oh
ject of the conference is not known and
the commissioners are reticent as 10 what
TRANSFERRED. An Associate d Press reportel
asked Dorman b. Etton, president 4"
the commission, what was the object o