The Portland daily press., 1883-01-29
Penalties of Ofice-Holding.
fGov. Long in the Boston Saturday Evening CT
zette1

FGov. Long in the Boston Saturday Evening Ca
zette.l
The gate which trained porter keeps, and
which only welcome card can open to the lit
erary monarch, gap wide as church door
upon the popular choice. AS sometimes top.
swiftly spinning round a circle, seems to be it
self circle, SO the subscription paper for all
sorts of charities and benefits come 10 him
with such rapidity of succession that he seems
to be always looking into contribution box.
And he contributes, not merely his "buttoE in
the hat" but his autograph, his aching ear
his conventional presence and felicitations;-
all demanded as right and with most vehe-
mence by those who scold him loudest for be-
slowing them on anybody else,-and now and
then even his screed to help garland the 50th
or 10th milestone of a newspaper. His dainty
missives are few and deal with no petty ques-
tions of rhyme or fancy; he may not even pipe
feeble hymn. His correspondence ranges
from the Georgia freedman, who bravely wants
to begin the study of Blackstone and seeks
capital Of money and influence to start with, to
the crank who has written constitution for
the republic of the millennium. His visitors
come, not with the reverence of pilgrims who
go away content if the poet do only smile on
them, but they mean business, reporters
want to know, you know, and do not propose
to go till they do; disnterested sages who ad-
wise him "for his good'';; resolute men, who as
sure him that this is SO, and that that wont
do; heart-broken pleaders, who make him hate
himself for refusing their appeals beggars
| from presidents of colleges and starters of po-
litical missionary newspapers to the boy that is
| getting stamps for the album eternal; and esti-
mable gentlemen who bring letters of introduc-
| ii on from eminent citizens, and are so courte-
GUS and long-winded that he can no more re-
| fuse to let them screw their augers by the hour
| into his ear than he can allow himself to knock
off their spectacles,-the mad temptation to do
which violence, and the terrible fear lest he
SHALL are the only sensations OF which he is
conscious. 1t is not his privilege, but his duty,
to put down his name for every bulky volume
that an impecunious canvasser or q smart
agent peddles He finds it one of his chief
honors- for which he cannot be too grateful
that he is recommended, especially by those
who are anxious to get weight off their own
hands, as good man to ''see" or to "head"
list, or to "start" something or "preside"
somewhere, He winces at the sight of his
name repeated in the newspapers to the nause-
alton of everybody, especially himself. It
need not nowadays be told that it is also his
function to obtain work and secure place for
the great army of the unemployed; not the
least strain of this being in the genuine distress
and genuine worth of many poor woman and
uiohOu uldu3 WDOoo cdu 1hCoS piodu IuOr0. YUAN
their words for the opportunity to earn their
bread with deceucy. If some of his annoyances
are light, such as seeing to it that the select
men of Bunkeryille be compelled to break the
snow-dritts in front of a lone but n0-to-be-put-
down widow who has appealed against them; or
to procure complete set of the parliamentary
debates for young Webster, who is about to
discuss whether the duke of Wellington was
greater as warrior or as a statesman: or to OBJ
tain supply of garden seeds from Washington
for a plain man who has always voted
straight; or to write his opinion upon col
lection of autographs made by a terrible boy
who will probably publish and distribute in
circulars what is playfully written to please
only him,-if these are light annoya noes, yet
by accumulation they have the capacity of con-
Stunning time and of spelling many q needed
hour.
Indeed, am quite sure the public servant
can beat the literary man ''all holler' in any
comparison of this sort. But, between you and
me, he wonld be an undeservirg shirk If he
did not recognize that there is no palmer duty
for him, bound to service as he is, than to give
attention to every reasonable call, however
humble or petty, to fulfill it when he can, and,
when he cannot, to be courteous in his nom
compliance. The old fable of the pendulum is
also for him good one if there are go seconds
to tick, there is a full second in which to tick
each one of them A little system and pa
thence will make his work easy; and good
deal of each will enable him to SO harmonic
the larger duties of his life with its pettier ex-
actions that it will be, beyond almost any 9th
81, a full, informing and growthful occupation,
not least interesting in the very annoyances
that give it touch of humor.