National Republican., 1883-01-05
ON TIE AvENuE.
wnll.s and roil.s win pubIlo Men.

IN inc senate yesterday, ana say Jney VIII
have no trouble in getting the relief bill
through the house. They claim that they
will have the support of u largo element,
which is usually counted to oppose all whisky
legislation. "The reason of this is easily ex-
planned" said one of the friends of the bill
last evening. "The banks of Cincin
natl and Louisville, and their New
York and Boston correspondents, are
carrying S30000,000 or Si0,0O0,O00 of whisky
paper, and they are shalIy in consequence.
All Of their influence has been brought to
bear to help their friends out of trouble, and
their influence is powerful when Il is brought
to bear upon legislative body. IL operates
through thousand channels. Stockholders
in the banks which have got caught are in
congress, or they have intimate social or busi-
ness relations with congressman. Some of
them arc stockholders in railways which en-
ploy attorneys Of influence, and they are
working. In brief, the ramincations of the
whisky lobby are more wide-reaching than
even its friends can know. When men feel
their pockets are even so remotely in danger,
they are slow to hasten the calamity.
a'e
Said another party on this same subject Of
whisky: "The whisky distillers robbed the
government n few years ago by means Of un-
derground pipes, through which they ran Off
and sold the products of their establishments
without paying taxes thereon. They are now
getting ready TO rob the government on diff
ferent plan. Four years ago they got an ex-
tension of time on the taxes on 100000 or
20,00o,O00 gallons of bourbon by promis-
ing to taper Off the production. They tapered
the other way, and now they ask and expect
q postponement of the settlement day on
taxes about to fall due on SOOO0,OOO gallons
threatening to precipitato crash If their
demands are not acceded to. Two years
hence thoy will come mp sighing and tell con-
gress that unless another relief bal is passed
they will be crushed under 120,0O0,OO0 gal
Ions of bourbon. They will ask that they be
released from the payment of all taxes,
which at the present scale would be over
S100,000,000, and at so cents q gallon would
amount TO $6O,000,000 This threat of finan-
cial ruin to the country will be more
potent because the sum in jeopardy will
be larger, and banks and innocent holders of
whisky and whisky securities will be inter-
ested to the extent Of from $120,000,O0O to
S150000,000, instead of $S00O0000 or
S90000,000 as now. Should congress refuse to
grant relief, there would be smash, bonds
would be worthless, and the government
would find itself loaded down with whisky
which it would have to take for taxes. Better
have this crisis now than in two, three, or five
years. The county is in condition to stand it
now, and later it may not be. The extension
asked is merely postponemont of the evil
day, with the full knowledge that what will
be shower to-day may be whiAlwind then.
10
The very sudden passage of the Pendleton
civil service bill through the house yesterday
was source of surprise to forty or fifty states
men, who were loaded to the muzzle with
oratory, and had the business end of the fuse
in position for lighting at u moments warn
ing. The gentlemen who know several
days ahead what is going to hap
pen, had it that the republicans
and democrats would caucus before COM
ing to vote on the bill, and that there would
be from three to six days discussion on it,
They also had it that the committee to which
it was referred was deferring action until
these caucuses should determine what was
going to be done with it. The orators and
the wise men were alike unprepared for a
prompt and efIectual disposition of the sub
ject and their disappointment at the way the
measure was rushed through, under the ope-
!, ration of the gag law, yesterday was intense
7 What is their sorrow is the country's eternal
joy.
For the want of something else to talk
about, western newspaper correspondents are
threshing over old straw and writing about
Secretary Folger's retirement from the cabi-
net. The latest bit of imaginative labor in
this direction was in the nature of telegram
in the st. Louis Republican to the effect that
the secretary had made arrangements to give
| up his house on the fifteenth of January and
sail for Europe with his family, TO be gone
indefinitely. If this be Secretary Folgers
intention, he is keeping his plans to himself
with oyster-like secretiveness, for nobody
else knows anything about it, so far as Ma
TIoNAL REPUBLICAN mind-readers can dis
cover. When he retires he will probably let
the fact be known.
~.
The truth of the assertion that "nothing
to do is the hardest kind of work" F." was strilS-
ingy illustrated in the application lately
made by the doorkeeper of the senate diplo-
matte gallery for an assistant Nobody visits
this gallery once a week, and the patriarch
who guards the entrance has nothing to do
from one end of the session to the other, ex-
cept TO keep awake and draw $120 a month
yet he finds he is not equal to the discharge
of these arduous duties and pleads for help
The sergeant at arms is thinking seriously OF
appointing an assistant in the person of the
man who was too lazy to draw his breath
The two could then go tandem,
go
The Ochiltree tells this on himself During
the war he went back to his native place, car.
rying the news Of the death of gallant
young man. the idol of his mother aud sisters
The tidings We're broken to them by their
neighbors. Some days afterward the Ochil.
tree called to offer his sympathies. The
eldest sister met him at tho door weeping con.
vulsively. "Have you heard of dear Johns
death 2" she sobbed. "Yes," he replied, 81
brought the news to town." Rushing to the
stairs she called out, "Mother! mother
Johns not deadI Tom ochiltree brought the
newsP
ees
Uncle Rufus Hatch and his secretary, Ash
ley Cole have returned to Washington and
are stopping at Chamberlin's. They will
remain in town n week OF ten days, and
several gentlemen on the outside are filing
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