Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1884-02-06
Prom our regular correspondent.
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Washington, d. c., Feb, Q, 's4

The action OF the Senate in voting
each of its members a private secretary
will not be initiated by the House,
, though many members are strongly in
favor of it. 1t is a question with two
sides, like all others, and there are
some reasons why many of the prom
inent Congressman ought to have this
assistance, even at public expense, for
it is the public, people in every part
of the country, who impose the greatest
burden upon them, by writing letters
to them on all sorts of subjects and
making all sorts of requests. Still
there are perhaps majority of men,
hers of the lower house who have very
little to do, or. at least, who do very
little. The leading men who have so
much correspondence are usually rich
enough to hire their own clerks. /
think Ben Butler used to hire six clerks
when he was in Congress and kept
them all busy, but he could afford it.
But in most cases the only benefit of
this measure would be to make so
many more places for sons and neph-
ews. The fellows who are looking for
reelection this year, dare not vote for
it. A southern member who has re-
ceived only ten letters from his constit-
uents since the holidays, except person.
al letters and those concerning private
business, said yesterday: What
would most of these Congressman have
to do if they had clerks to answer
their letters? They would be abso-
lutely idle, and / expect that idleness
would lead to immortality. It's better
to keep them busy running around
after seeds and census reports"
Some of the demands made by letter
upon Congressman are preposterous,
and some of them are funny. Some
men want all the seeds there are to be
given away, others want all the books,
and others want both books and seeds.
One member recently received letter
from a constituent, page after page of
which was filled with names of the DIFF
ferent kinds of seeds that he wanted.
AT times the writer seemed at loss to
know just how many varieties there
were of some particular vegetable, and
then he added, "as many kinds as
you've got" He wanted pink-eyed
potatoes, yams, melons, squashes, corn,
wheat, flower seeds, everything. His
order would have filled a railroad
freight car. His letter closed in this
fashion: snow, don't you do with
me as you did with old man johnson.
You only sent him five packages. l
want 'em all
There is little that is new in Con-
gress this week. The Springer inves-
tigation is progressing slowly, and the
Fitz John Porter bill will have passed
the House by the time this letter is in
print. Concerning the latter, Porter's
friends have produced at the last mo-
ment letters from General Garfield and
other notable evidence, and it does not
seem possible that either branch of
Congress can longer refuse justice to a
much-injured man. Ex-senator Dor
sey has come on here of his own ac-
cord to testify before Mr.. Springer's
committee concerning the Star-route
trial. Mr.. Dorsey knows something
about this trial. He was present all
the time. 1t is thought that he has
some hope of getting even with the
Attorney General. But just why Dor
sey should bear any enmity to the pros
ecution in this case it is difficult to I'M
derstand; for most people think he and
Brady owe their present liberty to the
faulty management of the case against
them. If these !men don't appreciate
the efforts of Bliss and others to let
them out of a bad scrape, they are
set Of ungratefel cusses. PHoNo.
rs Eovnt wanna ENGLAND IN tOob