McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1884-10-30
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Washington, D c., Oct. 26, '94.

starving condition of the Piegan In.
dams. whose reliance for subsistence
has depended entirely ON the Govern.
ment. There are no less than four
thousand five hundred of these unfor-
tunate creatures, for whose care and
comfort Congress appropriated last
year $4,000, or less than two cents
per day for each Indian! Their res
ervaticn is entirely non-productive
SO far as game is concerned, and the
Government has never attempted the
encouragement of this particular tribe
to arts of husbandry. The Indian De-
partment cannot and ought not to be
held responsible for the terrible con-
dition of these Indians, except for it's
adherence to rule which limits the
agent to furnishing supplies for each
week to one fifty second part of the
amount of subsistence for full year.
One can readily imagine then, the
actual suffering that these people
have already endured, when four
thousand human beings were COM
PEELED to subsist on an allowance of
food as limited as that of the Greeley
party in its most desperate strait.
And now with our Treasury bursting
with money and the granaries of the
country grooming under the magnif-
cert crops of the past season, it has
been determined to keep these poor
people during the approaching winter
on half rations 1t is no wonder that
the Piegan considers his own civil,
cation superior to ours.
The s'Conscience Fund" of the
Treasury is matter that is worthy of
a little study. 1t is fund composed
of small amounts generally, and large
amounts rarely. In fact it is a mat
ter of surprise that so many con-
sciences should be disturbed by so
small sum of money that their own
ers have euchred the Government out
of, and SO few that large stealings
have been able to make an impression
apon. The back pay salary grab, 1
believe, was not credited to the con-
science fund, and rightly so, because
it was the fear Of results rather than
remorse which prompted its return to
the Treasury. The records of the
Treasury fail to show that any Of the
gigantic p]underers of the Govern
ment have ever exhibited remorse of
conscience enough to cover a cent of
their doodle" in the Treasury, but
here is poor crank of a chap taking
the pains to send one cent stamp to
make up the postage that he thought
he had swindled the Government out
of, when in fact the Government had
never forwarded his letter at all. Yes
terday $50 was received from an in
dividual down South who had become
converted, and desired to remove this
$50 burden from his soul. A Chica-
60 man, forgetting that nobody had
ever gotten into Heaven from Chica-
go, thought that he might squeeze
through by returning the 81 he had
wronged Uncle Sam ont of in whis-
key deal. The largest sum that has
ever been credited to the conscience
fund was 81, 100 from a Salem Mass
postmaster away back in days gone
by. but even in this case the Govern
ment declared that his accounts were
correct, and his money was returned
to him.
l see that the lobby has already
commenced to rally at the hotels,
with Congress six weeks off and the
Presidential election yet to come.
Some of these third house chaps have
an office in view, some are in the In
terest of some sort of Government
grab, but good majority are for ex-
ira appropriations for public build
ings in different portions of the coun-
try, and have simply come on in adj
vance of Congress to enlist the good
Offices Of the heads Of departments.
Here is a fellow from a one-horse
town in Florida who has got $780,
600 appropriation, but he wants a
quarter of a million. Little Nevada,
with scarce population enough to en-
title her to a Congressman, wants
100000 post Office building for one
of it's towns that never had and never
will have 1000 people. Proctor
Knott's Duluth has had $4,000,
and wants more for post office, when