Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1884-11-26
From our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Washington, ID. c., Nov. %, 's4

From our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Washington, d. c., Nov. %, 's4.
1t is scarcely 10 be supposed after
the clean sweep that the Democrats
have made in the election, that they
should leave the Augcan stable at
Washington unattended to. Yet it
might be we'll enough to let the poor
fellows down easily by holding out the
promise that they may possibly get in
again some time under the Civil Ser
vice rules, the enforcement of which
tho new President seems to have II
special desire. A good many of the
clerks here who have been on the Gov
crnment pay-rolls for Il number OF
years, have acquired and paid for their
homes, while there are other thou
sands who have purchased homes with
out paying for them, except in part
With these last the general bounce
from official position will not be much
of hardship, because their payments
have not more than covered the amount
they would ordinarily have paid for
rent
About one-fourth of the population
of Washington is made up OF Govern
ment clerks and employees in various
capacities, and the elimination Of such
horde even in the slow process Of fill
ing their places, will have most
marked effect upon the city and its
business. The political guilotine must
be, as it ought to be, set up at once
and kept in operation until the change
of administration shall be thorough and
complete.
I suppose that nobody in office here
knows, and few care, about what the
country owed before the outbreak o
the rebellion, but there are yet few
of the old Government creditors let
who for all the long years since 1928
when Jackson became President, have
held over their Government securities
through evil and through good report
Here the other day gentleman walked
into the Treasury Department and tolt
an official that he was from New
England town, and as the administra
tor of his fathers estate had unearthet
some old bonds which he had supposed
were worthless. Upon producing them
musty and yellowed by age, it wa
found that they were indeed some o
the old Government bonds which
ceased to bear interest in 1886. Theil
face value was 100000 and the inter
est amounted to little more THAI
$4,000, and the gentleman left thu
Treasury with matter of $4,000
which few days before he had Offered
to local bank for $4,000! The pat
riotic old fellow who had boarded tn,
bonds, knowing that interest ha'
ceased fifty years ago, and who hat
not called upon the Government to pa,
when it was in trouble, is deserving o
more than passing recognition, for
believe he is the only one who ha'
ever trusted his country so long.
A number of Republican leeches who
have chung to the Treasury during thu
past score of years, have already been
spotted for the early attention of thu
new administration, and among then
is the big-headed and pig-headed Law
renee, the First Comptroller of thu
Treasury, whose legal decisions upol
matters affecting the rights of individ
uals having claims upon the Govern
ment, have rarely been upheld or at
firmed. And there is the bombasti
and egotistic Loring, of the Agricul
tural Department, and after Hatton, ;
self-suflicient horde of assistant post
masters general in the Post Office De
partment, who have out-Bradeyet
Brady in cupidity, and what fall m.
countryman will be there when tn
great Bob Lincoln shall detach him
self from the American army and re
turn to his shystering at Chicago!
PHoNo.