The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-08-11
WASHINGTON LETTER.

WASHINGTON. D. c., August Z, 1884.
While Washington has never been par
ticularly proud of her hostelries, she never
supposed that any of them were so depra-
we'd as to tumble down upon the heads of
guests without a moments warning. Yet
such was the case with the United States
Hotel last Sunday, whose walls slew five
persons outright and manned a score more.
A kind Providence postponed for an hour
the casualty that would have overwhelm~
ed sixty guests who were at table in the
dining room. How many more of these
ramshackle man traps there are in the
city, no one knows but the Building In
spector, and he won't tell. While Yankee
ingenuity is being put to its best to devise
fire escapes, anew kind of horror presents
itself, against which there can be no pros
lection save the faithful discharge of the
duty assigned to look after just such made
specimens of rottenness as this.
By the second volume of the ''Blue
Book" which has just made an appears
ance, we are made acquainted with good
many of the minor details of office holds
ing which fail TO reach US through the
ordinary channels. The Blue Book" nc
longer ago than the reign of Mr. Buch-
anan, was volume containing not more
| than one hundred and sixty pages, The
enormous multiplication of officers nee
essitates now two volumes of thousand
| pages and more each, which are published
every two years for the use of congress
| The second volume which pertains dis.
tinctively to the Post Office Department,
| informs us that there upwards of $4,000
postmasters in the country, who receive
salaries ranging from nine cents, received
by the postmaster at Redalia, n. c.. tC
IS, 600, received by the postmaster at New
York City. There are ., 400 of these post
| masters who each receive a salary of less
| than so per annum, and yet not one Of
the 2,400 would resign except under thu
! weightiest kind of consideration. When
| postmasters were paid salaries il
| proportion to the number 0t
stamps sold there was
lively interest is being postmarter even al
| the smallest cross roads office, and tn,
demand for stamps from these small
offices became so great that Uncle San
began an investigation, only to find tha
| postage stamps had become the stapl
currency of the cealm and entered into al
| sorts of trade, commence and barter
| Then Congress stepped in and said tina
salaries should be paid in accordance witt
the number Of stamps cancelled at tht
office, and this has Cancelled much of the
desire to be country postmaster. Besidt
the nine cent postmaster in North Caro-
lima, there are thirtyfour others in tn
country whose salary does n0treach 81 pc
year and a dozen of these are in North Car
olina which State contributes just one
ninth as much postal revenue as tn
cost of transporting her mails. Ordinar
lily the work of making up a quarterl
report in a country post office, requires
WELL balanced mind, patience beyont
that of Job, and full week of time. Ii
ninety seven cases out of one hundred
the work is not then done to the satisfac
ton of the department, and the who'll
business is returned to the exasperate
postmaster to be done all over again, anC
that postmaster does not live in the Uni
ted States who sends his report to Wash
ington without serious misgiyings, and,
might say, absolute certainty that it wi
come back for readjustment. A hundre
| years Of postal service in which tn
methods of keeping postal accounts hav
not received the slightest simplificatiOr
have furnished our mad-houses with mos
of the inmates that politics and religio
have to answer for.
| Ex>Speaker kiefer having deied til
newspaper men to do their worst, has RI
ceived the full benefit OF their attentions
and his political cadaver is now lying
state at Springfield, Ohio. Not new
paper in his district could be cajoled int
his support for denomination, and Their
fore Kiefer started one of his own, wit
4 the usual disastrous results that come {
I bad politician blowing his own horn
The defeat of Kiefer puts an end to ma
whose public life has been nothing but
= continued public calamity, and the cour
f try owes debt of gratitude to the news
: paper correspondents of Washington VIII
have compassed the abolition of one I
the worst of our political pests.
DON PEDRO.