The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-04-19
WASHINGTON LETTER.
LTr3m our Regular Correspondent !


WAsHINGToS, D. c., April Il. 1884
The acres OF floors devoted 10 the stor-
age and exhibition of models in the Pat
ent Offices are strongly suggestive of the
near approach of that time when tn e
model business has got to be eliminated
from the list Of requirements in the Sc
curing OF letters patent To be sure a
fire like thatlwhich DESTROYS some 2.O00
OF the models seven year ago. may occur
now and then, but the Government wants
the room that these models now occupy.
and does not want to wait for confiara-
ton. The vast majority of these models
are simply rubbish, and are of as little
public utility as are the stuffed herring
at the Ma tional Museum or the burdock
plants at the Agricultural Department.
From clothes pin to a locomotive, and
from shoe reg to a thrashing machine, |
patents have been granted by scores upon |
the most minute detail of improvement. |
every one OF which is accompanied hv q |
model, and when Mr.. Patt' asks what |
will become Of Us if VIC should drop out
of the patent business. we point 10 the
model department and ask him what Will !
From statistics we learn that while the
locomotives of the country perform the
work of 39,676,97O horses, and that
American is turning out 900 900 sewing
machines each year, which do the work
of 100000 women, the law Of supply
and demand and consumption finds plenty
Of employment for all of the horse flesh
attsinable, while multitudes of women who
never sewed before find abundant en-
ployment in the numberless uses to which
the sewing machine is adopted While a
single shoe factory at Lynn, Mass, turns
out more pairs Of shoes every year than
the 10000 boot makers of Paris. the same
law that exacted a price commensurate
with the value of hand labor thirty years
ago, eXacts from the consumer a greater
price for the production of the same arti-
Gle by machinery, though the article has
not 1.-THE Of those qualities of durability
and comfort and general excellence that
made our ancestral cOrdwainers proud of
their occupation, and their patrons exempt
from the agony Of cOrns and bunions
The girl of fifteen may spin her 300
miles of thread every day by the aid of
modern machinery, but alas! the ponder
GUS opening in the seams Of our garments,
al time and on occasions when we least
expect them, proclaim to us that this is
not the thread of our mothers Thus all
innovations upon the old methods of
doing things, while they have their varied
uses, are not without their varied abuses
The judge of the Supreme Court of the
United States, presumably arrogating to
themselves as much consequence as the
Senators, have appealed to Congress to
provide each of them with private sec
rotary. How much and what character
OF work these judges may have for a pr
vate secretary they have omitted to state,
but that they need some assistance is man
ife3t from the fact that they arc at least
two years behind in their work, with no
present prospect of ever catching up.
Like all of our public officials, the poor
judges are both under paid and overwork
ed. Chief Justice Marshall who never
allowed his work TO get ahead of him, and
who managed to get along without a
private secretary, received a salary ofS3,
500 per year. The present Chief Justice
mas $40, 500 a year, and his associates
$4,000 each, and are not so worried over
their work as not to find plenty of time
for summer junketing. But there is an
end to the extrayagant things that the
Government is called upon TO meet at the
capital even to the liquidation of bills
for carriages to convey the colored servants
at the White House TO their homes after
the close of their days labor.
The recent visit of Gen. Grant to Wash
in9ten has had no more significance thar
that TO Senators Sabin, Hawley and Sher
man to New York This is an era Of poll
tlcal reconciliatiOns, and the man who is
said to be the only man who can save
New York to the Republicans, require
good deal of this kind of attention Jus
now Bob Lincoln's still hunt for place
on the Presidential ticket, is plaquine
LQgaus friends in Illinois almost to death
OF course if the feeling in Bcbs favo
continues as strong as it maniGestS itsel
in the strong Republican States, and Hi
nois III particular. Logan will not have
the ghost of chance To put wet blank
ct upon this formidable Lincoln boom. i.
what Logan's friends are eudeavoring tc
do both in Illinois and elsewhere, and
they have even gone SO far as to appca
TO Bob personally to announce himself a
not in the field all OF which Robert vii
not do, because. like Mr., Blaine, he ha
nothing and done nothing to make him
self candidate. Don PEDRO