The Penn's Grove record., 1884-11-01
WASHINGTON LETTER.

PWAsmNGTON, D. c., Oct. %, 1884.
fgriner letter to tie starving
con- Of the Piegan Indians, whose
reli subsistence has depended
ent the Government. There
are an four thousand five hun
Z d Of these unfortunate creatures,
for whose r and comfort Congress
appropriated last year ~ 1000, or less
than two cents per day for each In.
dian! Their reservation is entirely
non-productive so far as game is con-
cerned. and the Government has never
attempted the encouragement of this
particular tribe to arts Of husbandry.
The Indian Department cannot be aud
ought not to be held responsible for
the terrible condition of these Indians,
except FOR its adherenceto a rule which
limits the agent to furnishing supplies
for each week TO ne fifty second part
of the amount of subsistence for a full
year. One cat readily imagine then,
the actual suffering that these people
have already endured, whenfOur thou
sand human beings we're compelled to
subsist on an allowance of food as linn
tied as that Of the Greeley party in its
most desperate strait. And now with
our Treasury bursting with money and
granaries of the country grooming I'M
der the magnificent crops of the past
| season, it has been determined TO keep
these poor people during the approach
ing winter on half rations. 1t is no
wonder that the Piegan considers his
own civilization superior to ours.
The conscience Fund" of the
Treasury is q matter that is worthy of
a little study. 1t IS a fund composed
, of small amounts generally, and large
amounts rarely. In fact it Is matter
of surprise that so many coBsciences
hould be disturbed by So small a sum
of money that their owners have euch-
red the Government out of, and 50 few
| that large stealings have been able to
make an impression upon. The back
pay salary grab, | believe, was not
credited to the conscience fund, and
rightly 80, 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 plumber
ers Of the Government have ever ex-
hibited remorse of conscience enough
to cover o cent of their "boodle" in the
Treasury, but here is a poor crank of a
chap taking the pains to send a m
cent stamp TO make up the postage
that he thought he had swindled the
G Government out of, when in fact the
Government had never forwarded his
letter at all. Yesterday $50 vas re-
ceived from an individual down South
who had beeom e converted, and desired
to remove this s38 burden from his
soul. A Chicago man, forgetting that
nobody had ever gotten into Heaven
from Chicago, thought that he might
squeeze through by returning the 81
he had wIonged Uncle Sam out of in a
whiskey deal. The largest sun that
has ever been credited to the con
scisnce fund was 81, 10U from a Salem
Mass, postmaster away back in days
gone by, but even in this case the Gov
eminent declared that his accounts
were correct, and hi. money was re-
turned to him.
l see that the lobby has already
commenced to rally at the hotels, with
Congress six weeks off and the Prrsi.
Dental election yet to come. Some of
these third house chaps have an Office
in view, some are In the interest of
some sort of a Government grab. but IA
good majority are for extra approp:i-
ations for public buildings in different
portions Of the country, and have sim
ply come III in advance of Congress 10
enlist the good offices of the heads of
departments. Here i. a fellow from q
one-horse town in Florida who has
got u $4,000 appropriation, but he
wants a quarter of a million. Little
Nevada, with scarce population
enough to entitle her to a Congressman
wants a SlG0, 600 post office building
for one of its towns that never had
and never will have 1900 people
Proctor Knots Duluth has had $685.
600, and wants more for "a post Office,
when the town is going backwards
with twice the celebrity that it Yer
came forward. AS a matter of ALSO
lutte business, three-quarters of the
public buildings that were authorized
to be constructed at the last Congress
we're entirely unnecessary, but they
furnished magnificent opportunities for
corner-lot owners to rake in fortunes,
and building contractors to quarter
themselves on the Treasury for an ill.,
definite period.
Don PEDRO.