The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1885-03-26
WASHINGTON T T
from Our Regular Correspondence
WASHINGTON, DC,
March %, 1885.


One of the blessings that came of
the closing days of the 4Sth Congress,
was the practical closing up of the
Census Bureau, a bureau that had
entirely outlived its usefulness and
had only been perpetuated as a sort
of hostelry for an army of political
hacks. Here it is five years. and half
way up to the taking O another Cen
sus, and yet no decisive information
relative to the products and indus
tries of the country has been put into
to bulated form for public use. In all
these years many hundreds of clerks
have been put upon the payroll in
this bureau, pegging away at nobody
knows what, for the result of their
labors has not been made manifest
anywhere. 1 should like to know, if
anybody can tell, what 8 it is to ex-
pend three or four millions of dollars
upon O Census whose results cannot
be made known until the information
is worthless? To say that the statis-
tics gathered by the Census takers
throughout the country in thirty days
cannot be classified, tabulated and
printed in less than five years, is an
affront to common sense and an open
insult to the people who pay the.
enormous expenditure of money re
quired to keep this army oil loafers in
the Census Bureau. The newspapers
and the college professors throughout
the country are discussing the origin
of that beautifully descriptive and al
together elegant word so freely used
in the recent political campaign
"mugwump." OF course the term
must have been coined by some ex-
quisitely ordered brain, and therefore
be charged to the account ofthe same
gigantic intellects that introduced
those other elegant expressions which
have become a part of our Language,
and represented by such words as
"shenanigan," "disgruntled," "horn-
swoggled," "gallivanting," and a
whole vocabulary oflike choice phras.
es. The "disgraceful scramble for
office" of which MI. Jefferson spoke
so reprehensibly, goes bravely on.
Neither night nor day brings rest to
the executive or department officials
who have the crumbs of patronage at
their disposal. The new Postmaster
General, Nh. Villas, has received A..
500 letters since the 18th instant, eve.
ry one Of them being a supplicant
for a post Office. This is to say moth.
ing of tie armies of delegations and
individuals that have been constantly
tramping through the corridors of the
Post Office Department during the
ten working days since the admins.
~tration changed. Possibly the cheek.
lest portion of the immense CORES
pondence received by the Postmaster
General is that received from the
present incumbents ofthe post Offices
who ask to be retained in their pc
sitions. These truly shameless bar.
nacles should be, as they will be, the
first to get bounced. Probably the
best radiance that our ofice-ridde1
Government has eve rejoiced over
is the outgoing of the flap doodle Sec
rotary of War, Bobby Lincoln. Thu
fellow was brought into the Cabine
by Garfield as a matter of sentiment
but his retention there has brough'
nothing but opprobrious criticism
upon the department and everything
connected with it. This callow egotis
has managed to keep himself in no
water during bis entire official exist
ence, and of all the retiring member
of Mr.. Arthur's cabinet, he is the on
ly one who went without the leas
mark of remembrance from his sub
ordinates. PHoNo.