The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1885-06-12
QUE wAsH1NGT0N LETTER.
qhe Work of Reform Goes BraveIy On,


From our Regular Correspondent.
WASHING TON June s, 1885.
The tug of war still comes on and goes on be-
tween the administration and the Office seekers.
The Juggling is TO a great extent among the office
seekers, that is they tug against each other; but
the President has to bear the brunt and suffer the
and tear. He is. no doubt, becoming very
weary of the delegations that pursue him relative
to comparatively unimportant Offices Perhaps
his time and patience than the Charleston, South
Carolina, collectorship. The rival delegations
tention. He told them last week that they must
agree to settle this matter between themselves,
compelled to settle it in way that would not
suit any of the contending factions.
The work of turning out the idle, the incompe-
tent, and the otherwise offensive partisans goes
on slowly but surely. The term offensive parti-
san" is in the mouth of every one here, and il is
in danger of being not only abused but misunder-
stood. 1t should be known that these discharged
employees were not cast out merely because they
were jealous Republicans, but because their zeal
in politics wholly interfered with their duties as
Government employees. They are those who have
been drawing pay from the public treasury but
performing no public service because their time
has been entirely taken up with partisan work.
While they were doubtless very important fac
tors In the Republican organization collecting
campaign money, falsifying statistics, skilled in
the art of making the worse appear the better
part upon the stump and through the press,
they were the vampires OF our political system,
sucking its blood and lulling 1t with lies. Many
of them have been discharged and many more
will be discharged. No matter who their "influ-
enoe" and backing may be. the time has come
for them to go into scandaous retirement, and
they will go.
worthless partisans that this administration is
making itself memorable. There are other and
perhaps more important reforms going on
These reforms are not palpable and visible to the
unskilled eye of the public at large, but their
cumulated weight will be seen in the reports of
Cabinet officers when Congress assemblies next
fall, in the messages of the President: and espe-
cially in the greatly reduced appropriations that
will be asked for the public service for the next
fiscal wear,
It is well known that frauds upon the revenue
have long been praetsed by imipostors in conn., h5
found necessary for Congress to appropriate
100000 to aid in the detection and exposure of
these frauds. But even this fund, designed as it
was for the prevention of evasons and Irregular
tiles, was soon perverted to as fraudulent uses
as those which it was appropriated TO correct ;
and 1t is a matter of notorious history that the
greater part of this hundred thousand dollars
year went into the hands of a disreputable gang
of political bummers in New York, Philadelphia
and other cities, as reward for their partisan
services. Here was one attempted reform, but
the misfortune of it was, like that of most Re
publican reforms that it was backward rather
than a forward STEP
Such is but one of many greater rascalities in
the customs service which Secretary Manning,
as practical business man, set to woik to em-
nate upon his taking charge of the Treasury De-
a,artment and how he has succeeded is best told
in the language OF prominent Repubhcan OF
Herald:
II have occasion, by the nature Of my work. to
know what is being done in the Treasury ana by
the administration In the way of reforming long
standing and very grave abuses and say to you
that in the Important matters which am neces-
sarily familiar with. this Democratic Administra-
tion has done more i'll three months than has
been done in fifteen years before"
Day of Disaster.
Sunday was a disastrous day In many places
cyclone swept across Wisconsin in the after
noon, destroying New Albin, Houston county.
A railway elevator, school house and seven res.
licences were leveled to the earth, and many
houses and barns were unroofed. The loss is
$4,000.
The village of Victory in Vernon county,
Wisconsin, was also entirely destroyed. The
town building, two elevators, church, school
house, three stores and fifty residences were
wiped out of existence. The loss is placed al
$4,000.
Ahurricane aud waterspout struck Woodstock
Va, Sunday night, doing $40, 600 damage. y
house in st. Thomas, Ont, was struck by
lightning in the afternoon, which entered
through the chimney and passed into room
killing Mrs. Ryan
AT Port Hope, Ont, hailstones as large as wal
nuts fell one measuring 81 inches in circumfer
ence. At Owatoma, Mimi, the hailstones wer,
as largeas hens eggs damaging fruit trees, corr
and garden produce.
At Utica, N Y, tornado unroofed houses
demolished buildings, &c.
AT Fort Plain, N. Y, lightning struck house
stunning but not killing the inmates. Sever
sheep were killed.
Destroy that Sign.