Beverly banner. [volume] (Beverly, N.J.) 1877-1964, 1885-08-22
(From' Our Regular Correspondent)
WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON. Aug. 3, '85.

The President is deep in Adirondack
forests and the office-seeker worries him
only in his dreams. But the dream Of
the office-seeker has vanished, as has
also the dreamer. Five months ago
sleek, well-dressed host of politicians
came down upon Washington. Con
fdence blazed in their eyes and
hilarity was painted on there noses
their stentorian voices, and loud Amer
lean laughter could be heard in the
hotel Hobbies, in hundreds of saloons.
on the streets. Like the poor Indian
they have passed away. They read
their doom In the decisive stiff back of
the departing President. Un-savery old
sinners, whiskey bloated political work
ers, your service are not needed, you are
indeed almost as unfit for place in the
body polite, as you would be in the
Church militant.
The President had not left Wash
ington day before it was discovered,
and the sad intelligence sent abroad,
that~tAe4White House was in Repub-
lican hands. The same old clerks and
attaches who were there under Grant,
Hayes and Arthur, are there still.
The Democratic President dis
appearing in the woods and leaving
the White House to the tender mer-
cies of the Republican clerks is spec
tacle that makes the stoutest-hearted
office seeker sick and tired. All the
letters directed to the President, even
the marked "private" and personal
must pass through the hands of these
clerks, and very few of them, perhaps
only about two-percent will ever be
seen by the President.
The pressure for Office during the
last five months has not been PARALLEL
in the history of the country. 1t was
expected that there would be com
plete change, and applications were
multiplied beyond anything that had
ben known. The hard times had
thrown hundreds of men and women
out of employment and hundreds of
applicants who had known independ-
ence and wealthy, turned their faces
toward Washington. AT first they
applied for high offices, those COM
handing good salaries and assuring
social position. Despairing of these
they fell to begging for anything, and
have finally departed with nothing.
The ups and downs of political life
are curious. A few days or months
make ali the difference p the world.
Capt. G. E. Henry, wh6was Marshal
of the District under Garfield, and was
looked upon as next to the President,
is now running his Ohio farm just where
he was twenty years ago, when Garfield
first found him and made him a postal
clerk. Mr.. Henry recently told how
the politicians treated him here while
Garfield lived. Said he :-"They
worried me almost to death. | was
flooded with invention to dine. Sena
tors, judges, generals, all were after me
with the men of low degree, urging me
to do this and that to intercede for them.
The moment the crack of Guiteau's
pistol resounded these people did not
know me. So far as that was con-
cerned, it was a relief, but it was d
terrible comment upon the weakness
of humanity.
And so it is with ever man who has
been near President, and in fact,
with the Presidents themselves. Here
is j. Stanley Brown who in 1880 in
Menter and 1881 in Washington was
the most sought of any man except the
President himself He is now just
starting life as school boy. He has
resigned his clerkship to go to college.
About two hundred newspapers
come to the White House daily. I'm
der former Administration they were
nearly all paid for, the expences often
coming to as much as So, 900 per annum.
Col. Lamont as soon as he took charge
of things, reduced the subscription list
nearly seventy-fve percent. But there
are just as many papers as ever. The
editors seem determined that the Pres
ident shall read their opinion of him,
and if he don't choose to pay for they
will furnish it free. Col. Lamont also
the exchange clerk. who
had been drawing salary of $3.50 per
month. The Colonel does the exchange |
reading himself, and his experience as
an editor Games in good play