South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1885-03-27
Our Washington Letter.
From Our Regular Correspondent
WAsIIINGroN. ID C.. March 23

WAsnINGroN, ID. c., March %.
One of the blessings that came of
the closing days of the 18th Congress,
was the tactical closing up of the
Census Bureau, a bureau that had en-
tirely outlived it's usefulness aud had
only been perpetuated as sort o. hos
telry for an army of political hacks.
Here il is five years, aud half way up
TO the taking of arother Census, and
Yet no decisive information relative 10
the products aud indu tries OF thecoun-
try has been put into tabulated form
for the public use. In all these years
many hundreds of clerks have been
kept upon the payroll in this bureau,
pcgg,ng away at nobody Knows what,
for the result of their LAHORE has not
been made manifest anywhere. l
should like TO know, II anybody can
tell, what use it is TO expend three or
four millions OF dollars upon Census
whose results cannot be made known
until the information Is worthless !
To say that the statistics gathered by
the Census takers throughout the
country in thirty days cannot be clas
siiied, tabu!ated and printed in less
tran five years, is an atfront to COM
mon sense and n open insult 10 the
people who pay the enormous expen-
diture OF money required to Keep this
army of loaters in tee Census bureau.
The newspapers and the college
professors throughout the countrEare
discussing the origin OF that beautiful
ly descriptive and altogether elegant
word SO freely used in the recent po-
litlcal Campaign -"mugwump" vi
course the term must have been COIN
cd by some eXquisitely ordered BRAIN,
and should therefore be charged to
,he account OF the same gigantic IN
tellects that introduced those other
cleg ant expressions which have be
come part OF our language, end re-
presented BY such words as 'shenanl
gan, 'di-gruntled,' 'hornswoggled.'
'gallivantlng and Mhole vocabulary
OF like choice phrases
The .disgraceful scramble for office
of which Mr. Jefferson pose 50 repre-
hensiby, goes br.vely on. Neither
night nor day brings rest to the ex-
ecutlVo or department officials who
have the crumbs OF p ,tronaSe at Their
dispos al. Th new Postmas cr Gen
eral, Mr. Villas, has received 1900 let
tiers since the 4th instant, every one OF
them being suppIication for posi-
Office. This is to say nothing OF the
armies of delegations and individuals
that have been constantly tramplng
through the corridors Ct the Post OF
flee Department during the ten work
ing days since the administration
changed. Possibly the checklist por
ton OF the Immense correspondence
received by the Postmaster General
is that received from the present in.
cumben's of the post offices, who ask
to be retained in their positions. :
These truly shamelessbarnacles should
be, as they dobtless will be. the first to
get bounced.
Probably the best radiance shat our
office.ridaen Government has ever re-
joiced over, is the outgoing Of the fl p
doodle Secretary of War, Bobby Lin
coin The fellow was brought into
the Cabinet by Garfield as matter OF
sentiment, but his retention there has
brought nothing but opprobrious crit
icism upon the department and every
thing connected with il. This callow
egotIst h S managed to keep himself
in hot water during his entire official
existence. and of all the retiring mem
bers OF Mr.. Arthur's Cabinet, lie is
the only one who went withou. the /
least mark Of remembrance from lis !
subordinates. PHONO.