St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1885-05-16
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From Our Regular Correspondent
MAY 4th, 1886.

with the President OF the UnlCed OLaCes
this week, and is consequently not able
to give you a news report hot and
steaming from the lips of the admins
tration. Maybe the reason why | did
not call on the President was because
my friend did. / have wild Western
friend who found himself in Washing
ton last week with two whole hours at
his disposal. He decided that the time
was not quite sufficient for him to see
and talk to everybody in Washington
(though he could come as near doing it
as any living man or even woman) and
inasmuch as he had to draw a line some
where, he called only on the President,
Secretary Lamar and your correspond
ent. / will not attempt to tell all he
told me, for he talked without punctua-
ton. But to the President he made the
original remark that he had no friends
to reward, no enemies to punish, and no
favors to ask. The "no favOrs to ask"
clause seemed to please the President,
and he replied II am nearly worried to
favors to ask My friend then called
at the Interior Department upon Secre-
tary Lamar and told him that he wished
to see his bath tub! The Saturnine sec
retary at once set down my wild West
erner for a crank, but a glance at his
nice clothes and his face painted red
with intelligence and humOr convinced
him that he had struck character rare.
So he showed him the little zinc bath
tub and the two four dollar rugs, to buy
which, he had sold the ten thousand
dollars worth of government carriages
and horses.
The President and members of his
Cabinet have gone to Gettysburg to
celebrate the anniversary of the battle.
This is the first respite that Mr.. Cleve-
land has taken since the 4th of March.
Miss Cleveland is away in New York.
Col. Lamont and his family, consisting
of his wife and two little daughters.
have, at the urgent request OF Mr..
Cleveland, moved into the White House
and they will soon accompany the pres
ident to his country residence at Sol
diers Home. The Presidents cottage
at The Home is about three miles from
the White House and about mile and
half from the northern boundary of
the city. It is situated on a command
ing elevation with fine view of the
city and the Potomac River. Surround
ed by trees and acres of green sward, it
will have all the advantages of q sum-
mer resort with the additional advan-
tage of complete retirement from socie-
ty and fashion that cannot be obtained
at Long Branch, Saratoga or Newport.
The illness of the Presidents private
secretary has revived the old talk about
the peculiar Washington Malaria.
Every i'll that flesh is heir to in this city
is attributed by the n-professional
writers for the press to malaria. A
Senator cannot eat or drink too much
but that his indisposition is malaria,
and one of them went so far as to at
tribute the accouchment of a prominent
woman to the same prolific cause.
Washington, as the statistics show, is a
universally healthy city and its death
rate shows as small percentage from
malaria as any city in the union.
What will the administration do con-
cerning official changes is a question
that is being very earnestly asked al
this time. There are in round numbers
about 1O9 900 salaried ofice-holders un-
der the Federal Government. They are
the regular army Of politics, for it means
their bread. Their discipline enabled
the Republican party to keep itself il
power for half century. Nine tenths
of these officials are still in position
What is the President going to do about
it,? A gentleman who holds a very
responsible and prominent appointment
under Mr.. Cleveland, and who comes
from powerful state occupying most
important political and biographies
position, spoke very plainly and fully
the other day respecting the matter OF
changes. He said: "No one better
scomprehends the necessity for com
plete change in all commissioned Off.
.cials than does the President. He is
perfectly aware that the people, in max
ing the change in presidents last fall
did not mean simply to put one man out
and another man in. They meant thai
the entire system should be altered and
renovated, and Won may denend uDOn IL