The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-04-09
Washington Letter.

| WASHINGTON, March %, 1855
With the exception of those who
have failed to get Office, democrats
here are we'll pleased with the APP
pointments of the new administra-
ton, and favorable comment is
heard on all sides. Where there is
more than one applicant for an Of
fee, all of course cannot be made
happy and it is considered wise and
polite in the president to appoint,
as he has often done, some one who
is not identified with the contend
ing factions. It is curious to note
the comments of the old school re-
publican politicians here, who esti-
mate every appointment and every
action of the new president by the
low standard which experience has
taught them to apply to depraved
republican politics. They appear
to have no faith in reform, in the
civil service, or in the improvement
of the military and naval appoint
ments. They consider everything
that is done or talked about in this
connection as hypocritical or senti
mental. When Secretary Lamar or
ders the sale of half dozen horses
and carriages that have been used
mainly for pleasure by his prede-
cessors, but maintained at an ex-
pense of $4,000 year from the
public purse, the despicable pessi-
mists who faint the political atmos-
phere of the capital shake their
heads and say, ''the economy dodge
will not pay, the United States are
wealthy and do not wish to see
their cabinet officers live in a plain
mean style, Inconsistent with the
dignity of great nation" If you
tell them that the disposal of car
riages has deeper significance than
the mere matter of luxurious loco
motion, that it is hint and an ad-
mention to the hundreds of en-
ployes in the Patent Office, the In
dian Office, the Land Office, the
Geological and Public Land survey
bureaus over which Mr.. Lamar pre-
sides, you talk to them in an I'M
known language and they will reply
that the city is going to ruin, that
the money spent or wasted helps
trade and has made the city pros
porous.
The prosperity of local shop keep
ers ana real estate owners is, of
course, a petty matter, but as
sign of the times I may mention
that the saloons, cigar stores, bill
lard rooms and places of amuse-
ment have not been for years as dull
as they are now. Drunken, tip
ping, gambling and sporting gov
eminent employees have, wonderful
to tell, learned that they are not
in favor with Whist they are won't
to call the great unwashed demo-
cratic party. They have learned
with unpleasant suddenness that
this new democratic administration
has penchant for several varieties
of cleanliness. This revelation has
sobered them, and they are keeping
better hours at home and In office,
and their health and breath are
ssnsibly improved.
The crowd of professional Office
seekers has very sensibly diminish
ed. They haye gone home very
much Disguised, of course, and
deeply convinced that the expert
ment of popular government is a
failure. The great body of the
democracy, however, who do not
want the offices, but wish only to
see them well filed and honestly
administered, do not share the de
spair of the professional office seek
er. The new administration has a
great work before it and it has four
years for its accomplishment. 1t
has as yet been in office not four
weeks. A number of important of
fees have been filed with men
against whom even their enemies
can say nothing. Some superfui-
ties have been removed and more
extensive removals have been plann-
ed. The morale of the service in all
government offices is remarkably
For the first time in his
long official life the government
clerk realizes that his success and
his future depends not upon the
backing of a Blaine, a Malone, or
other powerful dispenser of patron
age, but upon his own work and
conduct.
l do not think there will be any
ostentation of simplicity and plain
ness in the social environment of the
new administration, but it is evil
dent that there will be less of mere
display and parade of wealth than
has existed in Washington since
the war. The gossips had talked
and written so much about the pew
taken in the somewhat aristoCrat
church on New York Avenue, that
a large number of snobs have been
into renting pews at this
church. The president, not wish
ing to make side show of his re-
ligion, has rented pew in a church
in less fashionable part of the city
and nearly a mile from the white
house. He has not yet attended
church but his sisters occupied
their pew last Sunday.
Edison's Inventions.