Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1885-03-31
OJR WASHINGTON LETTER
From our Regular Correspondent.

the CLOSING Gays 81 wv rom loh5 eo'
was the practical closing up OF til
Census Bureau, bureau that had en-
tirelv outived its usefulness and hat
only been perpetuated as sort 0
hostelry for an army of political hacks
Here it is FIVE years, and bali way al
to the taking Of another Census, ant
yet no decisive information relative
to the products and industries of tht
country has been put into tabulatee
form for the public use. In all these
years many hundreds of clerks have
been kept upon the payroll in this
bureau, pegging away at nobody
knows what, for the result of their la
bors has not been made manifest any
where. should like to know, If any
body can tell, what use it is to expend
three or four millions of dollars upon
a Census whose results cannot be made
known until the information is worth
less? To say that the statistics gath
cred by the Census takers throughout
the country in thirty days cannot be
classified, tabulated and printed in
less than five years, is an affront to
common sense and an open insult to
the people who pay the enormous ex-
penditure OF money required to keep
tins army Of loafers in the Census
Bureau.
The newspapers and the college
professors throughout the country are
discussing the origin of that beauti-
fully descriptive and altogether ele-
giant word so freely used in the recent
political campaign ''mugwump." Of
course the term must have been coin
cd by some exquisitely ordered brain,
and should therefore be charged to
the account Of the same gigantic in
tellects that introduced those other
elegant expressions which have be-
come part OF our language, and rep
resented by such words as "shenani-
gam" ''disgruntled," hornswogeled," u
S'gallivanting" aud a whole yocabu-
larry of like choice phrases.
The "disgraceful scramble for Of
flee" Of which Jefferson spoke so rep
rehensibly, goes bravely on. Neither
night nor day brings rest to the ex-
eoutlve or department officials who
have the crumbs of patronage at their
disposal. The new Postmaster-G Gen
eral, Mr.. Villas, has received $500
letters since the 18th inst, every one
81 them being a supphcation for
rostoiiioe. This is to say nothing Of
the armies Of delegations and inoi-
tiduals that have been constantly
tramplng through the corridors of the
fostoilice department during the ten
working days since the administration
changed. Possibly the cheek. est por-
ton of the immense correspondence
received by the Postmaster C cneral
IS that received from the present in
2nmbents OF the postoihces, who ask
TO be retained in their positions.
These truly shameless barnacles
should be, as they doubtless will be
the first to get bounced. i
Probably the best radiance that,
'ur otice-ridden Government has ev.
n reJoiced over, is the outgoing of ,
he flap-doodle Secretary of War |
lobby Lincoln. The fellow was :
rough t into the Cabinet by Garfield I
5 matter of sentiment, but his re- :
ention there has brought nothing but
pProbrous criticism upon the de.
artment and everything connected
18th it. This callow egotist has man y
5ed to keep himself in hot water dur. v
g his entire official existence, and Of q
the retiring members Of Mr.. Ar :
ur's Cabinet, he is the only one who a
ent without the least mark of re- Il