Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-06-04
THE CHARMS OF OFFICE.
MEN WHO CAN FIND NO HAPPINESS OUT
OF OFFICIAL LIFE

President Lincoln once said that the two
things in this world which most resemble
each other in attractions and in effect are
whisky and office. No truer comparison was
ever made. A man who knows not the de-
lights of office, like one who has never feit
the influence of liquor, finds no fault with
an obscure, sober existence; but let him
once taste the sweets of official life and like
the youth who, for the first time experiences
the hilarious sensation of the cup, he will
regard his former mode of living as insipid
and unbearable. This fact explains the
strange tenacity with which men who have
been In the public service cling to govern
ment employment, even when their inter-
ests are in other directions. They prefer
salary of two or three thousand dollars
year, with a petty Office, to five times that
amount in the obscurity of private life.
There are now on file at the Post Office De-
partment, number of applications for
gressmen, who cannot rest content out of Of
fee, though their business or professions
yield them large incomes. Some of these
papers are couched in pitiful terms, which
would not ill become the petition of an ex-
lie who yearns for his native soil. 1t would
be impossible to inhict a greater injury on
rising young lawyer or merchant than TO
send him to Congress and then not keep him
there for life. He never can resume his oc-
cupation with success. The Office instinct,
once implanted in his mind, viii! crop out
every time an Office is to be filled and will
render him incapable Of serious attention
to his business. He will probably become
in the end a chronic Office seeker, ward
politician or even member of the legisla-
ture Constituencies should ponder well
the responsibility they assume when they
select new representatives in Congress.
They should bear in mind that they are
transplanting tender plants into richer SOIL
and that when these plants have taken root
in the tropical climate of the capital they
cannot, without damage or destruction, be
removed to the less genial cline whence
they came. Better leave them in their ma
tive earth or make their removal permanent
During the last session of Congress there
was considerable comment about the num-
Der of ex-members who were seen on the
floor of the House. These were, for the
most part, Republicans who were knocked
off their feet by the tidal wave of 1882, and
who were still quite dazed by the sudden
ness of the thing. 1t was pitiful to watch
their features as they wandered from seat TO
seat, receiving condolences and affecting
iollity they were far from feeling. One
would think that revisiting the scenes OF
past glory only adds pain to misfortune, but
these ex-statesmen seemed to find a melan-
choly happiness in viewing the field of their
worldly exploits and even in contemplating
the chairs which they once occupied. Sew
eral ex-Congressmen have settled ,perma-
nently in Washington, after vain attempts
at reelection in thier districts and are SEEM
ingly happy to be near the gates of the OH,
cial paradise which they are not permitted
to enter. Others spend the greater part OF
the Congressional year at the capital drift
ing about the public buildings in the hope
that something may turn up, all the while
neglecting their private business and per-
haps running into debt. A few Of these
quandom legislators are ever begging clerk
ships on the committees OF Congress, or
fact. that savors of public Office.