News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-02-05
WASHINGTON LETTER.

so many important measures for dis
position, and do so little. No great
measure in which the country is in
terested has reached final action, and
from present appearances not one VIII.
The tariff, internal revenue, inter
State commerce, education, Internal
improvements, public land, coast de-
Tense, naval increase, railroad, tele-
graph. and other great local measures !;
the Nicaraguan, Spanish-American,
and other treaties, involving great
questions of internal law and legisla-
ton, all apparently have been shelved
or placed in position, that if ever en-
acted into laws, they will have to be
born again and be discussed de noU0.
All these great measures viii meet
the incoming administration, as well
as others that are crowding, such as
the Mormon question, what shall be
done for or against the ex-soldiers of
the country. and the hideous monsters
dynamite and Communism.
The wisdom or unwisdom Of refus-
ing to act on all these important meas
ures must, and of necessity will, rest
on the shoulders of the Democratic
party, which, through Mr.. RandalPs
policy, has failed TO come squarely up
to the issues involved. 1t may be
that the best good of the country will
be thus subserved. All true patriots
will hope that it may be so, but many
to-day, in both parties, fear for the
future, which now appears so porten-
tiOus of storms.
During the past week the annua!
convention of the Woman Suffrage
Association, or ellen Convention, D
as it is irreverently called in Wash
irgton, has been in full session, and
though there have been no perceptible
eggs laid, there has been more than
usual amount of cackling in the hen
merry. The only result has been that
the vice-presidents-of which there
are many-have each and all been in
structed to obtain, if possible, the
passage of resolutions by their re-
spective State Legislatures, recon-
mending to Congress the adoption of
a 10th amendment, giving the right
of suffrage to women.
The Nicaraguan treaty still occu-
pies the grave and reverend seignors
in many executive sessions in the
''cave of the winds" By the way,
the unfortunate originator OF that eX-
preston last week was carried to her
last resting place. l refer to Mrs.
Roberts, who was the "ROberts" of
the CAPITAL when Dom Piatt was its
editor. De n1OrtuiS nil niSi bOnuno,
therefore let what was untoward in
her life be buried with her where she
rests in Greenwood, but of the bril-
liant newspaper writer, whose articles
ten years ago were more anxiously
looked for than any other, let me say
that sic was generous and charitable,
and has relieved many a needy family
in her prosperity, and many CRATE
full tear will often be dropped to her
memory.
The Inauguration ceremonies and
the ball, are, of course, paramount to
every other topic among Washingto-
mans. Treaties, Mexican outrages,
Oklahoma squatters, Senatorial con-
tests, the war in the Soudan, and
even the death of Schuyler Colfax
fail to produce ripple of interest in
the average Washingtonian, whose
very soul is stepped in the sensuous
dream of the inaugural procession
and the inaugural ball on the 4th Of
March.
Before this luminous pageant fades
into insignifcance the dedication of
the Monument, with its attending GER
emonies, that will be matters of his
tory, when the Inauguration will be
forgotten among its predecessors.
But for the future who cares? Wash
ington now only lives to inaugurate
Grover Cleveland amid gorgeous
spectacular effects in the coming car
nival.
The signal service, under the hero
Of Shiloh, has been distinguishing it.
selffor bad guessing of late, so much
so, in fact, that we generally expect
the reverse of what the meteorological
guesser guesses. 1t must be a bad |
year for General Hazen, for he seems
10 fail in everything he undertakes.
First, he failed in getting a court-mar-
tial ordered OH Gen. McKeever, and
then he came to grief in like manner
about poor Darlington, whom he
wanted to make scape-goat of in the
Greedy relief ,faur pas. There is a
chance of the Weather Bureau being
placed in charge of scientists who un-
derstand meteorology, and when that
happens we may expect 10 know
day or two ahead what kind of wealth
er we are going to have. There is no
reason in the world why this cannot
be done, but as long as the signal of
ice is an elemosynary institution for
officers of the most mediocre
ability, we will have the fun of guess
ing as to whether they will guess
right or wrong in the weather reports.
With the unbounded facilities pos
sessed by the Signal Service for per-
fecting the science of meterology,
here have been no advances whatev-
er made therein during the whole
Term of its existence. When Myer
got the first appropriation for wealth
er reports, it was to keep the signal
corps from being disbanded at The
time of consolidation. He did not
know how to adjust barometer, or
how to read it when adjusted. He
did not know an thermometer from a
lygtometer, and as for the law of
storms, that was to him a sealed book,
even in its crudest sense. Since then
Did theories and old text books have
been in use that have long become
obsolete in the scientific world. The
government monies have been embez-
lied by hundred of thousands of dol
lars by the -disbursing officer of the
corps, and this would never have
been found out if Myer had lived.
Fabulous prices have been paid for
every article used in the service, even
% the manifold paper, while tele-
graphic and meteorological instru-
nents have been purchased at figures
hat are enormous, which in more
han one instance no one in the Office
understood or understands the use of.
t is to be hoDed that the Dro iected