The Huntington argus. [volume] (Huntington, W. Va.) 1872-1905, 1885-02-19
washington Letter.
From our regular correspondent.
WASHINGTON. Feb. "A, 1885.

culture acts, the country may con,
graduate itself upon the fact that it
removes from the public land system
the principal sources of the enormous
frauds that have for years been bold
" perpetrated upon the Government.
Not only the best part Of the public
domain has fallen into the hands Of
domestic and foreign syndieates for
of speculation, but the vast
tracts of timber in the northwest have
also fallen a prey to the rapacious
swindlers in that region, who have
taken advantage of the loose provis-
ions of the pre-emption law in the
commission of perjury and other
offenses sufficient to establish title
Under the law as twill stand after
this repeal, no public land will be
subject to entry or sale except under
the generous homebead law, and
thus shall the actuM settler for the
first time in our history be protected
in his right to share in the benefits Of
the public land system.
A sad commentary upon the man.
ner in which our Government treats
its foreign consuls is the fact reported
bv one OF our am bassadors that these
consuls plunge into all sorts # busi
ness in which they may make up the
support that their meagre salary
forbids. At Mantilla one of these
gentlemen compromises the dignity
of his position and his country by
running q second hand clothing store,
while another in q South American
city is trading in goat-skips which he
exports to this country for half duty,
by sewing two skins together and
invoicing them as one. The interpre-
ter Of another consulate, sent out
from here at a salary Of two thousand
dollars, hes had to resort to all sorts
of sinful articles to keep soul and
body together, and the Democratic
House, the other day cut down his
salary to fifteen hundred dollars. In
some of these foreign cities it costs a
great deal more to live than it does at
home, because of the very fact that a
consul attache of a diplomatic char
acter ID supposed to afford to pay we'll
for everything.
The dedication of the big monu-
ment, the ceremonies of which will
take place in the Hall of the House
of Representatives on the Dist inst. =,
is exciting a good deal of severe COM
mert because of the exclusiveness of
the thing. The House with lis gal
leries will accommodate about sixteen
hundred people, and these seats have
all been placed at the disposal Of
members Of Congress, who assume
that the memory Of Washington is
their own private property. By the
present arrangement, therefore, only
members Of Congress and their invited
guests will be able to take in the IN
tellectual part of the ceremonies
Here again the Washingtonian pro-
clivity to rake in the spare dimes
protrudes itself, for every conceiva'
bic device upon which figure of the
monument can figure, will be peddled
upon the street, from the candy
lozenge to the card of ginger bread
with the shape Of an elephant bearing
the monument on bis back. A sad
feature Of this celebration viii be the
impossibility of the usual pilgrimage
to Mount Vernon, unless the weather
clerk should change bis tactics for the
occasion. The river for some time
has been frozen over so the boat has
been compelled to suspend her daily
trips to the American Mecca. As
Washington was a Mason in pretty
good standing during the last years
of his life, the Masonic fraternity of
Washington City in conjunction with