Savannah morning news., 1885-01-18
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CorresDOndence Of the Morning Neeos.

1t is at the capitol, however, that the
autograph collector is IN his glory. There
great men are TO be met at every turn,
and autographs which are attractive
everywhere away from Washington may
be had for the asking. The customary
method Of obtaining them is through the
services Of the pages in the House and
Senate and Supreme Court. These little
fellows are bright ana quick, and quite
ready fer the opportunity to make few
dollars by this process. We get from
s. 90 $40 or SO for getting an album filled
i'm The House." said one OF the pages of
that LOdv, Wh0, 10y the way, is a grand
son Of a noted member OF the Confederate
cabinet. The senate pages get about the
same for getting the autographs of tn
members over there. Ii an album
is TO have the autographs OF
the President, Cabinet officers.
Supre Court Justices, Senators and
Representatives, complete, we usually
get $2j for getting it filled. How do we
I get them2 Go 10 the members when they
are in their seats and ask them tor their
autographs. They seldom. refuse. Some
times, if they are busy they won't do
it, but fellow with tact won't 20 TO a
member when he sees that he is busy.
There are some who don't like it much.
There is Mr.. Belmont, for instance,
ne doesn't fancy it very much,
but he usually signs, though. Then
when we get the House we get some
page in the Senate 10 get the Senator'S
names. and then get the riding page or
some good natured member to get the
Presidents and Cabinet officers sigma
lures for u.s."
They are a curious study, these albums,
after they have been passed around and
filled with signatures from the White
House down. Some OF them are not only
passed, bat Tepassed and passed again,
until they contain the autographs of two
or three generations of statesmen. It
seems that when one gets this disease be
never recovers from it, and whenever
there comes in lot of new statesmen the
Old album is brought to the surface and
trOtted round for more sign-manuals. So
it sometimes happens that one of these
albums has tie autographs OF two or more
Presidents. of q dozen or more Cabinet
officers, of 100 Senators and eX-SenatOrs,
and Of perhaps 500 members and eX-mem-
bers Of the House. The perusal Of one Of
these well filled books is really interest
ing. If a mans autograph is a key to his
character, as is sometimes claimed, then
some statesmen must have very crooked
characters. 1t bad penmaushIp is a sign
Of greatness, then il is in evidence that
we have many great men. For the sigma
lures are many of them painfully bad.
A few are "aristically' bad, evidently
written badly with malice aforethought,
but the majority that are unreadable
seem to be so because the
writer can't do any better or
else hasn't time to. Take the signatures
of these two great tariff agitatOrs, for in
stance, Mr.. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, and
Morrison, Of Illinois. They really
look as though the writers couldn't
do any better. They look like
the signatures OF men who had
been accustomed to holding the plOw
rather than wrestling with problems of
craftsmanship. And those of other tariff
men are not much better. Mr.. Carlisle,
for instance, signs 81. G.. Carlisle, Gov
ington. KY" in IA hand that reminds you
OF that in which your butcher bills are
made out. Hurd writes a fair hand, and
Randall signs ''Sam. j. Randall' in a
clear, firm, business-like hand that is a
pleasure to read. Mills. of Texas, writes
as he talks, when on the tariff question,
very "lOud.' his signature looking as if it
had been written with Il wooden tooth
pick. and covering nearly half a page of
the album. Hewitt's hand is as unsteady
as his step, and his signature is any
thin. but pretty or strong. Washburne,
of Minnesota, writes a fairly legibly sig
nature. in big letters, and, rs it is good
for million dollars when signed
to CHECK. it passes without
criticism, Mcmillan, the Senator from
Minnesota, writes a better hand than
Washburne, but is not worth a dollar.