Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-05-04
Talks of the Administration and
Civil Service Reform.
ApPoINTMENTs-sXUlDUeeERr.
A Bad ExampIe---An lnnOeent Abroad
Political Gossip at the
Capital.
POINTS FOR OFFICE SEEKERS.

sincere advocate OF Civil Service hetorm,
from nv earliest discussion Of current
politics, but The brave and influencing aP-
pGcstion of its principles, which the Presi-
dent is constantly making, gives me even
increasing appreciation Of the need Of the
reform, and Of the great and benefeent re-
suits it will accomplish.
"Howg
"It puts a chain upon the virtue and
patriotism of the victorious party to which
nv historical reading furnishes no parallel
and / am glad TO observe that twenty-five
Years Punishment from political position
has not begotten merely s-Ssyenous hunger
for 'spoils,' but has very percephbly tostered
a spirit OF Independence Of official patron
age Hence belleve the Democratic party
will be able, With some waveringand out
CIV, TO be sure, 20 rise to the height Of the
great argument and Justify the wisdom Of
those who placed it in power.
Appointments.
What newspaper men sometimes hear
called by the name ofpersonal influence has,
believe, the same weight as 1t used to have
perhaps as far back as the time when one
of two people in a garden was influenced to
eat something Tor the sake Of the party who
was backing the request. From that time TO
this personal solicitation has been reckon
ed the surest way OF getting at plunder and
the offices.
There were innocents-two Of them-to
be fooled in those days, Just as there are
now. and the character known everywhere
for MS influence and called, generally,
Nick. fer short, has followers in the apple
.r.ILeSS.
Skulduggery.
This business Of getting place through
p,-.or 81 solicitation, alone is disgrace to
. civilized people 1t iscalculated to make
ials snd hypocrites OF public men, and turn
them into trsmps, with fellows on their
backs like Barnaby Ridge and the raven in
the basket.
1t used to be that mans word was as
good as his bond, and l took it that the
higher of the two pledges, was the bond.
That all done away with. A fellow can
lie so well and appear to tell the truth st
the same time, that his word means more
than his bond. He can't wink on paper, ne
can, OIL paper.
There's another feature about the busi-
ness, the public man who endorses you can't
whisper on paper. Mark this, young man
from the country.
This you viii find an axiom: That
since Adam and Ave, the strongest kind Of
influence has been personal influence.
Again, an endorsement, a paper, means
nothing usually, unless the endorSer really
intends 10 assume the obligation. Such
stuff as, 81 very cheerfully concur in all that
has been said By my colleague, is rot.
What did the colleague say? THIS John
Thomas comes so well recommended by
those whose testimony is so strong and un-
questionable, that take pleasure in saying
John Thomas would come up to what is
said Of him"
Come up to hen.roost, for all the public
man cared or knew.
Whenever you are wanted in place you
will be asked, and when public man (grest
man, this wants you 10 have place, he
asks it for you. There is no doubt of that
Now with positive request. To be sure,
there is a vast deal of lying between the
lines of 8 sheet Of paper, but that's diplO-
macy. It's hard name for it, but so theY
call il, 1t sometimes goes abroad.
A so called endorsement IS generally con-
Sidered squaring up. The great man who
gives his recommendation thinks be has |
cancelled Obligations aud barred out the |
constituent EoreverE ore, Just as If that |
constituent were an ass and didn't know |
Ig from q thistle.
An Innocont Abroad.
youDg man got letter from him to |
the head of department. II looked as II |
pepper and salt couldn't make It stronger. |
The young man was astolishsd to hnd that |
he couldn't ge. in on II. Going back to |
Morton he told him of his failure. The |
devil, sald Morton, have 1 no influence? |
/ wrote rs strong a letter as | could What |
means this treatment Of me? | cant 60 to |
that department any more after being re-
fused upon such letter.
That young man swallowed the apple and |
became Norton striker. But halt an
hour after the interview, he could have
found Morton asking the head OF the de-
partrert 10 appoint q fellow 10 the place
the innocent wanted.
Ihe experience Of nearly fifteen years has
taught me mat the man IN Official station
who means what he says about endorse
ments is a moral hero. have had soma
correspondence, and have seen good deal
ct the endorsement business.
But there's one feature about these en-
dCrsemer's, they are ike picSles-they
Esep. Very often you can make the man
who wIo'e one eat dirt too.
\ Bad Example.
Oliver p Morton, who was great man
in much vas in many respects bad man.
He had II understood az the departments
tha, letters from him meant nothing. Pom
der over that sor awhile and then turn away
yoU- face,
Said he: When / want anything ask
'Os it, and when want place for any one
ask FOR i. 5ut not on paper. Paper IS the
instrument With which kill bores. IL pro-
teCts me, and yet get nd OF 4 great many
people by giving them letters.
After all it would seem that the fellow
Who gets IN ahead of you ought not to De
the better and the heeler, the buffer and the
striker, the animal who has gotso little OF
cecency left that he doesn't know when his
parting with it, whose honor Is OF such KIND
that be can surrender il without feeling the
want Of il.
RcheEsu said TO Francois Beneath the
rule Of men entirely great, the pen Is
mlghuer than the sword" Ii seems to me
mat, IN great measure, a bludgeon IS
nlghusr than the pen.
Conkiing.
When Roscoe Consling wss Senator be
vent on the theory Of Richeheu,. for he was
man entirely great BE despise1 the sys-
TlI, I'm o. N!udgeOning people into Office: de
ae.c his written word as binding as IT was
Ssseord for the future. Besides, the diguity
y MS station, be thought, forbade the pill
AEng Of Departments.
SaiG one Of bis friends to me last night
Sonkhng had lofty sense Of duty. l
OS thlsL He put nothing in writing ex-
pShat be meant to to be sacred. he
I:nt'e' 'td IL ihe strongest Say Of endorsing