The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1885-12-12

or later fall to the eartn. fale anu tieu1-
bling with anxiety he began the ascent of
tie shaft. When up distance of perhaps
two hundred feet he found the cause of his
disturbance. During the interval between
quitting work Saturday night and begin
ming work Monday morning spider had
spun lumber of webs across the wall to
to the cord, and the tension of these in
diyidually Insignificant threads had drawn
the plumb line away from the wall, causing
the displacement of the lead noted at the
base of the structure. Col. Casey's mind
was relieved, and the workmen were hand
somely refreshed at his expense.
Senator Edmunds has often been charged
with being an attorney for Jay Gould, and
may have performed legal services for the
great railroad wrecker, but notice that he
appeared in the Supreme Court recently
to argue case against one of the corpora
tons which Gould controls. While Mr..
Edmunds believes that Senator or Rep
resentative in Congress may continue the
practice of his profession and appear in
the Federal Court, he makes it rule never
to accept retainer in case which in
wolves the interest of the Government in any
way, unless it be some constitutional ques-
ton which he thinks should be determined.
If all our public men we're equally conscien-
tious, it would be we'll for them and for
the country. Still there is not nearly as
much corruption in public life as the scan
dial hunters would have it appear.
Our civil service is much purer than that
of any other country. There will be wrong
doing as long as temptation exists, and
public men will twist the laws of propriety
around 80 as to justify themselves in making
profits out of their influence or in securing
their own advancement therby; but as COM
pared with England and other countries,
the politics of the United States are pure.
Over there no man thinks of getting seat
in Parliament except by purchase, while
here such thing is very rare. j talked
the other day with member of our high
judiciary, who spent the summer in Eu-
rope, upon this point, and he said that he
was amazed by the amount of corruption in
the elections of England and the degree of
tolerance exhibited toward it. The people
had come to look upon the purchase of
votes as necessary, if not a proper thing,
and regarded the practice very much as we
do stock gambling, one of the necessary
evils of the age.
Assistant Secretary Fairchild tells me
that those who are interested in the tariff
question will be much disappointed when
they see the documents that have been re-
cular of inquiry. The object of the in
quiry was to call out the views of the mer-
camille and industrial men of the country
| as to the legislation needed or desired by
the interests they represent, and it was in
tented to submit the replies to Congress
| for its information and guidance, but those
for whose benefit this plan was adopted dc
not seem to have taken much interest in
men or firms to whom tho inquiries were
addressed have responded, and the replies
received are not of character either tc
have much influence, or represent the views
of the interests involved. They will be
sent to Congress, however, just as they are
and lot of good white paper will be ruined
by printing them.
Work on the unfinished cruisers, the Chi
cago and Boston, has been resumed al
Chester under the direction of the Bureaus
of Steam Engineering and Construction OF
the Navy Department.
Yours truly, g. ALERT.