Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1886-02-25
WASHINGTON.
CONGRESSMEN'S LETTERS.
The Average Lawmaker Gets from Ten
to Fifty Each Day.

Tho Average Lawmaker Gets from Ten
to Fifty Each Day.
The letters received by congressman
are of all kinds, and some Of them are
very funny, Your average congressman
gets from ten to fifty letters day and
the member who would do any work
upon the great questions Of the day must
use stenographer. Now nearly every
member has his shorthand clerk, who
comes in the morning or evening, an.
swcrs all his mail. and runs about
through the departments for him. The
congressman takes bundle Of about
twenty letters in his hands, and sits down
in his room with his stenographer at his
side. The stenographer has a pencil and
notebook. The congressman takes up
letter by letter, and as fast as he can talk
reads off an answer to it, which the
shorthand man takes down as fast as the
words fall from the members lips.
half hour passes, and the twenty let
ters hT4e pesn finished. What would
nave taken the member four hours to do
Tor himself he Las accomplished in thir-
" minutes ny tne aid Of his stenographer
ihis may pe al Il o'clock in the morn,
ing lie now gSes to the capitol, and
when ne returns iS dinner at his TWEEN
~ letters are lying on the table ready fol-
MN 10 sign ne Goes this and his clerk
MANS tnelh. oonIe congressman allow
their cierhs W wrte their notes on tn,
typewriter. otners must have them writ
ten out by hand, as letters ON the type
writer LOOK 700 mucl like printed circu
!ars' IN written ie'ters nine out Of tel
men VINO receive tns letters will thinl
the congressman uid all the writing
themselves. -
BIG THING TO 1 CONSTITUENT.
A long letter from congressman is {
big thing to the cons fluent in the bach
county. He takes it around and show,
it to his friends, then lays 1t away in tn,
family Bible, and keepsit as reverently
as though it was his graadfather's viii
and the old man was yet alive, had lot,
Of property, and likely to irop off any
day. Some congressman answer every
letter they receive, no matte how trivia
the affair, or how silly the request. 9th
ers throw a great part of thei' correspond
ence into the waste. basket, and some
never read Office seeking letters at all. A
great part of the correspondence OF ;
congressman relaies to gafden seeds ant
public documents. An Ohio member tolt
me the other day that his constituents
kept better track of the government
publications than he did himself Sale
he: They watch the papers closely, ant
when any thing new Is published my frs
knowledge of it, in many cases, Gomez
from requests for it,"
The pension letters form another large
portion of the cohgressmen's mail, anG
Gen. Grosvenor says he gets letters from
every State in the Union on pension mat
tiers. A number of letters have been com
ing in lately from an old crank WHIT
wants congress to pension school teach
ers who have outlived their usefulness
This man says the government has mil
lions of idle money in the treasury, ant
he thinks that S15 ,000, 900 ought to be de
voted to this purpose. A Kansas maj
got letter the other day, accompanied
by curious horseshoe, which black
smith wanted him to get patented fo
him, and another member know ha
just answered letter Of o Yankee doc
tor, who is anxious that the Presiden
should send him out west as the govern
ment vaccinator Of the Indians.