, 1886-02-25
CONGRESSMEN'S LETTERS.
THE 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 "A day, and the
member who would do any work upon the
great questions Of the day must use a
stenographer. Now nearly every mem
Der has his shorthand clerk, who comes in
the morning or evening, answers all his
mail, and runs about the departments
for him. The congressman takes a bundle
of about twenty letters In his hands, and
sits down in his room with his stenog-
rapher at his side. The stenographer has
n pencil and n notebook. The congress-
man takes up letter by letter, and AS fast
as he can talk reads of an answer to IL,
which the shorthand mar takes down as
fast rs the words fall from the members
lips.
A half hour passes. and the twenty let
tiers have been finished. What would nave
taken the member lou hours to do for
himself he has accomplished in thirty
minutes by the aid Of his stenographer.
This may be at IL O'Clock In the morning.
He now goes to the capitol, and when he
returns for dinner nt b his twenty letters
are lying on the table ready for him to
sign. He does this and his clerk mails
them. Some congressman allow their
clerks TO write their notes op the type
writer. Others must have them written
out by hand, ms letters on the typewriter
look too much like printed circulars. In
written letters nine out " ten men who
receive the letters will think the congress
men did all the writing themselves.
A BIG THING TO A CONSTITUENT
A long letter from "A congressman Is n
big thing to the constituent in the back
county. He takes it around and shows it
TO his friends, then lays it way In the
family Bible, and keeps II as reverently
as though IL was his grandfather's will and
the old man was yet alive, had lots OF
property, and likely TO drop of any day.
Some congressman answer every letter
they receive, no matter how trivial he
affair. or how silly the request. Others
throw "A great part OF their correspond
ence into the waste-b basket, and some
never read ofice-seeking letters at all. A
great part OF the correspondence Of Il con-
gresham relates to garden seeds and pub
lie documents. An Ohio member told me
the other day that his constituents kept a
better track of the government publiea-
tions than he did himself. Said he: "They
watch the papers closely, and when any
thing new is published my first knowl-
edge OF 1t, in many cases, comes from re-
quests for it,"
The pension letters form another large
portion Of the conHressmen's mail, and
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 ID crank WHO wants
congress to pension school teachers who
have outliyed their usefulness. This man
say the government has millions Of idle
money in the treasury, and he thinks that
s15,OO0,0OO ought TO be devoted to this
purpose. A Kansas man got n letter the
other day, accompanied by a curious
horseshoe, which n blacksmith wanted
him to get patented for him, and another
member | know has just answered n letter
OF n Yankee doctor, who is anxious that
the president should send him out west as
the government vaccinator Of the Indians.
Carp In Cleveland Leader.