The Washington critic., 1886-07-21

MS coat was OH ana ne nau luCkeu
handkerchief { into the neck. band of his
shirt wherewith to protect his collar
and cravat from the inroads Of the
melting mood. Documents, books, pa
pcrs and what not lay round in disor-
derly profusion, aud at the hour of
midnight he was busily toiing In the
effort to reduce his correspondence
from mountain TO mole hill proper
tions. "Just look across the
street." said he, "and you will
observe seated in cluster round
the cool corner of the Ebbitt House q
coterie of gentlemen. chatting and en-.
joying each others company. Three.
fifths of the crowd are Members of Con
gress, and while | am penned up like
chicken In q coop working into the
wee sma' hours, my worthy colleagues
nightly disport themselves In this
fashion. They must either control
pocket boroughs or else shlrlS their
labors and take the big chances. Per.
haps, after all, they are the wiser. /
have taken the fancy" continued the
Congressman refloctively "that con.
stituency has no mercy on Repre-.
sentative who is known to be worker.
my Jusb liC uoN IL On anu lhluN
he likes II, and therefore call for things
they don't want as well as those they
do, just to put him on his mettle. 1
suppose you think ought to employ
stenographer to help me out in my cor.
respondence. l do occasionally procure
such assistance, but If there is anything
which makes my people raging mad
1t is to receive answers to their letters
written In strange hand with my sig
nature alone appended. They assume
1t is not my action, but put up job
just to get rid of the affair. Occa-
sionally | am obliged to dictate to q
stenographer formal reply acknowl.
edging receipt of the letter and stating
that the matter will receive attention in
due course, etc., etc heard the other
day of conversation which occurred
between two of my constituents to
whom | had indicted such letters.
Did you hear from Congressman
Blank in reply to your letter ? queried
one. Yes, did; l received one of
his - circular letters Did you hear
from himY Yes, replied the first, 4
got one one Of the - circulars, too = Z"
~
CuIu OoNcIuOI NuTllu tHc OtueT udy
to correspondent of the Philadelphia
Times, referring to his services in
raising troops during the late war I
was convinced that one hundred days
would not witness the close of that
struggle, so / called an extra session of
the Legislature. / secured authority
to raise not less than fifteen nor more
than thirty regiments of troops to con-
stitutc reserve corps, and the Legis-
lature voted three and half million
dollars to organize and equip this
force. General McCaull, most eff
cient officer, a regular, but not then Ia
the service, but living in Chester
County, think, was selected to organ.
ize the reserves. He went to work
promptly and in q very short time
Pennsylvania had at her command
thirteen regiments of infantry, one
of cavalry and one of artillery-as fine a
body Of troops as ever mustered under
the colors of any State or nation on the
| globe" Were they ready before the
battle of Bull Run ?" Certainly. l
offered the corps to the Government
before that battle. They were ready
and could have been in Washington
just as well before that fight as the day
after it," "Why were they not there p
"1hat is one of the secrets of history
and / do not care to open 1t now. "
How do you explain the refusal ?"
To this the Governor laconically re.
piled: "The Secretary of War" "But
Governor, the Secretary of War at that
time was Simon Cameron of Pennsyl.
vania. He would naturally have taken
pride in seeing the blue standard OF
Pennsylvania planted in victory on the
field of Bull Run" "Well, all / say
is that discovered when we so hastily
set the Reserves in motion to save
Washington from possible capture, thai
President Lincoln, before the battle OF
Bull Run, did not know that there was
such body of troops as the
Reserves of Pennsylvania. "How
many other regiments did you or
ganize as War Governor p "Aftel
the Reserves, during my administra
ton, were organized two hundred and
seventeen regiments of all arms, ant
Pennsylvania furnished during the wa,
3G7 ,442 men. For domestic defense
organized eight thousand men for th,
As | expected from the beginning
every year of the war the enemy wa
on Pennsylvania soil. AT the close o
the war all the men who lived to return
went back quietly to the arts of peace.
"That was as remarkable spectacle a
the war itself" Eyes, it was but
take pride in another thing. l pro
posed and carried out the charitabl
work of homes for the nurture an
education of the orphans Of soldiers o
Pennsylvania. The State has OK
pended nine millions of dollars in that
No nation ever did that"