The Washington critic., 1886-05-28
WASHINGTON CRITIC
WASHINGTON, MAY 2S, 1886.
TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Vile Times. | asked George Alfred
Townsend the other day to give me an
estimate OF the literary work he hal
done. lie said: "Mr. Bookwalter asked
me that question fhe other day, and we
figured 1t out an average of $1,000
words q week for the last twenty-five
years. That would make 15o volumes
of 700 or 300 pages each" To give an
idea of the immensity of this literary
labor, let's put 1t into columns the size
of those of the Times. AT the average
named the aggregate would foot up
1860, 600 words per annum, or 80 900,
COO for the period of twenty five yeats
The columns of this paper carry about
1900 words. The grand total of 3d.
OO0OO0 words, divided by the column
measure indicated, yields 10000 col.
umDs of matter, an average of 1,20O
columns annually, or nearly four col
umns daily, Sundays not included. year
In and Year out for quarter of cen.
fury. II would be safe TO say that the
10000 columns have brought him an
average of $S, which would foot up
s2d0,000. This would be nearly Sl0,-
GOO II year for the term of twenty-five
years. Eight dollars a column is low
estimate, as he has been paid so for
most of his work of late years.
~
II remember" said the Colonel of
an Ohio regiment to an Atlanta C0a-
Shtuti0n man, there was for good
many months Mt the Camp Chase hos.
pital, mysterious, morosc invalid
whose limbs had been paralyzed. lie
was cavalry officer. and in one en-
gagement after he had been severely
wounded, his horse fell on him and
pinned him in agony to the ground.
He was not released for hours, and as
the result of that wound and that long
agony, came his dead limbs. lie be.
came discouraged and disturbed over a
faucied slight on the part of his own
people, and buried himself as 1t were, in
the camp hospital. In some way it
came to be understood that he died. |
am not clear as to how the affair was
managed; but the impression that he
was dead prevailed very generally,
even among the visitors to the hospital
In the course of several months gen.
tleman and lady came from Kentucky
to make inquiries about the morose in
valid. The answer to their question
at the hospital were evasive, but som ;.
attendant pointed out to them thD
grave of the man they sought. They
accepted this man. story without ques
ton and took steps to have the remains
taken South. At this juncture another
attendant at the hospital called on them
to explain that the mysterious invalid
was not dead, but that he had disap-
peared under circumstances not clearly
understood by anyone about the hos
pital. This brought about an investi-
cation, and the further the people went
into the matter the more they were
mystitied, but in the end the man was
found. On. the first Decoration Day
observed at the cemetery at Columbus
man on crutches came suddenly face
to face with lady who sprang toward
him with scream, and had him in
her arms before he comprehended the
circumstances or the situation. This
woman was his sister, and she carried
him off, much against his will, to the
old home, where reconciliation took
place and the mau so far recovered as
to enter upon his old business and to
succeed"
.*x
The great activity in the folding
room of the House of Representatives
says special to the st. Paul Globe,
points to the coming campaign for
nominations and elections to Congress.
Almost every Congressman has de-
livered speech or caused one to be
printed in the Congressional Record,
and the Government Printing Office
has been kept busy to supply the de-
mand for copies for circulation. Be-
sides many members have their
speeches printed in convenient form at
private printing offices at less cost than
they can be furnished at the Govern
ment establishment. After any speech
has been made that attracts much at.
tention some one of the pages goes
around among the members and takes
orders for as many hundreds or thou
sands of copies as any member chooses
to pay for for circulation in his dis
trict. The boys get percentage upon
the orders they take and some of them
earn good deal of cash in that way
whenever subject that attracted the
general attention of the country
produces an extra crop of speeches.
The most prolific topics this
session have been silver, pen.
sions and labor. The number of
speeches folded for mailing up to this
date is 1885, 900, which Is 1000, 900
more than had been folded during the
corresponding period of the long ses.
sion OF 1884. Many thousands OF the
speeches already delivered are yet to be
prepared for mailing, and the long
promised tariff debate has not vel
yielded its crop. The number of tariff
speeches folded during the long session
of 1884 was 2,325 900. 1t will probably
he necessary to increase the number OF
folders before the close of the session
in order to get the speeches ready fol-
circulation in time to do the most gooG
for the Congress or the party for whose
benefit they were produced
w.
General III. Clay Armstrong, Consul
General to Brazil, arrived in Washing.
ton this week, on his way to his home
In Alabama. He is on go days
leave of absence, He gives an interest
ing account Of the condition of tn,
colony of Southerners who went tC
Brazil just after the war. "These peo
ple." said General Armstrong, "lcf
the United States Immediately after
hostilities ceased. They believed tina
the South could not recover from th,
effects of the iron heel of war, and tina
the people who participated In the wa
would never have any show in the re
constructed Union. found them 40t
miles from Rio Janeiro, in the bacl
country. They have tract about fif