The Washington critic., 1886-04-09
TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Says the Chicago Current. The i'll.
ness of Mr.. Manning brings up all those
questions which surround the present
drift Of dollar.g getting and man.driving.
Why do men of affairs work so hard2
The one answer Is, and the answer can
only be; Your man of affairs Is either
trying to be too great, or the social
system pushes him to his grave. How.
ever useful man may be to his fell
lows, he may be spared without any
serious loss to the generation In which
he lives, and If he overwork himself.
the sooner be go the better IL Is. In
the march of ideas, ideas have not re.
| stricted themselves to the few chief
men of affairs. Ideas have not pro.
| gressed so much In intrinsic value as In
numerical quantity. The upper ten
thousands have no better ideas than
they had twenty years ago, but
the fifty millions have secured
| their own per capita of the human
| ideal heritage. Secretary Manning s
| case is one in million like 1t. There
is no common sense In Secretary Man.
ming doing over one hour Of Office
work a day. The Ship of State shifts
her cargo of toll. Athundrcds Of desks
through the great buildings loafers
strut their brief hours, while the
responsible men" do all the work.
AT New York city, when the first gold
certificates were issued, the Sub.Treas.
urer, old Mr.. Acton, got notion he
ought to sign each bill, and Mr.. Win
dom, the Secretary, humored the
notion. 1t resulted that, IL Mr.. Acton
had been n six.day, go.as- you please
| gladiator instead of a ripe old man, he
| could not have performed the actual
manual labor which he had coveted
for himself, and after bothering the
bankers q few weeks, he was brought
to recognize the fact and succumb
TO the limits of human possibilities.
There are thousands of Actions in every
city. The temptation to be-all and
end d'all is In every business man s
mind. Let us remove II, in some way.
But last week We supposed that Jordan
was the Jupiter Olympus of the Treas.
ury. Now we know that Jordan be.
came great off the crumbs of power
that rolled from the table in front of
the overweight Manning In the
Government offices would be good
place to begin the trimming of the tree.
Abolish the work. Cut down business.
Simplify the needs of the public SER
vice. Take warning from Walkers s
superb fiasco of the Tenth Census.
Give us an Eleventh Census of ten
small volumes.
Joaquin Miller arrived at El Paso,
Texas, last Sunday, from the City of
Mexico, and on being asked by cor
respondent of the New Orleans Times
Democrat what he thought of the coun-
try, he replied Mexico is delicious
land have been sixty days in the
saddle down there, sleeping out in the
mountains, with the Indians every
where. and tell you / never before
met entire hospitality. They neither
knew who or what was. They saw
was stranger and hungry. l say re-
bate the hundred thousand dollars they
owe us, send them back the old cannon
and flags, and we will receive thou.
sands for every dollar. They are Just
leo is trying to speak English. This Is
one Of the 6cst signs of their great flu.
ture." Mr.. Miller left that night for
| pub lCtulhS III u uOutu "
the Mexican capital.
l. .*4
| The Washington correspondent of
the Cleveland Leader is informed that
the two richest men in the House are
disgusted with Congressional life.
These are FELTON, of California and
Scott of Pennsylvania. FELTON, is u
sharp, shrcwd little fellow, full of good
common sense ideas and possessed of
great practical experience. He never
calls black white. and has no love
for shams or demagogy. He will
make speech some day in Congress
that will read well in the papers and
show that there is something more to
him than his check book. But he
doesn't like this making a $4,000
man do the work that could be done
by an cmploye at $1,000. refer to
the routine duties of the Congressman
and he pines to get out of the narrow
pathways of the Congressional pasture
into the broader highways of the
world. Scott is good deal like
him, though am not SO sure
OF his retiring at the close OF
the session. Scott has taken stand of
his own upon money questions, and he
is good deal of man in the House.
Though he has large interests, he Is in
his seat about as much as any man in
Congress, and he attends to his duties
here as carefully as though he was a
poor man. He is slightly bent man
of medium height, with q half-bald
head and n rather pleasant face.
Neither he nor FELTON, have any snob
bishness about them, and you would not
suppose to look at them that they were
possessed of more money than would
rebuild the Capitol.
aS4
Mr.. Robert p. Porter, the distin
guished tariff expert, who is now
writing sketchy letters to the Philadel
phia Press, gossips of Secretary Lamar
as follows: Some of his discreet matror
friends say 1t is pity that the grea
Mississippian does not concentrate hi'
affection and lay it at the feet Of some
charming Southern woman who would
make him happy. They regret tht
frivolous turn he has taken of late, anG
hear with amazement the 101 stories
which are floating around of the pretty
sentimental speeches which the Secre
tary Of the Interior makes alike to hi'
lady callers and the numerous pretty
clerks in his department. Madame,
said the poetical Secretary tc
q lady applying for position in the
Interior Department, 81 have just one
thing to give" and bowling low hi
placed his right hand upon his heart