Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-02-15
C0NGRENSMEN'S LETTERS.
The AVERAGE lAWMAKER GETS
FROM TeNTO FIFTY EACH DAY.
some of Them Ne.y Funny How the
COnEressmsn Disposes Of His Core
spond-nc1 stenoErsph-r and Type
writer-A Big Thing to "a Commitment.

The letters received by congressman are
Of all kinds. and some Of them are very
funny. Your average congressman gets
from ten TO nifty letters a day. and the
member who wUul'klo any work upon the
great questions Of the day must Use u
stenOgrapher Now nearly every meIh
Der has his shorthand clerk, who comes l..
the morning or evening, answers all his
mail, and runs about the departments
for him The congressman l. Ses a bundle
Of about twenty letters in his hands, and
sits down in his room with his stenOg
rapher at his side The steuugrapher has
a pencil and notebook. The congress
man takes up letter by letter, and As fast
As he can talk reads of an answer to II
which the shorthand man takes down As
fast As the words fall from the memberi
lips
A half hour passes and the twenty let
tiers have been finished What would have
taken the member four hours to do TO!
himself he has accomplished i'll thirtJ
minutes by the aid of his stenOgrapher.
This may be AT II O'Clock in the morning
He now goes to the capitol, and when he
returns for dinner at ; his twenty letter..
are lying on the table ready for him ts
sign He does this and his clerk mall'
them Some congressman allow then
clerks to write their notes on the type
writer Others must have them writer
out by hand, AS letters on the typewriter
look too much like printed circulars IL
written letters nine out of ten men wht
receive the letters will think the congress
men did all the writing themselves.
A BIG THING TO 4 CONSTITUENT.
A long letter from II congressman is .
big thing to the constituent in the baCi
county He takes it around and shows Il
to his friends, then lays it away in thu
family Bible. and keeps il ~ reverentl!
a. though il WAS his grandfather's will ant
the old man was Vet alive, had lots o.
property. and likely to drop OFF any day
Some congressman answer every letteI
thev receive no matter how trivial thi
affair. or how silly the request. Other
throw a great part OF their correspond
ence into the waste basket, and som'
never read oftice-Seeking letters at all. !
great part Of the correspondence Of con
gresham relates to garden seeds and pub
lie documents An Ohio member told M,
the other day that his constituents kept I
better track Of the government publica
tiuus than he did himself Said he: They
watch the papers closely, and when any
thing new is published my first knowl
edge Of it, in many cases, comes from re
quests for it."
The pension letters form another larg,
portion OF the congressman mail. sn(
Gen. Grosvenor says he gets letters from
every state in the Union on pension mat
ters A number Of letters have been com
ing IN lately from a. old crank who want;
congress to pension school teachers wh'
have Outlived their usefulness This maj
says the government has millions of idli
money IN the treasury, and he thinks thai
tl5,OOOOO0 ought To be devoted to thi
purpose. A Kansas man got letter thu
other day, accompanied by a curiom
horseshoe, which u blacksmith wantec
him To get patented for him, and anOthe,
member know has just answered a lettel
OF II Yankee doctor, who is anxious tha
the president should send him out west a.
the government vacclnator OF the Indians
carp" in Cleveland Leader.