Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-04-16
PAST ADMINISTRATIONS.
INCREASE IN THE BUSINESS OF THE
DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS.
Interesting Interview with IN Old wash
ingtonian-How Early Administrations
Compare with the Present in Magni-
tude-The Postomce Department.

ingtonian-How Early Administrations
Compare with the Present in Magni-
tade-The Postomce Department
The other day l met an old Washing
tonian, who has lived in this city ever since
he was born in 1870 He has lived under
the shadow Of the administration of Mon
roe, John Quincy Adams, jackson, Van
Buren,, Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Fill
more, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln, johnson,
Grant, Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur, and he
Is now living under the administration Of
Grover Cleveland, a man he never heard Of
till within three years l looked upon him
- . rich find. and invited him to my room,
and set my interviewing machine at work
@How do the early administrations under
which You lived compare with our modern
administrations In magnitude, and will you
please tell me about the personnel OF the
government In the different departm enta
Il was born, a. you will understand, dur
Ing the administration Of Monroe OF
course have no recollection Of him, but
have an indistinct recollection of Adams,
for he went out when was years old l
remember jackson very distinctly, for he
Wuut out when was IL. He was a small,
paEe gentleman, with q thin determined
hooking fsos, with his gray hair brushed
backward, standing up He was never
very particular in his dress. although on
state occasions he would handsome up md
look quite spruce. remember the yellow
ish white beaver hat lie wore, which gave
him q distinguished appearance. 1 have
seen him lots Of times sitting on the back
verandah Of the White House smoking a
corncob pipe
DEPARTMENTS IN OLD HIcKoRY'S TINE.
1.-The difference between the executive
branch Of the government and that of to
day is about the same as it is between a
country store and wholesale dry goods
house. Why, my dear sir, in the treasury
department there were not more than
seventy five clerks and employees, and now
they have if am not mistaken, about 3 900,
including the employees Of the pension and
printing bureaus You must remember the
revenue under Jackson's administration
only amounted to an average Of about s25,
coo, 900 per annuri, now it is about s300, Co.,,
COO He did not have S0O, 900 pensioners to
provide for, which alone requires an army
Of clerks; he had nc printing bureau to run,
which also requires about regiment of en-
ployes. He was not engaged in putting up
immense and costly buildings, as our gov
department. probably employ about three
times as many clerks as they did under
jackson. The interior department was not
in existence then, which employs a good
many hundreds of clerks. The employees of
the postoiiice department, including post
masters and their clerks, did not number
more than 5000 Now they number 75,00l.
The number of letters handled in those
good old days did not equal one hundredth
Of those handled to-day. You see postage
then was rated g. =, I21%, 1ssl, and 25 cents
per sheet no matter how large or how
small each sheet might be, and these rates
were charged according TO distance On
letter written on sheet accompanied by an
invoice, mailed at New York for Cleveland,
Buffalo, or other points Of equal or greater
distance the postage was so cents!
NOT QUITE so LARGE a MACHINE
The mails were almost universally car
ried by stage coaches or on horseback. You
can see from this the early presidents did
not have quite so large a machine to handle
Is the president Of to day have"
~Didn't they weigh their letters to asceT-
tain how much postage to charged"
"Why, no. The postmasterS were re-
Quired to find out from the appearance and
thickness of letter how many sheets COM
posed it. 1t was generally mere guess work
They u5ed no envelopes then, Two small
sheets would frequently be charged twice
much as a letter written Oh a sheet several
times as large"
@Were there as many callers at the
White House in those days as there are
nowf"
why, bless your soul, there were not
one fiftieth as many In those days there
were not per cent. as many strangers Wis
ting in Washington as there are now. We
had only one prominent hotel, called 'Gads
by's hotel 1t stood on the site Of the Ma
tional hotel There were no railroads to
bring people here Washington was . mere
village in size"
do you remember anything very peculiar
about Old Hickory
He had this pecullarity. He would stand
by his friends cost what it would, even If it
involved his reputation He was very
marked in that respect Bill Nye in Chi
cago Newa