The Washington critic., 1886-06-01
TOPICS OF THE DAY,

make them sorry trouble, says q Wash
ington special 10 the Omaha Bee A
large number of the new employees,
and many of those who have been dis
missed from the service on one protext
and another, are selling their OH cial
information and personal skill to those
having claims before the Departments.
The injustice this practise works upon
the Government is plain. A clerk can
so manipulate n claim in his division
as to make its success almost sure and
yet do nothing for which he can be
held responsible. Claims. after all,
are allowed or rejected largely
upon the personal preiudices
Of those who handle them. Almost
anything can be passed or defeated IL
II Is desired by even the "underliners,"
the clerks who handle them. 1t Is
claimed that combinations have been
formed between the clerks and ex
clerks, whereby matters are pushed
through, held up or rejected at will.
Nothing especially irregular, and moth
ing that can be construed into crime,
have been developed In the practice.
Neither has 1t been discovered that the
clerks share with the eX.clerks In the
fees paid. Doubtless the work is
largely done by favor and through
friendship
~
Judge Kelly has been having hard
time in the House recently, says the
correspondent of the Pittsburg Ohron-
tcle. Telegraph. He has received sar.
casm in return for his own caustic re-
marks, and has had his own speeches
resurrected TO take part in the talk
against him. lie has not enjoyed the
experience particularly, and in the
evenings after one of the debates he is
not the most pleasant man in the world
10 make a friendly call upon. AS
matter of fact, he Is not q good-hu.
mored companion at the best of times.
He is rasping, choleric, and most un.
certain in his humors, and at times
when he is unwell, or when business
has gone against him, he is tho best
man in Washington to let alone. He
lives here, as he has done for some
years, in the two rooms Of the frs
floor of tail brick lodging house OF
Fourteenth street. He boards at tn
Riggs House, around the corner, an
after dinner his tall silk hat, with hi
refractory iron.gray hair sticking OF
from under 1t, Is conspicuous objec
in the lobbies. He talks awhile t
anybody who offers; tells few storic
TO whatever group happens to gathe
around, and then goes off to his room,
and his studies on the tariff and politi
cal economy,
**4
"This thing of letters of introduction
makes a pain in my sidel' exclaimed
an old Senator the other day, throwing
down on the floor batch Of letters
from his constituents. "Do you know"
he continued to the indianapolis Jour-
nal correspondent, that I receive an
average of ten letters day from men
who want letters of introduction to all
classes of people, including diplomats
in foreign countries, railroad men,
bankers in the East, politicians and all
classes Of people imaginable. The
largest number of requests come for
letters of introduction to public Off
cials. If the men in the country only
had sense to know that a letter of in
PRODUCTION is never necessary for any
person calling upon public official
they would save men of my position an
immense amount of trouble. This thing
is growing irksome. and think | shall
have to warn my constituents aboutit." J"
NV
1t is not an uncommon thing for
Congress to sit as late as August, says
"Carp" in the Cleveland Leader. The
first session of the Forty y-seventh Con-
gress did not adjourn till August 8, and
that of the Forty fourth was here
until August IA. In 1856 Congress sat
from December till August 1S, while
the Thirty second and Thirty-third
Congresses each held nine months ses-
sions. In 1850 Congress sat as late as
September 30, spending the whole sum-
mer at Washington, and in 1912 the
regular second session of the Twenty
seventh Congress did not adjourn till
August 81. Running further back the
Congressional sessions were shorter.
The longest sessions Of the Sixteenth,
Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth,
Twentieth and Twcnty-frst Congresses
ended before the last of May, and those
of the Ninth and Tenth and Thir.
teenth came to close In April Since
1916 the regular sessions of Congress
have begun in December, but before
this they seemed to have had no fixed
time. The First Congress met March
4, 1850, the Second on the Gath of Octo
ber, 1901, and the Third on the 18th OF
October, 1903.
~
Says Austin in the Iimes.Star: The
annual season of spring scrubbing Is
on at the Capitol. If you ride or walk
up the hill to the great marble building
you will see its sides decorated with
huge swinging scafrolds, upon which
are moving little dots, which turn ou
on close examination to be men. The
Capitol is so big and its walls so high
that the men look like infants as they
walk about the scalfolds. The atmos
phere of Washington is very remark
ably free from smoke and dirt, yet it |:
found necessary to scrub down tht
sides of the marble palace once or twice
year. The white marble soon be
comes dingy, even in the clearest at
mosphere. The amount of materia
and labor required to go over this hug,
surface is something wonderful. Ther,
are literally acres of this surface, an(
the task of washing 1t occupies weeks
of time. The central portion of thC
building, the old Capitol, is painted
for, as everybody knows, it was bull
in keeping with the wings, which are
of white marble. Some of these days
Congress will take spasm Of psthet