The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-08-20
OFFICE SEEKERS AT WASHINGTON.

TnEopoRE WATTS.
OFFICE SEEKERS AT WASHINGTON
senaud Women Who Want to Live
at Government Expense.
Washington has fewer office seekers than it
has had for years. The political campaign
has driven them to their homes, and they
are trying to earn their right to place I'M
dor the next administration. The applica-
tions for Office are numbered by millions.
There are about $50, 900 places in the gov
eminent service, all told, and there are on
the average more than ten applications for
Zach of these annually. There are now sew
eral hundred thousand applications for
nositions in the postoflice department which
have not been acted upon, and the ap-
nointment clerk of the treasurJ has filed
away papers in the cases Of rejected office
seekers which if spread out would carpet
the state of Rhode Island. | chatted with
one of the appointment clerks recently,
saws the Rochester Herald man, and ne
told mo that the rule was that the smaller
the nosition and the smaller the salary the
greater the number of applicants for it. Each
Application is accompanied with letters of
recommendation and Endorsement, and not
a few men bring petitions signed by hun
dreds of citizens Of their native towns. IL
fine position is a very important one and
the application seems worthy, it is briefed
and sent to President Cleveland, but in
many cases it never gets beyond the hands
of the clerk In the interior depart
ment there are two large rooms de-
voted to the storing of these applications
for Office.
The office seekers at the capital do not by
sny means represent the number of appli-
cations received. Many of the requests
FOR places are made by mail and not few
by congressman and senators who repre-
cent the district from which the applicants
como.
The horde at Washington is large enough.
1t fills the hotels at the first of the session,
and it keeps up the boarding houses in the
back streets later on When the office
seeker arrives he is flush, and he does not
hesitate to pay s. day for his board. A
week later he begins to economic, and by
the end of the session he is, as a rule,
strapped. lie then borrows from his
friends, and IL ne has not sense enough to go
back home, he degenerates into dead
beat There is no place in the world where
deal beatisn" prevails to such an extent
as it does in Washington. You will find
about fifty men about each of the leading
hotels in the course of a coy who will &C
cept drink from man If he crooks his
fingcr, and more good-natured set of
seeGy-loolxing fellows does not exist.
The women Office seekers are numerous,
and indeed the departments offer very nice
D sitions to women. The hours are short
and the wages are better than they can get
anywhere else. They make good clerks,
and in many cases they like the work and
are especially fitted for certain depart
ments They come here by the hundreds
at the first of every session. They are as &
rule of good families, and are usually we'll
dressed and well educated. Many of them
are widows whose husbands have died in the
service, and not few are soldiers daugh-
tiers. They are the daughters of
the soldiers of the south as well as
those of the north, and a very 1ir percent
age Of the female officers in Uncle Sans
clerical army come from the +. +. VS.
Women office seekers are very importunate;
that is, the Dol or ones among them. They
cannot be put off like the men, and they
form the bete noir of many a congressman.
The ladies' reception room at the capitol Is
crowded during the session, and two page
boys arc kept busy carrying in cards to
congressman and messages asking them to
come out and see Miss Jones of Wayback,
or Miss Smith from POdunk Center.
The blue-blooded Office seekers are the
most indignant when they are not given
big places, and not few of them seem to
think that the services of their fathers en-
title their line to a continuous support by
the government. There is a descendent OF
Madison here who was very indignant be-
cause President Cleveland had not given
him cabinet position. or something of
like value, and who seemed to think that he
could overturn Clevelands administration
by the lifting of his finger. Some OF Jetfer-
sons descendants still hold Office, and there
afe relatives of nearly every great family
in government employ. One of them is a
descendant of Washington, and he applies
some of the blue blood which animates his
brain to the managing of a boarding house
during the intervals of his department.
work. Not long ago a friend of mine
wanted to get room in his house. He
called upon him and was received by George
Washington's illustrious forty-second
cousin. Before he had crossed the door step
he was informed of the ancestry of the
boarding house keeper and at the end of
every question he asked as to terms and &C
comodations was tackled on something about
the Washington family. My friend is some
thing of dyspeptic, aud he said at the close
Of about ten minutes of Westinghouse that
he would like to know as to what kind or
meats they had for breakfast. The de-
scendant IF the great man replied:
"Oh, we have very good meats but one
ofmy ancestors, an uncle Of George Wash
ihgton, liked his meat so and So"
II don't care q d about your ances-
tor, Gen. George Washington" rejoined
my friend; what / want is to know that
am going to have good beef for break
fast, and l want it rare, whether it is
cooked by descendant Of George Wash
ington's uncle or by George Washington's
niger"