The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-03-01

similar. and they had some ideas in common.
They both liked good story and relaxa-
ton of the cares of craftsmanship when the
doors were closed. All the time, however,
Clev Gland was ostentatiously working his
civil-service reform fad and Voorhees,
was after places for his friends.
He was willing to let Cleveland speak his
pieces as long as he could get the places He
was greedy, clamorous, persistent, and quite
successful. He succeeded In getting large
number of appointments, and continued to
cultivate friendly relations with the Presi-
they did the arm-in-arm business at Terre
Haute, and more recently Mr.. Voorhees, de-
ivered set speech in the Senate-the greatest
of his life-in defense of the Presidents free
more pork. It eeems to be law of nature
among statesmen of the Voorhees, school that
the appetite for places grows by what it feeds
on. The more they get the more they want.
Mr.. voorhees, continued to eulogize the Presi-
dent in public and cultivate him in private,
denouncing his civil-service reform profess
sions all the while and getting all the
places he could, until one fine morning
he woke up to find that he had worked the
racket to death. His supply of pork was cut
off There were other States to be provided
for besides Indiana, and other constituencies
besides his. He was indignant that his
nephew, John Paul Jones, was not appointed
district attorney at Washington, but that par
ticular piece of pork went in another direction.
This was the beginning of the end. From
that time dates our Senator's decline and fall
ing off. Since then he has found his useful
ness almost wholly destroyed in the matter of
obtaining appointments. Postmasters, rev.
enue officers. railway mail clerks, clerkships,
messengers watchmen, charwomen, spittoon-
cleaners, and other rewards of states
manship that used to come so easily
now come with the greatest diff
fculty and finally ceased to come at all The
stream was dried up. The Senator'S constitu-
ents cried pork, pork, but there was nc pork.
The Senator nursed his wrath. He kept his
wrongs to himself as long as he could, and
then he "let out" The straw that broke the
cameps back was Secretary Vilas's refusal to
give the Senator a place that he had sought
with much assiduity and statesmanlike en-
treaty. He had pursued it with eagerness
and industry. He yearned and honed after it.
Secretary Villas treated him with that lofty
Indifference which the possessors of favors
IL
ing them, and gave him politely to under
stand that for the present his supply of pork
was cut off. At any rate, he could not have
that particular piece. This was too much
for our Senator. 1t was the last drop in the
wooden bucket of his wrongs and the tin pail
of his disappointments. He ran over and
swore aloud. He lifted up his voice and
spared not. The flood gates ace lifted, the
current of his feelings rusl id out. The dam
once broken, the other damns could not be
restrained. Then and there, the senior Sena-
tor from Indiana gave Secretary Villas large
piece of his mind and revealed the true inward
ness of his love for Cleveland and support of
the administration. He gave the Secretary to
understand, in very emphatic Wabash
language that he was not statesman to
be fooled with, and that if the administration
wanted the support of the Indiana Democracy
it must contribute to their support. It was
question of pork, and he would have it or
know the reason why. In the excitement of
the moment he seems to have forgotten him
self so far as to express his real opinion of
the, administration from Cleveland down.
just how he will make it up with the Presi-
dent remains to be seen, but we shall probably
hear pretty soon that the Senator is preparing
to make the greatest effort of his life in
defense of the administration. The smell of
pork will draw him back.