The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-02-16
PAST ADMINISTRATIONS.
INCREASE IN THE BUSINESS OF THE
DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS.

NNOREHSG IN 7E BUSINESS Or NE
DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS.
Interesting Interview with an Old wash
ingtOnian-How Early Administrations
Compare with the Present in Magni-
tude-The Postofice Department.
The other day 1 met an old Washing
tonian, VINO has lived in this city ever since
he was born in 1920. 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. looked upon him
as a rich find and invited him TO my room,
and set my intervie ing 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 ents-
II was born, as you will understand dur
ing the administration of Monroe. OF
course l have no recollection of him, but
have an indistinct recollection of Adams,
for he went out when I was years old /
remember jackson very distinctly, for he
went out when l was IL. He a small,
spare gentleman, with a thin determined
looking face, with his gray hair brushed
backward, standing up. He was never
very particular in his dress although on
state occasions he would handsome up and
look quite spruce l remember the yellow
ish white beaver hat he wore, which gave
him distinguished appearance. l have
seen him lots of times sitting on the back
yerandah of the White House smoking
corncob pipe
DEPARTMENTS IN OLD HICKORY'S TIME
"The difference between the executive
branch of the government and that of to-
day is about the same as it is between
country store and a 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 l am not mistaken, about 5000,
including the employees of the pension and
printing bureaus You must remember the
revenue under Jackson's administration
only amounted TO average of about $685.
100000 per annum now it is about 500, OO0,-
600. He did not have 300, 900 pensioners to
provide for, which alone requires an army
of clei Ks; he had no printing bureau to run,
whieh also requires about regiment of en-
playes. He was not engaged in putting up
immense and costly buildings, as our gov
eminent is now doing The war and state
department; probably employ about three
times many clerks as they did under
Jackson. The interior department was not
in lstence then, which employs a good
many hundreds Of clerks. The employees of
the postoffice department, including post
meSGe and their clerks, did not number
more than 1000. Now they number $4,000
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 81, 1919, 1871, and % cents
per sheet no matter how large or how
small each sh ct might be, and these rates
were cha ged according to distance. On
Sa+ter written on sheet accompanied by
.sIvoi. g, mailed at New York for Cleveland,
Buffalo, or other points of equal or greater
distance the postage was 90 cents!
NOT QUITE SO LARGE A MACHINE.
"The mails were almost universally car
ried by stage coaches or on horseback. You
see from this the early presidents did
not have quite so large machine to handle
as the president of to day have"
didn't they weigh their letters to ascer-
tain how much postage to charged"
"Why, no. The postmasters were re-
quired TO find out from the appearance and
thickness of a letter how m my sheets COM
posed it. 1t was generally mere guess work
They used no enyoio PES then, Two small
she cts would frequent ' be charged twice
much as letter written on sheet several
times as large
"Were there as many callers at the
White House in those days there are
nowp
Why. bless your soul, there were not
one tftioth many Ia those days there
We're not per cent as many strangers Wis
iting 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 Hi,kory!"
"He had this popularity. He would stand
by his friends cost what it would even if it
involved his reput ltion. He was very
marked in that respect Bill Nye in Chi
cago News