The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1888-12-28
washington letter.
from our regular correspondent.l
WASHINGTON. d. c.. Dec. %, 1888.

4
selves. The statesmen will not be at work
again until January ID, and nearly all have
gone home Even Mr.. Reed, of Maine,
has dared to go home aud leave his Speak
ership fight TO take care of itself. TIE
other candidates. with more canton, re-
main on guard.
| Christmas is not in any sense the i'm
portant event in Washington that it is in
New York. Bat Washington remains
steadfast to New Year in everything. 1t
! is the beginning of its social season proper
and no other day reaches its Importance.
| The giving Of presents to general acqnaint-
ances as well as to your dear ones has
not yet become 4 custom here, and 50
Christmas. if deprived of som. of its
| charms. is no less deprived Of its terrors.
| In the gay days that follow the President 5
| New Year reception, even Georgetown
wakes up and the ghosts Of Its dead and
| gone society stalk through its streets On
| every wednesday each Cabinet officers
wife has left her couple of thousand
cards, and wonders if it can b. true that
Mrs. Hamilton Fish was able to return all
the calls made upon her.
The dread Of the social seIsoa was prob
ably in the Presidents mini when he
wrote 10 Buffalo friend last week, Il
look forward longingly. counting the days
until March 4th when | shall be- free.
The demands Of society are severe enough
upon an idle IN, and are sufficient To ex-
haust a busy one Washington society is
fast following European fashionable ex-
cesses, without regard 10 the fact that with
all the millionaires who come here for the
winter, there is. unlike in European capt.
tails. no Absolutely idle class Of men. The
nearest approach TO an unocupied class
are the members of the foreign legations
stationed here, vino do nothing but attend
to society's demands aud do that most sue
cessfully. Tomorrow 5 work has no ter
rors for them.
The tariff debate in the Senate is far
more dignfied affair than was the House
debate on the same subject. All the noise
and shaking of fists and pounding of desks
is missing. In measured periods the Sen
ators call each other liars: they do not
come out broadly with it. Ofcourse Sena-
| tor Edmunds leads the debates as the best
Democratic speaker on the tariff Senator
Beck, is i'll. Senators Vest, Vance and
Reagan do their best to make up for his
absence, but three quick tempered men
have but a sorry time handling sharp
ly enjoys it, and meets everything with his
formal protest The Democrat Who will
come out of the debate with most honor, |
fancy, will be Mr.. Reagan, who is rapidly
gaining ground in the Senate. without
reference to the merits of the case, one
cannot but admire the slashing letort to
Senator Edmunds made by Senator Coke
on Friday. 1t was in response to
Senator Edmunds' picture of the prosper
Gus American workingman. Mr.. Coke
described mule spinner of Fall River,
Mass, living on $50 per year, with two
pounds of pork and no other meat in a
month, picking up drift wood for winter
fires and hunting along the shore on Sun
day for shell fish to eat. The Senator
from Texas concluded by remarkng that
he did not know what was the matter
what was wrong, but he would not be
surprised if it were the tariff. The bill
went over until after the holidays. Mr.
Coke asked the vexed question in his tar
if speech, toached the chord Victor Hugo
made Jean Vatican sound when he said,
''There is something wrong in a country
when able and willing men are without
work" And yet the wisest legislation
cannot make all men wealthy. There is in
Washington winter nights lodging
house. No person is allowed there who
is drunk or chronic pauper or vermin
ridden. Last evening a score shigeringly
awaited the opening OF the door, and in
all seventy eight slept there. If the peo-
pie of Washington are, as is proven, more
prosperous than those Of any European
city, what must be the poverty of London.
The most perennially ambitions man in
Washington today is Commissioner Of
Pensions Black. Across the desert waste
of the next four years he sees the fair
promise of % glowing in the morning
light of his imagination. He fondly
hoped that it would be Cleveland and
Black at st. Louis, and now he dreams Of
ticket to be Hill and Black. He alone
of all the leading Democratic departing ntal
officials has not for time laid aside politi-
cal schemes. His dream is unbrOken. lie
is busy patching up old breaches between
himself and many of the Democratic lead
ers who had opposed his ambition for the
Vice-P Presidency, or had disagreed with
him IN the management of his Bureau.
His hopes may be in vain, but in times
like these his courage is almost sublime.
WESTON.
Judge Garrison has fixed the salary of
the Jury Commissioners Of Burlington
county at $500 each per annum.
Supreme Court Justice Magic has grant
ed the application for local option cleo