Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1889-04-25
WASHINGTON LETTER.
CFrom our Regular correspondents
WASHINGTON, April 9th, 1885,

butus are out upon the city's waste
places and the buds upon the trees are
burst into leaves. Some flowers greet
the passerby with suggestive fragrance
of green fields and high, blue skies. and
the day dreams that Sin part are pro-
phecies and in part are longings wild
and vain" If the practical individual
has carefully erased from his memory
the records of youth. these splendid
days make him thirsty with visions of
the near time when mint shall be fra
grant in the glass and claret and ice
be a solace On down town streets,
colored urchins who are frightfuily
dirty despite the increase in real estate
values, now offer arbutus at five
cents Il bunch in the morning and two
for five in the evening, furnishing a
striking illustration of the truth that
everything comes to him who waits.
The grounds Of the Executive Man
sion are nearly us green as in midsum-
mer, and white capped nurse girl
bringing little Ben Mckee. President
Harrison's grandchild for romp, adds
to the familiarly rural scene. 4 host
of children have played on the White
House lawns every season for years
and regard the place as children's free
ground. n number of the children
have been members of the Executive
household. Little Tad Lincoln used to
roll hoops down the hill when the band
played OH summer afternoons, and
strut about in his miniature uniform of
a lieutenant, playing at war, with many
a shrill, piping order to his imaginary
troops. Then came Andrew Johnson,
Jr., a boy of twelve, with a propensity
for stufling himself on every magma
bic edible and lolling about under the
trees. Then Jesse Grant. to riot with
other children, after he had ridden
home from school on his Shetland pony
Then the demure Fannie and Scott
Hayes, good children who always kept
their clothes clean and their noses duly
wiped. Then the Garfield children,
with baseball and bicycle, ruling from
March to midsummer in high glee
when their brief reign closed with the
awful tragedy of their fathers death.
Here strolled Allan Arthur, tall and
undeveloped, and his sister Nellie, who
possessed her fathers mind and her
mothers face, the heritage denied her
brother.
Thus the ghosts of the White House
number not few childish faces, and
to one with good memory score of
these familiar spirits come up even at
noontime on the fairest day of all the
spring.
The only false note in the overture
of spring is afforded by the presence of
the office seeker From the contempla-
ton of nature, President Harrison
turns to grapple with political delega-
tions and to wrestle with Oflice-seekers.
The sunlight that stSays into the cor
ridors of the Departments. falls aslant
of oilice-seekers by the dozen, seated on
the sofas, occupying the chairs, leaning
against columns. lolling in windows,
ranged along the wall. waiting, waiting.
The variety of dress is rs great as the
variety of faces aud expression.
4 little, thin, sensitive, bloodless old
man, with an ancient six hat and q
white tie, sits next burly, red-faced
alert New York politiciaa who firmly
trusts in his ability to do the thing up
right. across from the couple Texas
Republican is seated. black mustache
goatee, and broad brimmed SLOUGH hat,
of course, listening with horror to a
comrade who is telling him that the
Department of Justice has actually had
audacity to refuse to appoint certain
one of the Texas bretheru simply be-
cause he has killed half dozen men
when it has been shown to- the satisfac-
ton of Texas juries that he always act
ed in self defense. Not few figures
in the crowd, denominated by irrever-
ent messengers in the Departments, as
"the statutary," are those of preachers.
who generally seek to go abroad.
The majority of the daily quota as
sembled have become quite used to
waiting and make little useless ap-
pointmeuts to meet each other. the
exact purpose of which they forget by
the time they meet again.
With the air of naughty and unap-
proachable prince, whose only artistic
defect is his mahogany color, $50 per
month messenger stalks out into the
corridor at irregular intervals, accepts
half dozen Of the cards that are Gag
erly thrust at him and disappears into
the Secretary's room. But while many
are called, few are chosen, and very of
ten the oflice-seeker waits for the open
ing of business hours in the morning
until their close in the evening and
goes away without seeing his man,
while hundreds of more fortunate
though later arrivals go through the
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