Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-04-13
Ohice-Seekers Who Haunt the Depart
ments Day After Day.

Seated on the sofas, occupying the chairs
leaning against the mantels and ranged along
walls, the ante-roOms of the various depart
ment buildings are profusely decorated with
ofhce-seekers just at present There is no need
of statuary, even il such ornamentation had
ever been considered proper for rooms in the
pubic buildings. The Office-seekers are, as a
rule statuesQue enough, and as they spend the
greater portion of the business dav in one loca-
ton they are permanent enough to be used for
decorative purposes. Some of them, however
are apt to be nervous and fidgety and suuirm
about on the chairs and sofas at such a rate
that any other material than leather used as a
covering would soon be worn out. But the
government uses leather as a rule for Office
! furniture, and SO the wrigglng visitors only
succeed IN imparting to the furniture very
high polish. The ma jority of American citizens
have. no doubt. seen the office-seeker in the
individual, but rarely in the aggregate. At the
department buildings nowadays they can be
studied as a class.
STUDY FROM LIFE
OF this interesting species gives different inn
preston than the pictures that are usually
drawn. The ofice-seekers have been charac-
terized as the corrupting element in American
politics. the fostering that is tainting the
political life-blood of the nation In fact AZ
might be concluded from what is frequently
written about them that they are a dangerous
set of men. An actual view of the real Office
seeker as he may be seen any day about the de-
partments or the White House gives very
different idea. You see a group of men meekly
and patiently waiting at the door of the de-
partment chief. A colored messenger, who
probably gets $50 per month, rules them with
despotic sway. They approach this function
airy with Difference and humbly place in his
hands their cards. They watch with timid an
ticipatiOn the dusky features as their card is
hastily scanned, and then in response to an i'm
peral wave of his hand they retire TO a corner
or to a seat. There they sit hour after hour.
They see the favored ones ushered in through
the charmed entrance while they are
kept out They know that these are Senators
and members of the House. and no doubt the
bitter reflection is frequently forced upon them
that these are the men whom they are accus-
toned to hear spoken of at home especially
about election time, as the servants of the peo-
pie. The masters in this instance, however
give way to the servants. The soyereigns of
the great American nation don't allow these re-
Elections. If they occur to them, to overcome
their deferential awe of the colored doorkeeper
and for the time being his word is law After
all. one is apt to conclude from a tour about the
department buildings in these pleasant spring
days that the office-seeker is a very mild inof-
fensive sort of a person, who spends his time
patiently polishing the leather upholstery of
the department furniture.
UNDER PROTECTION.
1t is only when an otfice-seeker comes to the
department under the protection of a member
OF Congress that he appears to be at all for
midable. Then he walks into the reception
room with the air OF a conquerer, and casting
"a patronlZng glance upon those of his kind
less favored he passes within the sacred door
way into the presence of the arbiter of his fate
There are some, however, whose native indie
pendence of spirit is not crushed by naughty
doOrkeepers or the etiquette of the reception
They know what they want and
recognize that the head of the department,
even though he is a cabinet minister, is only a
mere man like themselves and they are deter
mined to see him without delay and obtain
what they want without any needless parley.
HE WOULDN'T WAIT LONGER.
A character of this kind, who only wanted
the position of a messenger in one of the de-
partments, called on the Secretary the other
day. He told him that he had been in the CITY
since the 4th of March; that his money was
nearly all gone, and that if he was not ap-
pointed at once he would leave that day for his
home. The Secretary replied that he must
have patience, as there were good many mat
tiers that occupied his time.
~ told him." said the sturdy patriot. in Civ
ing an account OF his interview to circle of
more day, and then if the appointment was not
made !! would withdraw my papers and go
home"
SERVANT AND SOVEREIGN.
There are no doubt numerous instances of
this kind where ''the sovereign" conscious of
the yawning gulf between himself and ''the
servant, as represented in the person of the
head of a department, asserts his dignity and
makes the inferior quail before the assertion of
his superior authority. But as a rule it is pro-
bable that 1.-THE servant" refuses to quail and
1.-The sovereign" is defed to do his worst
Perhaps this fact explains the groups of hum
BILE looking, anxious men who throng the re- |
ception rooms of the department. buildings.
The Cost of Private Cars.
From the st. Louis Globe-Democrat.