The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1889-04-18
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.

WAsuINGToN, April II, 1882
Editor Herald:
Secretary Blaine laughed heartily when
a gentleman asked him if there was any
truth in the story that he intended short
ly to retire from the cabinet, and for an
swer passed his hand around the gentle
mans arm and conducted him over to
look at the interior changes that are be-
ing made in the old Seward mansion,
near the White House, preparatory to its
occupancy by the Blaine family next fall.
The democratic attempt to make it APP
pear that the relations between the Pres
ident and Secretary Blaine are not pleas
ant and harmonious has proven a dis
NAL failure. The opinion here is that the
whole story was concocted and written
in the New York paper which printed it
as special Washington dispatch. What
makes this opinion all the stronger is
that this same paper in its editorial col
umns has been predicting just such a
state of affairs ever since the fourth OF
March. 1t is very strange. that such a
startling discovery should have been
made by only one correspondent, out of
hundreds prowling around Washington
seeking news for their papers. Unless
something chat is at the present time en-
tirely unlocked tor shall occur, Secretary
Blaine will continue to look after our
foreign affairs until March 1898, if not
| longer.
So few appointments have been made
by the President this week that sus-
| picion has been created among the
crowd of office seekers here that the slow
pace has been adopted for the special
| purpose of firing them out. The result
is that many of them have gone home
leaving their papers on file, believing that
to be the best policy.
The President informed a democratic
senator that it was his purpose whenev-
er he had to appoint democrat to office,
| such as one member of the civil service
commission and the interstate commits
| sion, to insist upon his being a protect
ionist This decision has created panic
among the free-trade democratic aspi-
rants, chief among whom may be men
toned ex-Secretary of the Treasury
Thompson, who wants to serve his coun-
| try as civil service commissioner.
1t is stated at the state department
that an understanding has been reached
with England and Germany whereby it
is agreed that pending the termination
OF the coming Samoan conference at Ber-
lin the three treaty powers-England,
Germany and the United States-shall
each keep only one war vessel at Samoa.
The agricultural department has con-
cluded the series of experiments, COM
menced several years ago, on the manu-
facture Of sugar from sorghum, and Prof.
Wiley, who has been in charge of them
concludes that the manufacture on a
small scale can be made commercially
successful.
The President has been thinking OF
taking a short vacation in order to get
some much needed rest but he has finally
decided not to leave Washington until
| the Goth inst, when he goes to New York
to take part in the Centennial cercmo-
MES. The President and Mrs. Harrison
will be the guests of Vice-Presdent and
Mrs. Morton at Rhinebeck, their county
residence, near New York city, during the
celebration and for week afterward.
The 1aily official mail at the White
House has gradually dwindled down TN
til now it averages about seven hundred
letters, nearly every one of which con-
tains an application for Office.
The story going the rounds Of the press
al out Gen. Harrison offering the post
mastership of Lexington, Virginia, to the
widow of "Stonewall" Jackson is such j
beautiful one that it seems a pity almost
to spoil it by saying that it is not true.
But so it is. No such offer has ever been
made Or even thought OF either by the
President or Postmaster General.
| There is nothing mugwumplsh about
Secretary Noble. 1t having been printed
that he had issued an order to prevent
Commissioner Of Pensions Tanner from
discharging incompetent democratic en-
ployes in his Office, the Secretary has de-
! clared himself on the subject IL 4 manner
that leaves 10 doubt OF his being in per,
| feet accord with the ''Corporal."