The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-07-05
wasutucton serrer.
(From eur regular correspondent.)
WASHINGTON. d. c., July 1, 1899.

| ANNUALLY Vii Oob w, phN $500
date was looked forward TO with unusual
interest. The Office seekers about the
hotel corridors spoke confidently OF the
changes that would take place "before
July 1, anyhow Despite prediction to
the contrary, the weighty day has come
and gone. and the number of Department
tai changes have been surprisingly few.
| The discharges were far less numerous
than even at the close of tho first fiscal
year of Mr.. Cleveland's administration
To say that the office seeker is hot is to
put it too mildly; he is wild, and he is not
cleered by reading the long lists of new
diplomats appointed. pie" to the aver
age office seeker, is to be found in appoint
ment to offices in this country and he is
not to be confuted by the appointment of
some wealthy gentleman with his hair
parted in the middle to be envoy extraordi-
nary and minister overwhelmingly to the
court of Yarboo. The regular office seek
err shifts at the other fellows appearance
and snorts at his alleged Republicanism.
President Harrison who has had a pair of
eye teeth cut, so far as the hungry are
concerned, anticipated the onslaught OF
June 80, by quietly stealing away to
| Baltimore during the morning hours with
the ostensible purpose of bringing home
| Mrs. Harrison.
The Agricultural Department., since it
has been raised to the dignity of having a
representative in the Cabinet, is more than
ever before the recipient of the attentions
of cranky people everywhere, who imagine
that the government could issue enough
money to make all rich, and that the gov
eminent that would stock fish ponds could
not, logically, refuse to stock farms. The
mail received by the Agricultural Depart
ment contains daily a thousand odd re-
quests. Everyone has heard of the Con-
gresham who, during the last session, re-
ceived a letter from a laundering constitu-
ent reading, '.Please send me the Agricul-
tural Department. And the Congress-
man was not a bit surprised, but said that
he had often expected that it would come
to this; he had been asked for the depart
ment in detail and now he was not aston
ished to be required to furnish the whole
thing. And this unintentional error of this
bucolie correspondent is out-distanced by
the appeal of hundreds of people.
A man near Mansfield, Ohio, modestly
takes the cake. lie writes, ~ wish You
would send me at once, delivered to Mans
field, a pair of horses, W mules, a yoke
of oxen, three Attorney lows and a spring
wagon and a sulky pillow, also some seed.
I suppose there are other things you give,
but won't bother you now. l will see
Senator Sherman when I go to town if he
is home. He is a great friend Of mine.
During last election he told me that | could
have everything in the Agricultural De-
partment if wanted it." The intelligent
voter is a creature of curious mental con-
struction.
From over the sea. come occasionally
vague voices, with an idea that the Agri-
cultural department has general control of
land and water. An INVENTOR in Bohemia
writes that he much distressed by the dis
aster in the Conemaugh valley. Incident
ally, he mentions that he has invented a
means of preventing such floods, and that
be would sell it to the United States gov
eminent for $500, 900. To show his SINGER
ity he adds that he wants no payment until
the utility of the system is fully shown and
that if the government is inclined to act
fairly he will sacrifice important interests
and bring himself and his model to Amer
lea for inspection, for 50, 900.
What becomes Of all the inquiries pro-
pounded to the various departments? A
half are never answered. To reply to all
of them would require q much larger force
than is at present employed. A large pro-
portion of the cranky correspondents wish
certain laws construed, work that the vari-
Gus bureaus are slow to engage in when
not necessary. Others ask for things that
the village postmaster could tell them
were unobtainable. A man writes to the
Pension bureau to ask whether or not he is
entitled to pension On account of his nep-
hew being killed in service. Another wants
to know if his crippled child as we'll as
himself can draw pension. The questions
asked the Patent Office by inventors and
even lawyers ~unacquainted with the prac-
tice is bew ildering. The clerk softly tucks
such a letter into the middle of the papers
in the case to which it refers and says
n~othing-except that he uttcrs a few low
muttered benedictions on the writer.
The Navy department has decided that
to change all the flags now in use on war
ships for flags bearing forty-two stars in
stead Of those having thirty-cight would
be toe expensive. So the bunting will
only be changed as it wears out. The ap-
pearancc of the new flag is not noticeably
different from the old. The law about the
flag is very indefinite. 1t simply provides
that is shall consist of thirteen alternate
| stripes of red and white, with a white star
for every state on a blue field, for a union.
WESTON.
Prohibition stare
The Prohibition voters of the State O
New Jersey in the various counties, are re-
quested to meet in their townships and