The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-04-11
PAST ADMINISTRATIONS.
INCREASE ~ To- BUSINESS o. TIE
DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS.


Trtcrcsti22 ;-uerviow with an Old Wash
i1Stoni"E-sI~-- E-.:y Administrations
Compare with the Present in NIagni-
tude-The POstoface Department..
The other day I met an old Washing
tonian, who has lived in this city ever sincs
ne was born in 1920. He has lived under
the shadow of the administration of Mon
roe, John Quincy Adams, jackson, Van
Buren,, Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, FIJI
more, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln, Johnson,
Grant, Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur, and he
is now living under the administration of
Grover Cleveland, a man he never heard of
till within three years. l looked upon him
as rich find and invited him TO my ROOM
and set my interviewing machine at work.
"How do the early administrations under
which you lived compare with our modern
administrations in magnitude, and will you
please tell me about the personnel of the
government in the different departm ents.
Il was born, as you will understand, dur
ing the administration of Monroe OF
course | have no recollection of him, but
have an indistinct recollection of Adams,
for he went out when l was years old
remember jackson very distinctly, for he
went out when 1 was Ia. He was q small
spare gentleman, with thin determined
looking face, with his gray hair brushed
backward, standing up He never
very particular in his dress. although on
state occasions he would handsome up and
look quite spruce. l remember the yellow
ish white beaver hat he wore which gave
him distinguished appearance. 1 have
seen him lots of times sitting the back
yerandah of the White House smoking a
corncob pipe.
DEPARTMENTS IN OLD HICKoRY's TIME
1.-THE difference between the executive
branch of the government and that Of to-
day is about the same as it is between
country store and a wholesale dry goods
house. Why, my dear sir, in the treasury
department there were not more than
seventy-fve clerks and employees, and now
they have if am not mistaken, about 8, 900,
including the employees of the pension and
printing bureaus You must remember the
revenue under Jackson's administration
only amounted to an average of about S25,-
10000 per annum now it is about $500 000,-
600. He did not have 100000 pensioners &c
provide for, which alone requires an army
of clerks; he had no printing bureau to run,
which also requires about a regiment of en-
ployes. He was not engaged in putting up
immense and costly buildings, as our gov
eminent is now doing. The war and state
departments probably employ about three
times as many clerks as they did under
in existence then, which employs a good
many hundreds of clerks The employees of
the postofice department, including post
masters and their clerks, did not number
more than 5000. Now they number 5000
"The number of letters handled in tLose
good old days did not equal one huGare1,h
of those handled to-day. You see postage
tnen WAS r1Ced ~, Ie/1, lSE, ard = cents
Ter sheet nc Ilc.Der how lorge or EoE
sIaen eaoG sh Ct n.ght Ia, end Th-=e .ter
were cha ged ACCORDING - distance JA "A
@Ste~ VII Ten Oh & sheet {. collpanlcd y a.
.IsvCI- q, n.a.ls at Ec-y = orH f-T - eysl-llJ,
e. reio, O.. o5ley p-.-lOs o. equal o, greaUsr
distance the postage was 20 c-rts!
NOT CcI-E 50 LARGE = MACHINE
the mails were almost r.-aver5aliv or
ried BY stage Goa koo or - horseback IoU
en- see ron7 Us Tho early presidents DID
nJ5 hare quit - large u machine 20 handle
- tco pry-ldsC, OF 70 day nav.
Didn't they ,,ei-h tel. iott-s to as@or
= u how 1auc1 postage - sAarge"
Why. nn. Inc .,-stn2astos5 wore re
--i..l4 - ff7d ,..t IRON "a an. Ueraace az:
UooLHess q 4 lot Lo., .n's.y Sheets co.a-
ro,el T.. It was generally mere gues5 woTls
q ey q ed 10 a1v-,oo5s taer, Tc5o small
si.ee,s would e.. 1e..5Iv % -b2rEol twice
much % :. Iettar u-41ucu ii 81 .c5 seversi
tines g. iar-e.
were there sc many callers at the
White hoas- tAc5e de- as there are
row
Why, bless your soul, there were not
One-tftieth as many In those days there
were not per cent. as many strangers Wis
iting in Washington as there are now We
had only one prominent hotel called 'Gads-
by's hotel 1t stood on the site of the Ma
tional hotel There were no railroads to
bring people here. Washington was a mere
village in size"
"Do you remember anything very peculiar
about Old HickoryP
He had this popularity. He would stand
by his friends cost what it would, even If it
involved his reputation He was very
marked in that respect. Bill Nye in Chi
cago News.