The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-03-15

fSrom our regular correspondent.)
WASHINGTON. d. c., March II, 1889.
The crowd has gone home and Washing
ton has put on its every day appearance.
Save for stray drabbled bunting here and
there no outward sign appears of the
events of last week. But beneath the sur
face a mighty and unusual commotion goes
on. In the Departments work is practi-
| cally abandoned and nothing IS done save
to talk politics. Rnmors and counter
rumors fill the air. This commissioner
will be appointed; that assistant secretary
is sure of a place. Old clerks who were
appointed during the Republican admins
~tration. aud who discovered that they were
| Democrats after Mr.. Cleveland was elected,
are now busy recounting their alleged mag
| nifcent services to the Republican party.
| Scores of this contemplate class are even
talking loudly of the promotions they are
| about to receive. And thus the dirt eat
ing goes on.
Only a part of the chronic offica seekers
went home. There are still enough to
crowd the Hobbies of the main hotels, and
they will only drop off one by one as their
money gives out or their desires are salts
fed. Nearly all are candidates for high
offices, on the plan that if they fail to get
the big office they can use the endorse
ments secured to receive an inferior posi-
| tion.
Congressman and local statesmen en-
| dorse a man, say for Commissioner of Pat
ents whom they know has no more chance
for appointment than has a blind beggar.
The endorsements are therefore unusually
warm and cordial. After the right, or
wrong, man is appointed this ~unimportant
man will pose as a defeated candidate who
accepts his defeat proudly and without bit
terness. If he is lucky he will worry his
Congressman into presenting his applica-
ton and endorsements to some Depart
clerkship. Then he will settle down and
draw his salary with brilliant regularity,
boast of his influence, talk mysteriously of
his association with prominent men whom
he only knows by sight, and become ia
two years a confirmed and irredeemable
ass.
You scratch my back, IN scratch yours,
is the sum total of American politics, and
any lingering doubt that You may have on
that point would be eradicated by reading
some of the letters of endorsement one
sees. Letters of recommendation are ex-
changed as freely as cards. Influence is a
dorsement cites not only the qualifications
of the person endorsed, but also those of the
endorser for some position the latter seeks.
This may give rise to some confusion and
not particularly aid either candidate, but
the endorser is too eager to blow his W
horn to remember that.
They were a couple OF Tennesseans; one
from the mountains. one from the lowlands
to Montreal. a position either stood about
as much chance of obtaining as he did of
plucking tae stars from the canopy. The
mountaiDeer with the fearfully and Won
| uCI lulfJ ItltA OFNiSp1t oAist - 7iIA ANN bAiAt
never could have been the fashion in any
time or country, says, $50, Sir; won't you
retire in my favor" mo, Sir, | will not"
"Will you endorse me for Commissioner of
Lands 2" mo, Sir, my cousin wants
that" "Could you endorse me for" here
the highland statesman grows desperate,
''for a mail carrier at Nashville ?" Eyes"
responded the other. Thus is ambition
regulated by a descending scale.
Ga Saturday President Harrison began
to deny himself to casual callers after hav-
ing on Friday, as a desperate measure, put
on his overcoat and hat and stood out in
the wind to watch 5000 people file by, rath-
er than have the pleasure of grasping each
one by the hand. From 10 to IL o'clock
on Saturday morning a steady stream pour
ed through the White House, and during
that time hundreds Of applications were
made for Presidential appointments. AT
~ o'clock the Cabinet met, and those who
had called for the purpose of urging their
own or SOHO friends application were
quietly dismissed for the day. The Presi-
dent stated that he had not had ten
minutes to himself since the Inauguration.
The household of President Harrison
will consist of Mrs. Harrison; his son Rus
sell, his wife and one child, his daughter,
Mrs. Mckee, her husband and two children.
This is an unusually large family, but it
does not begin to compare to the house.
hold of John Taylor. / believe there were
fourteen in that HOUSEHOLD, and marriage
and giving in marriage were of frequent
occurrence. Deaths and births also visit
ed the house, and all the little drama Of
domestic life was played again. 1t was the
homely, dull story, ever old, ever new.
Representative r.. w. Townshend, of Hi
nois, who died here on Saturday, was one
Of the best known congressman and was
especially liked by the Washington people,
whose interests he always urged. When
a boy he was employed as a page in the
Senate. He came to Washington when ten
years of age. Congress was his idea OF
life, aud no happier man ever held a place
in that body. WESTON.