The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-07-12
wasn,pgton rerser.
{From our regular eorgespcndeni-3
n q Yrlr 1850

70 say Z AcF~~"AS v fH
Minister for the land of his fathers. The
Persian mind looks with disfagor upon the
publication of attacks. either humorous or
Use, upon the Shah of the faithful.
The master evidently takes more kindly to
such abuse than does the man. inasHaeh
as the Shah still remains in England, Shere
| the most scandalous stories Of his hlihy
habits have been published and where the
people look upon him as a great show,
something in the line of the hairy man.
or the sfdog-faced child" The truth is. |
believe, that behind the lofty ~usignation
Of the Persian minister, with the laundry
name, is a lewly motive. Ever since his
arrival here, the envoy has longed for
home. The Coreans who fed home in SIX
months were as nothing % the Persian
| diplomat. But he might have had the
courage 10 say so, and not have gone howl
Ing home with q Tin eaD tied TO bis tail
America never meant 20 insult the grandee
but cannot be responsible for his failure to
understand a joke.
The Presidents family Is located for the
summer at beautiful Deer Park. where
BENJAMIN Harrison Mckee can hit the
baby over the head with a. many busters
as he chooses and find Other ~relaxations
from the burdens society imposes on the
juvenile great. The President has an
nouneed that he will spend as much
time with them as IS possible,
only remaining in town when absolutely
necessary. No President in the last half
century has passed the entire summer at
the White House. The hot. sitting air
of a city is not to be avoided by a hundred
feet of grass plot in front OF any house,
aud every President has learned this fact
and has sought rest and rejuvenation in
the open country or BIZ the sea.
When one speaks of the uncertain tenure
of Office under the spoils system he does
not allude to the example Of w~hite-haired
| George Bartle who was appointed from
| Virginia as a clerk in the State Depart
ment forty-four years ago. For more
years than he cares to remember, Mr.. BaTtle
has had bis desk in the room Of Com
missioner and Pardows'' and has acted as
keeper Of the great seal, Here he fills out
commissions for Whosoeyer the President
sees fit TO ''repose trust and confidence in
and afixes the seal. The seal cost over
81 LOCO. 1t is a mammoth affair and has 4
table of its OWN. The pressure is applied
By turning a long steel bar with a heavy
ball on either end, which movement
screws down the hammer With great force.
The design of the seal face is fully desig-
mated by a law enacted June 20. 1882.
There have been four seals in use since
the foundation of the government, and
these are preserved in the State Depart
ment. All were intended to conform to
the law, but one failed in important par
t~iculars. When Daniel Webster was made
Secretary of State ne found the old seal
badly worn and be ordered a new one. by
some mischance the eagle on the new seal
held only six, instead of thirteen arrows
in his sinister talon, and the red stripes, or
pales as they are called in heraldry, were
twice the width of the white, instead Of
being of equal width. These inaccuracies
were not corrected for many years and
indeed were never objected to by such
lucky gentleman as happened from time to
time to find the impress OF their COM
missions. The last and correct seal was
made by Tiffany, and no effort was spared
to improve the picture of the eagle. SO that
now no American need feel ashamed Of the
picture of the proud bird Of freedom on
his pardon or his commission as the case
may be.
The Washington Post has applied a
severe test to the public schools system of
the capital, and in its issue of yesterday
gave its readers the fruits Of the %inyesti-
CATION. Twenty-Five thousand pupils of
the various grades engaged in a contest for
eleven gold medals and eleven honorable
mentions" The successful compositions,
as published, are so unfortunately weak
that one shrinks from the thought of what
drivel the unsuccessful ones must contain.
Even after weeks of preparation, after
downright aid at home aud friendly criti-
cism from teachers, only three of the efforts
deserve even honorable mention. The
lesson is, as Senator Ingalls, says, an easy
one. If the public schools fail to teach
pupils the use of lucid English and do not
develop in 90, 600 scholars twenty-five fair
ly good writers, the system is n failure as
it exists in Washington.
The post-office after hunting everywhere
for a place Of residence, has about decided
upon leasing the First Presbyterian Church,
which is quite far enough out Of the lines
of travel to secure the clerks immunity
from the public. The church is situated
on Fourand-a-half street, which has long
been abandoned as a th%oroughfare, being
too far down town. In this church Mr..
and Mrs. Cleveland vorshipped and its
present pastor, Rev. Byron Sunderland,
performed their marriage ceremony at the
White House. The late Schuyler Colfax,
when he was Vice. President, belonged to
the congregation.
WESTON.
The Prohibitory features of the Brooks
Law in Pennsylvania were tolerated by the
liquor power in order to defeat Prohibi-