The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-12-12

place than the house. Moreover. a senator
| IS one degree removed from his constitu-
ents, and he is allowed the help of clerk
besides; but he is, nevertheless, q tremen-
dous worker. In the course Of one Of those
charming debates in the senate last spring
Ono of those beautiful talks ON temper
snce that should bring tears of happiness
to the eyes Of all Temperance people-in a
debate ON resolution which was leveled
at somebody who would drink wine, OF
beer, or whisky in the senate restaurant,
whore it is forbidden, Senator Hoar, Of
Massachusetts,. took occasion to say that a
senator had to work SO hard that 1t was
impossible for him to perform the
duties Of his Office and commit excuses,
and that he could name instances of men
form in the matter of their indulgences.
This must be the fact. II anybody will
take the trouble to examine the set speech
OF a senator he cannot fail to appreciate
that its preparation must have been mat
ter OF weeks and even months of labor, and
all this labor was performed while he was
attending his committee meetings, drawing
up committee reports, and sitting in his
seat in the senate from noon until three,
four or five o'clock in the afternoon. Ii
many senators are rich, but few, at any
rate, are lazy.
The highest officers of the government
work the hardest: The president works all
no recreation, and the members of the cab
met do not fare much better. One unfor-
tunate thing in the case of both the presi-
dent and the cabinet is that their time 10
90 much occupied with petty detail work.
The mere signing of the name occupies a
considerable portion of each day, and the
receiving OF visitors and listening to their
petitions or complaints takes out another
slice of time. The examinations Of the Gre
dentials Of applicants for Office is task
that never ceases, and thus it transpires that
tho time left for consideration Of impor-
tant department business is small indeed.
8 OF course, the cabinet officer who takes
previous departmental experience back of
him, enters upon his duties with far bet
ter equipment than is possessed by the raw
recruit who comes to Washington ignorant
of official life. The social duties of cabi-
net officer also are not insignificant, and it
is only occasionally that one 10 found who
10 found that is brave enough to repudiate
them. Samuel j. Kirkwood, secretary of
the interior under Gen. Garfield, and Mr..
Cleveland's attorney general, Garland, were
the only two in the last four administra-
tions who never went to entertainments or
gave them, the latter even going so far as
not to dine at ths white house on oeremoni,
have accepted their social duties. It 10 here
that legislator has the advantage, because
he may, if he choose. remain at home in the
evenings and devote his time to study.
It seems to be pretty generally admitted
that We work too hard in America, but it 10
singular to observe how healthy. our public
men are, although they work as hard, II not
harder, than any business or professional
men. In the 101 years Of our existence az q
government under the constitution only two
presidents have died in Office Of natural
deaths, and the cares and labors of Office
cannot be said to have been responsible in
either case. The cabinet officers who have
died in the course of their inoumbency have
nearly all been men advanced in years, and
senators, Notwithstanding their incessant
laborS, keep their vigOr to green old age.
As for Representatives in congress-, al
though they are buffeted about and kept up
all night and live at high pressure rate
New York stock exchange, they neverthe-
less live long and are we'll preserved in their
old age, if perchance they are permitted to
grow old in the service of their country,
which is not frequently the case. The
wholesomeness of government life extends
down to the government clerks. There is
quite respectable number of them work
ing regularly every day who are over seventy
years of age, and there are even few over
eighty. There would seem to be preserv-
alive quality in official atmosphere.
Among the judges hard work aud long
life seem to go hand in hand. The judges
of the supreme court sit seven months out
Of the year. then 90 on their circuits, and
hardly have any rest at all. Life to them ia
one continuous grindsAA and they can see no
hope ahead until they are retired. Yet any
one who has been in the supreme court cham
Der must have been impressed by the hale
and hearty looks of these old men. They
will live, as their predecessors have lived, far
beyond the limits of ordinary people. Chief
Justice Waite died at the age of seventy
two; his predecessor, Judge Chase, at sixty
five, and Chief Justice fancy lived to the
age of eighty-four, four years longer than
Chief Justice Marshall, who was eighty
when he died. Judge Strong, who is on the
retired list, and whose mental activity is
demonstrated at the Columbia law school,
where his lectures on constitutional law are
listened to with great delight by the law
students, was born in 1903, eight years be-
fore Judge Miller, who died at the age of
seventy-four.