Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1890-07-18
An Empty Honor.


position says, " If the Republicans of
my district are satisfied with my rec
ord / will be pleased to serve them
another term, but | will leave them to
decide the matter for themselves at
their conventions" and then init
mates that the work is hard and the
pay unremunerative, and that he
shall cherish no hard feelings towards
his constituents if they conclude to
try another man, the Lincoln, Ne
braska Journal reads lecture to all
would be congressman. 1t says:
The facts are doubtless AS he states
them. The congressional office is
rather an empty honor. The con-
gresham may have some prestige at
home that makes him feel good until
the gloss of the feathers wears of, but
at Washington he is rather a COM
mOnplace sort Of citizen, unless he is
rich enough to put on a great deal
more style than salary of $4,000 will
warrant.
Ii he lives in Il big house, keeps a
retinue of servants, with carriages and
a coachman, and can give big din
ners, he may become somewhat con-
spicuous in Washington society,
though he is far away down from the
head of the social circle. There all
the Senators and cabinet officers, and
chiefs OF divisions and military and
naval swells that eut-shine the rural
congressman socially and politically,
as do large number of wealthy aris-
tocrats who make Washington their
home, care for no official position, but
live at the top Of their bent. The
congressman's family, if it accom-
panies him at the capital, was proba-
bly, accustomed to play second fiddle
to no one ut home, but here it can
play nowhere but away down in the
band, SO far down as to be wholly in
conspicuous. 1t is a disappointment
to wives and daughters when they get
acquainted with the situation.
The congressman who went to
Washington with the expectation ol
taking q hand in the large affairs oi
the Nation, finds that the chairmen OF
q few of the important committees
who have won their way, by long ser
vice and experience, to their places,
may have something to do with shap-
ing large affairs, but he has absolutely
nothing but the privilege of voting az
one of three hundred and odd law
makers ON measures that others have
perfected and his private opinion
counts for nothing unless his caucus
is pretty evenly divided over some
thing.
The Speaker has his hands full
taking care of few old stagers and
cannot be counted upon ever to see
him If he wants to say anything about
anything, and he has to rely entirely
on the good nature of manager to
give him "twO minutes of his time"
to make speech. When he gets on
his legs he finds that no one is listen
ing and the satisfaction in thinking
that the reporters gallery is hearing
him and will print him is rather a
poor inspiration TO an orator. To be
an orator one must have present
audience, interested in what he is say
ing. To talk to nothing is embarrass-
ing TO any man, no matter what his
gifts may be, unless he is as case
hardened as an auctioneer and talks
automatically.
No one who has not visited WASH
ington can conceive of the inordinate
din, confusion and inattention to
what is going OH, that prevails in tie
lower house nine-tenths Of the time.
Men who would he listened to with
breathless interest at q gathering in
their rural homes, make speeches from
time to time with the pleasing con-
viction that no one hears a word that
they say, except the reporter in front
whose ear is trained to pick up a
needle OF vocalixation out OF a hay
NOW of racket and confusion.
The common run of congressman
get accustomed to this personal insig-
nifcance after awhile and contine
themselves to working as agents for
Tom Dick and Harry, back home who,
write to him they want an Office or a
pension, or some departmental infor-
nation. They spend as little of their
time as possible in the congressional
bull pen," and perspire about the de-
partments running to and fro and
improving wind and muscle with
much fruitles pedestrianism.
By and bye they get accustomed to
the orientalism of red tape and do not
mind smashing around for a week to
get five minutes OF work done by a
clerk or a minister. They fall into the
indolent ways, become reconciled
to the idosyncrasies of the Barnacle
family, whose object in life is to find
out how not to do it," and when he is
finally gathered home by an ungreat-
iul constituency and relegated to the
dignity Of an cox" he is good for
nothing, for he has lost the energy and
industry of the days that he spent in
trying to be q congressman, and he
rarely tries 70 be anything thereafter
but consul or surveyor of port or
something in which position he can
use his newly acquired knowledge of
how TO be busy about nothing.
The moral is, don't be congress
man if you are really good for some
thing else. The chances are ten to
one that you will not be good for
much as congressman, and twenty
TO one after you leave off being a con-
gresham you will not be good for