The Portland daily press., 1892-12-22

the consequences, sir; take the conse-
quences. BY the eternal, | will not re-
move him-I can't remove the old mani
Why. MIR. Wright, do you know that he
carries more than a pound OF English
lead in his body?' Van Rensselaer, kept
the postmastership as long as jackson
was president.
You have no doubt read stories about
the descent of the Office seeker-how he
comes to Washington flush with money,
well dressed, proud and confident. He
wants place in the cabinet or foreign
mission; then he is willing to take bu-
reau office, and finally would be glad of
anything; how he leaves the swell hotel
and goes to a boarding house and be-
comes seedy in his appearance and
wretched of mind, and finally gets down
on his uppers, without money enough to
ride home and an outcast on the town.
am sorry to say these stories are too
often true.
have in mind now q sad case, all the
facts of which except the mans name l
shall give without .exaggeration. He
was cashier of street railway COM
pany at Topeka. Kan. The Office seek
ing craze took possession of him and he
came to Washington with his friend, ex-
Governor Click, to get office under
Cleveland. Mr. Click wanted to go into
the cabinet of President Cleveland, but
finally accepted pension agency and
went home. His friend remained, look
ing all the time for some appointment.
When he arrived here he had plenty of
money and friends and good clothes.
After awhile he found it necessary to
leave Wizards hotel and go to board
ing house. He became rather seedy in
appearance.
In this way a year passed, and still NO
appointment For another year he was
supported by the remittances of two old
maid sisters who lived at Cairo, Ills,
themselves poor, but unwilling to see
their brother starve. From the cheap
boarding house the man found it neces-
sary to go to cheaper lodgings, taking
his meals wherever he could BET them.
Then he famed to pay his room rent,
little as it was, and was on the streets.
He actually begged of passersby and
borrowed dimes and quarters of the mon
he had known in his more prosperous
days. He found work in the street
cleaning department shoveling dirt and
snow. For six months he slept the
coolest nights in the ten and fifteen cent
lodging houses, and other nights slept
in the parks and lumber yards.
More than two years had passed since
his arrival in Washington, and he was
veritable wreck in body and mind.
Some newspaper acquaintance found
him job as assistant janitor in one OF
the government offices, but the mans
spirits had sunk so low, he was SO timid
in the face of the world that had treated
him so harshly, wasso thoroughly cowed
and crushed, that the chief janitor, a
colored man, made his life miserable,
imposed upon him, abused him and
finally drove him away. Nearly three
years after his arrival in Washington
some friends gave him a railway ticket
and sent him west, where he is grad
ually pulling himself together. | don't
believe an offer of a $4,000 job could in
duce that man to put his foot in Wash
ington again. His case is only one of
dozens of a similar nature that / could
mention.
Often the man who fails to get gov
eminent job is luckier than he knows.
Such case was that of man from In
diana who came here four years ago to
get an appointment under Harrison. He
failed, but having staid till his money
was all gone and he was ''down at the
heel'' he concluded not to return to In
diana. He found friend to lend him
fifty dollars, and with this capital he
started little cheap eating house, called
1.-The Log Cabin" opposite the Ebbitt
hotel. He sold pies, cakes. milk, sand
witches and batter cakes. Now he is
making profit of $4,000 a year out Of
his business and will soon be a fairly
rich man. 1t was lucky day for him
when he failed to get a government ap-
oointment. WALTER WELLMAN.