The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1893-05-02
dow The New Men Look What They Say How They Work. What They d.
What They Wear, Etc. ETC. w 9aaeM}e
ALL PUT IN FROM TEN TO FOURTEEN HOURS DAY TRY
ING TO EARN THEIR SALARIES.
Smith
BY ARTHUR BRISBANE.

own department work. From to a
he receives the heads of the various
departments under him. From a to B
the general public are again admitted
and the new Secretary listens placidly
to men who want him to decide COM
plicated land cases before he goes to
dinner.
| From to Z he dictates letters and
signs documents, contracts, etc. AT Z
he goes to dinner. From s till IL,
with a fresh stenographer, he finishes
up the work which may have been
left over in the course of the days
routine.
NO WOMEN NEED APPLY.
Mr.. Smith is remarkably well
adapted to induring such working
schedule. He is feet inches tall,
and apparently quite free from nerves.
He is picture not only of good
nature but of positive enjoyment as he
wanders about among the crowds
who talk to him about everything.
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
The queerest of all office-seekers
turn up at Mr.. Hoke Smiths door.
Strange men from the South, who
want anything that is convenient, and
reincarnations of Bret Harte's heroes
and Williams of the West are anxious
to take charge of Indians and their
blankets. Mr.. Hoke Smith, like
most of his colleagues in the Cabinet,
considers that he is in reality public
servant, and that the public have a
right to get at him.
Mr.. Hoke Smith, however, discrimi-
mates against the wives and listers of
the Republic. He receives no women
and he does not discuss offices with
them. In appointing women to places
in the department, he has decided to
apply examination rules, even in cases
where civil service laws do not apply.
Mr.. Hoke Smith declares that in
picking out men for Office, he is going
to select the best man, irrespective of
politics. He does not believe, how
ever, that any man could seem to him
good man unless he were a good
Democrat, and he would be inclined
to distrust any of his senses that might
try to convince him of a Republicans
fitness for office.
FIRST OF ALL A LAWYER. re
Mr.. Hoke Smith delights in the
legal featurers which mark his duties
as Secretary of the Interior. He re-
joices in the fact he occupies the posi-
ton of most important legal func-
tionary, and he proposes to attend to
the legal end of his department with
out very mnch help from the Assis-
tant Attorney-General, who is assign
ed to the task of pouring legal lore
upon him. ..t..a Z.
81 am LAWYER if 1 am anything at
ALL" he says, and pitches into the big
piles of papers relating to rows be-
tween railroads and settlers which
come before the Land office. e.. Il
When 1 talked to him a few days
ago he was examining several pounds
of papers in suit of the Northern
Pacific Railroad Company against
Guilford Miller, and appeared to like
the work. In addition to the Assis-
tant Attorney General, the Secretary
has at least a dozen lawyers under
him in the department, but he declar-
es that he proposes to decide upon all
questions of law himself. ...
Mr.. Hoke Smith is declared by his
friends to have had the biggest law
practice in the South, and to have
sacrificed $50000a year, taking into
account his expenses in Washington,
in order to enter Cleveland's Cabinet.
These statements are not denied by
Mr.. Smith.
Next to the law questions which
come before him, Hoke Smith is most
deeply interested in the care of the
national forests. One of his first acts
on assuming Office was to set aside an
order of Mr.. Noble, his predecessor,
granting permission to two companies
to cut timber from $4,000 acres of
Government lands in Montana.
The offices of the Secretary of the
Interior in the big building on F
street, commonly called the Patent
Office, are not gorgeous. Mr.. Hoke
Smith has for his personal use two
rooms, one of fairly good size and the
second 80 small that there is hardly
- q Il Il