Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1893-06-09
THEIR WAY is HARD.
A PATHETIC CASE OF OFFICE SEEKING
IN WASHINGTON.
Much That Is Elusive as Well as ulusive
About the Government service-Disap-
pointment and Worry Are the Lot of
Seekers For Favors.

pointment and Worry Are the Lot of
Seekers For Favors.
Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, April 25.-Since the final
adjournment of the senate there has been
further thinning out of the office seekers.
They are always most plentiful just after
the Inauguration of a new president, as If
they expected all the changes by the adj
mnistration to be made at once. The Sc
lection of new officials for the government
service Is slow work, fact which the as
pirants for place never seem to appreciate,
at least with any degree of graciousness.
The cabinet officers are the first to be APP
pointed, and by the end of the first week
some of the assistant secretaries have been
named. The heads of the more important
bureaus are selected later, and if any of the
candidates for diplomatic and consular hon
ors are favored with recognition by the mid
die of the third week they may consider
themselves extremely fortunate.
Seven weeks Of the new administration
have now passed, and there are scores of
Offices yet to fill, some of them important.
BY the time the first month had elapsed
there were signs of WEAKNESS among the
waiting applicants for office, yet the con-
tinued presence of the senators in the city
gave them some hope. But the senate has
now adjourned, and the most of the senators
have departed from the capital. The Office
seekers have been dropping out one at
time for the past month, and now the city
is comparatively deserted by them. Every
time an office is filled and one candidate is
made happy disappointment comes to three
or four Others The successful one gets his
commission and goes home, or if his office
be located here he goes to work, and those
who are unsuccessful try for something
else equally good" or return to their labors
as private citizens.
Most of the applicants depend upon con-
gressmen to get them into Office. The SEN
ators and representatives are supposed to
know the political standing and influence
of their respective constituents and to APP
preciate the merit of their claims for Office
Hence the congressional Endorsement upon
a candidates application is deemed valua-
BILE if not absolutely necessary. To secure
this Endorsement is the first movement in
the campaign of the office seeker. Having
secured it he seeks written testimonials
from his political friends of more or less
prominence and influence at home. If he
has influential friends elsewhere, he adds
their recommendations too. Thus armed
he moves upon the administration. This is
the kind of army that has invaded Wash
ington since the 4th of March. Its ranks
have been gradually thinned until only
small proportion of its former number re-
mains. Now that the senators have gone
the office seekers must ''go it alone"
The pursuit of Office seems to have a GER
tain fascination that is hard to resist. Men
come here armed with petitions and in
dorsements for 81 800 Offices that if used
! to secure employment in private life ought
to command at least $1,000 year. Not
only does the average candidate for fed
/ eral position exert himself to this extent,
| but in his desire for Office and his hope for
recognition he will remain months at the
capital wasting his time, his energy and
| his substance.
| recall pathetic case of this sort which
came under my personal observation eight
years ago. From one of the western states
/ there came two men seeking Office at the
capital. One had been governor of his
state and was prominent in business as
well as politics. His friend and protege left
position as cashier of flourishng street
railway company to seek an Office. The eX-
governor confidently expected to be made
cabinet minister, and his friend hoped for
appointment as chief of a bureau. They
stopped at one of the best hotels and antici-
pated prompt and satisfactory recognition
by the president. They brought indorse-
ments and recommendations that led one
to believe them at least the first and second
citizens respectively of their state, and then
doubt remained as to which was the first
and which was the second.
Motives of economy finally prompted his
removal to a smaller and less pretentious
hotel, and as the months rolled by he
changed to plain boarding house. Sum-
81 81.
first blasts of winter found our friend still
without an Office, reduced in finances, but
hopeful and determined. He had been Of
fered place as messenger or doorkeeper,
but he spurned the very suggestion. Mid
winter weather and failing credit at his
boarding house finally inspired him to ac-
cept place as Waterman in one of the de-
partments. The disappointment and worry
over the inferiority of his position so an
noyed him that he was unable to discharge
even its simple duties properly, and he was
finally dropped from the rolls. Then he
sent home to widowed sister and secured
sufficient money to enable him to struggle
through the winter. In the spring he was
driven by necessity to seek employment
again, and he secured place as laborer ON
the streets
He moved to cheaper boarding house
| anu luuS IJdSStt luc SuulllltT. w uGu VIII
ter came again, the street work ceased, and
he was once more out of employment
Again he sought an office, but without
avail, for his clothes were shabby and his
appearance rather that of the tramp than
the Office seeker with fattering indorse-
ments. His sister was unable to send him
further remittances, and he was forced to
borrow of the few remaining friends, or
rather acquaintance, who would trust
him. Even this kind of credit soon failed
him, and during the second winter of his
sojourn here / often saw him beg dime of
passing stranger. He was then sleeping
in cheap lodging houses and filching his
food from free lunch counters. He was a
perfect picture of poverty and woe. And,
as he afterward told me, he walked the
street many a cold night to keep from
freezing, for he had not even the money to
Iscure nights lodging
Two or three times he walked to the
rivers edge with view to suicide, but
upon each occasion hesitated, changed his
mind and renewed the struggle for exist
-