Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-06-19
H-4SHlNGTON LETTER.
ESPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS OF THE MONITOR
Washington, June II, 1898.


Washington, June II, 1898.
ssThere's a curse upon the building
ever since within its walls the great
Lincoln was stricken down by the
cowardly assassin, and if 1 had my
way it should be entirely demolished
and the ground be forever left unbuilt
upon" Thus spake an old man, stand
ing in front of Ford's old theater, who
had witnessed the fascination of Lin
coin and who also saw some of the
narrowing and heart rending sceQes
which followed the collapse of the
floors of the same building, last Fri
day, causing the death of twenty two
and the injury of sixty eight en-
ployes of the Surgeon Generals Of
fee. 1t seems incredible, but it is
nevertheless strictly true, that nearly
Ito work in this building, which as long
ago as 1866 had been condemned as
unfit for use and unsafe, and the
knowledge that there are number of
other buildings occupied by the gov
eminent that are no better but adds
to the horror felt by the people of
Washington at the awful and needless
slaughter of human beings. Money
has been freely contributed by our
people, for the families of the dead
and wounded, and an army court of
inquiry is engaged in locating the per-
sonal responsibility, likewise a coro-
ner's jury; but it lies where neither of
them can reach = in Congress, which
has repeatedly refused to provide
proper quarters for these and hum
dreds of other government employees.
A similar accident is liable to occur
any day at the Government Printing
Office, building known to be unsafe
and yet daily occupied by nearly 5000
men and women; and the Winder
building, occupied by branch of the
War Department., has also long been
in an unsafe condition, likewise por-
ton of the Patent Office and an annex
to the Post Office Department. Per-
haps this terrible disaster will have
the effect of awakening Congress to
its duty in providing safe and proper
quarters for the employees of the gov
eminent. If it doesn't one far more
terrible will certainly occur some day.
Now that those eminent free trad
ers, David A. Wells and Edward At
kinson, have succeeded in naming the
chief of the Bureau of Statistics,
Worthington Ford, of New York, it is
upon having the statistics prepared
by that bureau doctored so as to make
arguments in favor of free trade, but
it is probably too much to hope from
such sources.
A large force of pension examiners
are to go over the papers in every
pension granted under the act of 1890,
for the avowed purpose of discovering
how many of these pensioners can be
dropped under Secretary Smiths re-
cent ruling as to portion of that law.
Another purpose will thus be accom-
plished tnat is not avowed, but which
is thoroughly understood here: the
number of original pensions granted
will necessarily be considerably les
sened while these examiners are put
ting in all their time going over old
cases.
Mr.. Cleveland doesn't turn down all
the democrats who have spoken Slight
ingly of him-if he did the mugwumps
would get all the offices. Mr.. Jacob
F. Child, of Missouri, who was minis
ter to Siam, "when Cleveland was on
earth before", as Colonel Cockerill
irreverently speaks of Cleveland's
first administration, has been appoint
ed counsel to Hankow, China. Mr..
Child spent his opinion very freely of
the President during the first week of
the administrati on account Of the
''ex" rule, which by the way, has been
broken SO often that nobody any more
even thinks of land remarked of him
publicly the day he left Washington
for Missouri: 81 helped him to place
the laurel on his brow, and I'll be here
again to lay the bay upon his bier"
THE VERMONT BUILDING At