Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1895-09-02
FROM WASHINGTON.
Correspondence of the Alexandria Gszette.]
WASHINGTON. Sept. 2.

Correspondence of the Alexandria Gszette.]
WASHINGTON. Sept. 2.
The War Department., in pursuance
to its efforts to add to the comfort and
convenience of the soldier, is about to
test a new device, a combination of an
overcoat and tent. It is intended for
use on forced marches, picket duty, &c.
The parade in honor of labor day &C.
cupied the principal streets of the ma.
tional capital all the forenoon. Many
thousand representatives of organized
labor turned out in procession. Fully
two. thirds of the trades In line were
uniformed and marched to the music OF
numberless bands. The Washington
newspapers and the printersin the gov
eminent employ made an especially inn
posing show. A large model of the
Drexel-C hilds' Union Printers Home
was q feature of the procession. All
the public departments and nearly oil
the places of business in the city were
closed and the streets were thronged
with great crowds. Just before the
procession started resolutions framed
by the Federation of Labor in
conjunction with District Assembly
&c of Knights of Labor were read at
the foot of the Lincoln monument, in
Judiciary Square, condemning the i'm
prisonment of Debs and demanding of
Congress "such legislation as will make
clear the status of the organizations OF
labor engaged in the carrying trade, the
interstate commerce of the country,
and that the powers and the duties of
the federal judiciary in all matters at is
cue between the corporations on the n
hand, and their employees, on the other,
be clearly defned.n
John d. Pennybacker, of Rocking
ham county, Va, a well known politi.
clan of the Valley, has lately undergone
a civil service examination in the Agri.
cultural Department, for the Office of
statistician for the States of Yir.
ginia and West Virginia. There
were seventeen others examined,
including five ladies', all of whom
are supposed to be residents Of
one or the other of the States named.
The salary attached to the office is
small and Mr.. Pennybacker in his
humorous way insists that the govern
ment wants q five thousand dollar man
for a nine hundred dollar Office. He
doesn't seem to suppose that the ladies
are in it. The examination occurred
during two of the hottest days of the
week Just past and occupied fifteen
hours. The heat, he says, was roasting
and the examining room a veritable
sweat box. The ladies showed less
sign of fatigue than the men. The APP
plcant was first required to write an
essay on statistics. Nexthe or she was
invited to spread himself or herself on
any subject suggesting itselfto the mind,
having relation to agriculture. They
could write, says Pennybacker, of the
quality or peculiarities OF any soil of the
earth, or the cultivation thereof, from
the Garden of Eden to the great Dial.
rymple farm in North Dakota. So wide,
he said, was the range of the examina-
ton, bearing on soils, geological forma-
tions, tobacco and everything relating
to that wonderful weed, problems III
the French metric system, and so on,
presenting an almost countless array of
hard questions, that he didn't much
believe the Governor OF Virginia could
easily pass the ordeal of such an exam
nation. Speaking of the Governors
late letter against free silver he remark
ed that the record of the last Congress
showed the Governor as having voted
for free coinage at the ratio of sixteen
to one, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen,
and twenty to one, and finally for the
repeal of the Sherman act. Here he
said was ground broad enough for any
statement to stand on, rise on, or fall
on. Mr.. Pennybacker is looking for
his appointment in a few days and it
would prove q very popular n if he
should receive it.
The genial and able and diplomatic
Minister to Mexico, ex-senator Ran
som, bid an adieu to the capital city
this morning. He will o be on
grandly historic ground where the
great conaueror Cortez disported him
self some FIVE hundred years ago and
where, within the brief period of less
than q half century, great VirginiaDs
and Americans, such as Lee, Scott,
Taylor, Grant and a host of others,
laid the foundation of their later i'm
perishsbie renown. But Gen'l Ransom
is not in need of either the faded or
fadeless lustre Of any of these great
worthless. He is q host within himself.
he is fitted to this high position and
the nation knows it. Twice has he
been decorated with the minister
al crown. Representatives of this
country who have preceded him are
pigmies when records are looked at
and comparisons permitted to be insti-
tuted between him and them. But
there is trouble coming, it is feared.
It does not relate to the Office, to the
dignity, the salary or to the perqui-
sites thereof. They are all right.
twenty-five thousand dollars per an
num-just the salary the President of
the United States formerly received
is q close approximation to the none.
tary value of this high Office. In a
word the ease, luxury, magnifcence
and grandiloquence of everything cor
nected with the mission to Mexico are
such that unless the democrats shall
win the presidency next year this most
admirable minister may be COM
nelIed to give Way to some