The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-02-21

Senator Billy Mahone--His Overcoat and
Fancy FriIied Shirt Bosom.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 20. Especial -
The secretary of agriculture, Mr. Morton,
is a great believer i'm civil service reform
and in selecting government servants by
competitive examination. The only
change I would make" he says, ''is to
put in the civil service commission a man
who has had great experiehce In the gov
ernment departments and who knows
enough of human nature TO choose men
lot wholly upon their rating In exami-
nation, but by taking into account that In
desoribable thing by which business men
judge of the qualities of applicants for em-
ployment. The examinations tell only
part of the story. They are useful in as
certaining how much education man
has, how neatly and INTEL. gently he may
work, but they do not give much infor-
nation as to his character, his forceful-
ness, his adaptability. Stin do not see
how we could run the government now
without these examinations. / have no
patience with the people who would strike
down civil service reform and turn every
thing over to the politicians as In the old
days.
Worth His Salary.
'Let me give you an instance In point,
continued the secretary. "Some time ago
we needed some assistant statisticians at
the department of agriculture for work
on the crop reports and such things. We
wanted good men. Though there was no
law for 1t, asked Worthington Ford, sta
tistician of the treasury department. and
one OF the best statisticians In this coun-
try, to act as examiner for us and help us
choose some men. We prepared a list of
questions covering some 40 pages, being
determined tomake the test as exhaustive
as possible. We knew statisticians are
born, not made, and that good ones are
mighty scarce, and so we wanted to be
sure there was no mistake about the Sc
lections. What was the resultS A large
number of men submitted to the exami-
nation Only few secured rating high
er than 90 The one who got the highest
mark appointed an assistant statistician
at $2,250 year that very day. He has
turned out to be one Of the most extraor-
dinary men I ever knew. He is re-
markable statistician. Not only does he
know the theory of statistics and the lit
erature of that science as well as he knows
his own name, but In practice he is q
wonder 1 have seen him take a lot OF
figures written on piece of paper, with
four figures under thom, and multiply
them by mental arithmetic without n sin
gle mistake. Multiplying by three figures
purely mentally Is as easy for him rs it
is for you or 1 To say 10 times Is are $50.
His name Is Farquhar, and when we
found him he was doing cheap, automatic
work at small salary. That man Is
worth five times what he costs.
Now, suppose we had hired an assist
ant statistician In the old way, conclud-
ed the secretary. 'Some senator or rep
resentative would have come to me and
said: Morton, / hear you want a new
man to do figuring. Now, l have in my
section a smart young fellow who is just
as bright at figures as any man ever saw.
Besides, he is a right good party worker.
He makes fine speech, and II 1t. hadn't
been for him i don't believe we could
have carried such and such district last
fall. He ought to have place, and
think he will fiji the bill because i knew
he is right handy at bookkeeping. Un-
der tho old system l would have hired a
man recommended I'm some such way as
this and then the people would havo won
dered why we could not get better work
out of our statistical division. What is
! the politics of this Mr.. FarquharS Blessed
IL know. l never thought to ask him" !"
Slightly Cranky.
It is curious how some men climb up
and others fall down in this capital OF
ours. / know man employed by the
government in post requiring certain
skill and learning who draws salary Of
50, 900 year. In his line of work he Is
the brightest man in the government serv-
ice But for one failing he might now
DO enjoying an income of two and half
times his present salary, and that would
virtually be life job. The trouble with
this poor chap Is that he has become
cranky on a certain semireligious subject
and cannot avoid talking about it in sea-
son and out of season. If IL were not
for the fact that he makes nuisance OF
himself on that subject, 4" said his superior
officer, ~ would tomorrow promote him
from 81, 600 job to a SO, 600 one"
Tho hero of the old soldiers about the
capitol Is Senator Palmer Of Illinois,
chairman Of the committee on pensions.
1t would do you good To see Senator Palm
er I'm his committee room receiving the old
soldiers who come TO him for assistance
was calling on Mr.. Palmer n day or two
fooa
low opened the door timidly and stuck
his head into the room as II he were afraid
some one was going to hit him. "Come
In, comrade," sang out the old senator.
The man came In, dofilng his cap and sa-
luting. "Gen'ral," no muttered, II
thought "a how / would come to SEQ II
you can take me up Co see tho president. :"
"Comrade," responded Senator Palmer
lit Is pretty bad day, isn't IL, to go off
on White House excursionY' "Mebbe it
Is, gen raj. " said the old soldier who had
no overcoat and whose garments were
torn and tattered, "but am awfully anx-
ious to SEQ II the president can't do some
thing for me" "Well, you sit down a
moment, ccmfadc, and thon i will &C
with you" In few minScs the senator
finished up bis work, put on his big over
coat and he and the old veteran went out
and took n street car for the White House.
Ex-senator Mahonc.
Speaking Of men who 20 about I'm snow.