Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1895-09-28
SATURDAY EVENING SEPT. 2e. 1895.

nals"-that is to say, no battles or
sieges, 60 treaties, or rebellions, moth
iny, in q word, but the ordinary jog
trot of human existence and daily life,
things far below the notice of eminent
hi ,toriaps-say time when Darby and
joan after some preliminary skirmish
ing aud wooing, got married out OF
b md with no cards, or wedding pres
ents, or going on a foreign tour, rearef,
Notwithstanding, very numerous
pro.eny and fioally departed to their
last rest without resort to the divorce
courts or the fashionable alternative Of
an amicable separation. Now, it may
he true that the State which has the
least history is happy Commonwealth,
but what is this compared to a grand
republic of seventy millions of people
whose rulers can afford to take the
long American summer for a vacation :?
1.-THE first be b!is-, the second can only
be class d as ecs,acy. 1t may be that
there is really nothing from May to
O..ober requiring attention by the gov
crument; or it may be that the valna-
BILE direction and impetus given to the
ship of State during the preceding eight
months is sufficient to propel the afore-
s,id vessel on right course, with only
slight help from tho Royal
Dispatch; or it msy be, as soma
wicked persons suggest, that four
mouths period of inaclion is like
r,s.iag the land after a good deal OF
experimental and exhausting farming
We cannot decide between these diff
ferent theor 's, which have each found
ingenious advocates. 1t is, of couIs',
hard to understand how Confederacy
O forty-Gve States, with such prodig-
jous activities az ours, bordering on
two or three foreign countries, and hay.
g so many national concerns as to re-
ouire of the President broadside and
a half of big newspaper to specify
even a few Of them in his annual mes
s4ge to Congress, should for q period OF
fur months, when flies and mosqui-
toes are busiest, go to sleep SO pro-
f,undly that its rulers can afford to take
this long rest; making, however, no
abatement from their respective sal
aries, but rather ekiog them out by the
economical expedient of free passes
aud other methods whereby great men
diminish the sacrifices they are CON-
PEELED to make for the public good.
Yes it is hard to understand how the
whole summer should thus be zone
grand, sweet sonr," th the note of the
cuckoo filling the gale in every quarter.
There is yet another view to this mat
Ter which somewhat lessons the diff
cllty of the corundrum. The case OF
the administration may be stated in
tbs wise Secretary Morton and the
other philosophers inform US that the
people depend entirely too much upon
the ,vernment. They ought to
stop calling on Hercules, IS
pecially when Hercules is tired.
or wants to amuse himself with
his lady friends. What better node of
teaching the people to be self-reliant
than to let them severely alone for four
months? For that period the bread
pill is sufficient for their purely imagi
nary ailments. The Virginia farmer
is rich, if he only knew it, and so are
all the Southern and Western farmers.
All the Virginia farmer has to do in
order TO rival Ci9 us or Rothschild is
to hump himself, grow grapes and
other fruit and warmly support the ad-
ministration. The rest follows, natur-
ally. In the autumn the government
will come back to Washington like a
giant refreshed with wine, looking
more glorious indeed as it rubs its eyes
and proceeds TO work, than when it
first composed itself for nap. All
political activities may then be resum-
ed. The President will go to work on
his message and show Us how a retire
ment of the greenbacks, contraction
of the currency and further heavy fall
in the price Of farm products will be sn
inestimable benefit to US all in this
world of inevitable sorrow and sacri-
fee. OF course, he cannot be expected
to bother himself with such petty
trifles as the success of the democracy
in Kentucky, Maryland and New York.
The Secretaries, too, will all be back
and will jump to work with vim.
Even the fugitive assistant secretarie $
will return for brief space to assist
their chiefs, not, indeed, that this ia
necessary, but to set good example to
the clerks who are only too apt to fall
into habits of lethargy and innocuous
desue,ude. The whole machinery of
the government will be set in motion.
Mr.. Carlisle, Mr.. Smith and others will
break to us gently in III, form If
y,a,uopo nor / nj ar,,; O mo ,xuhot ia onmipn