Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1895-01-15
A Question Of Distance.

DrIuplUp up anu II'otAt N'hAAAip'i io'
assuredly it has come to stay.
A Question Of Distance.
More than that, it is "A rapidly grow
ing power. Already does it control one
fourth Of all the offices, and by executive
order it is fast absorbing others, and the
more heated the assaults Of IFS critics
the more determined is tho president 70
broaden its scope. Sowell is this under
stood here that whenever the New York
Sun makes a particularly yenomons at
tack on him and refers therein TO the
system il is expected that Mr.. Cleve-
land will at once issue an order taking
in few hundred more employees. In
his present term he has issued l3 general
orders, taking in some 10. 600 who had
been out, and some 5000 more are ex-
pected TO come in soon.
The critics have had their fun, how
ever, and there has been ample material,
for at the start the examinations were
not arranged by the most practical men
in the world, and many real questions
and many more fictitious ones with lu-
dicrous answers have amused the pub
lie. Everybody has heard OF the Texan
clerk who TO the question, "HOw far Is
it from the earth TO the planet Mars at
their conjunction?" answered that he
had no idea, but he knew that Mars was
far enough away not TO interfere with
his work in the custom house. he got
the appointment There was school
teacher from Illinois wanting TO teach
Indians who was given once famous
English book entitled Rejected Ad'
dresses" with request to write short
criticism on it he wrote that he could
not see why they were rejected, as there
are some really good things in them
These, however, are but the light hu-
mors OF rather serious situation. Two
important facts must first be noted
that the percentage Of failures III the
examination has grown much less OF late
and that Of ludicrous answers still less.
The clerks in the office Of Major Will
liam III. Webster, chief examiner, have
from time to time laid aside specimen
papers as curiosities, and some OF these
have been allowed TO look over, though
the rules forbid the publication OF tho
name, number or residence Of the appli-
cant. The most astonishing fact in the
pile is that the simple word crooked
ly" is spelled in no less than 81 differ
ent ways. This seems incredible, but
the clerks nave counted the variations
carefully. The most unique perhaps Is
"krookidli, bat there are many purely
phonetic spellings by foreign born ap-
plicants not familiar with the word. who
aimed at the sound as represented in
the letters of their own languages. The
examination also brought out the fact
that in large section Of this country
the 100" is pronounced exactly Ike
Few" in few, in another section as
100" in food and in few places almost
Exactly like the French ''u." The lar
gest percentage of errors seems to be IN
words ending in ance or ence, many get
ting them confused. As to believe
and "beleive," receive" and de
cieve, " of course they abound here as IN
all English writing countries.
Life Is Real.
In the papers used for one year there
was an order, MAKE prose paraphrase
Of the lines:
Tell me not In mournful numbers
Life Is but an empty dream,
For the soul Is dead that sumbcrs,
n ,.f hot hoy
The result showed marvellous variety
IF views or rather guesses at Longfel'
lows meaning and some notions abont
life and the soul which would have
thrown DR.. McCosh into ''geeminy tit,
but the prudent ones merely contented
themselves with transposing the poets
words A colored applicant, after max
ing several attempts, as shown by
scratched out sentences and phrases,
finally wrote this: "Do not say life is
not real. for he who says so had better
open his eyes, shake himself and find
out thereby whether or not he is here or
not" Many Of the answers indicate
general belief, even among tolorably
well educated people, that there never
was any liberty or much civilization be-
fore Washington's time, and that all
our political institutions were created
de noyo by the constitutional fathers.
A bit Of history is necessary to under
stand present conditions. From Wash
ington to the second Adams included
there was slow but tolerably steady
increase in the practice Of making offices