The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-21
LITERATURE BY THE CART LOAD
SENT OUT FROM THE DIFFER
ENT HEADQUARTERS.
1T is A READING CAMPAIGN.
VOTERS EVIDENCE A DESIRE To
THOROUGHLY UNDERSTAND
THE ISSUES
IS SEEKING LIGHT
ON the Currency Question-Tari riff
In the BackgrOund-DuIl at
the Capital.

the Capital.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 1.-THE dull
est parS Of the dull season in Wash
ington, empty rooms and general list
lessness in all the hotels where con-
gressmen usually throng, scores of
boarding houses shut up, dead silence
through all the halls and corridors
of the beautiful capitol, and over all
the vicinity peace that passeth under
standing. The oft-quoted oldest inhab-
liant cannot remember a time when
there were SO few eminent men in the
city. The absence of the president has
apparently released all the diplomats
from the obligation to remain here,
though the representatives of Great
Britain and Venezuela are never out
of town long because Of the interest
ing negotiations between Secretary
Olney and Lord Salisbury. Even in the
purely executive departments, where
activity is nominally resumed and
routine business must be done, the
messengers move about like flies in
wet spell, and clerks handle docu-
ments as leisurely as if heaven were
full of days and earth of nights and
all coming their way. General bus1-
ness in the city is not dull or declin-
ing 1t is dead, and the skinning is
far advanced. The main dry goods
houses have given the large part of
their force indefinite leave of absence.
The retail trade has sunk below
what one would have thought posi-
BILE in a city of this size. Evidently
more people are out of town than
ever before, or those who remain are
sailing closer to the wind than has
been the practice in this city since
1845.
A business man who ought to know
assured me that to his certain knowl-
edge there were 1900 vacant houses
in the district. I asked a prominent
real estate dealer about this, and he
said he didn't think there were over
5000, but he was positive that not
over $1,000 had changed hands in the
real estate business in month. These
are gross exaggerations, of course, but
they serve to show the feeling The
druggists can indulge in a melan-
choly satisfaction. There certainly is
a boom in quinine. The awful heat of
July and early August was followed
suddenly by weather altogether too
cool for the season, and Washington
malaria is at it's worst. Oh, why did
our foredads locate the capital on
these mud banks when they might
have put it on that lovely terrace
where the crystal Susquehanna flows
so strong and free?
CAMPAIGN LITERATURE.
At the political headquarters only is
there life, and 1t is wonderful Politics
is not in the line Of this correspondence,
but in the reports of all the party man
ayers one fact stands out amazingly
prominent over which all patriots can
rejoice. Far beyond all precedent is
this reading campaign The like was
never seen before in any country and
probably never anticipated by the most
sanguine optimist. ut beats all the
records" said the irrepressible Law
renee Gardiner when called for his fig
ures. Mr.. Gardiner is the one Demo-
crat in this district who never surren-
ders He holds up the District Democ-
racy, is secretary Of the congressional
committee and grand organizer of
clubs and serves in several other ca
pacities. When all other Democrats
are crushed, when the country is swept,
as 1t were, by a Republican cyclone
and the star Of hope seems to have
sunk below the horizon, the round, ge-
NAL face of Lawrence Gardiner comes
up smiling with the statement that
this Is only a temporary squirt" and
he at once resumes the fight.
sit beats all we ever heard Of" he said.
Men will read anything. Heavy or light
long or short, 1t makes no difference. They
are going back to the original documents and
are studying Hume and Ricardo and John
Stuart Mill and all the rest. They read
Senator Jones' big speech as II 1t were a
new novel, and will take anything gladly
from small cyclopedia down to a pamphlet
or leahet. Look at this letter. We sent this
committee 10000 pamphlets. They got them
in the morning and telegraphed that night
that all were gone and they wanted 1000
more, and this is their letter of complaint
that have not sent them
From Gen. Duncan S. Walker, head of the
literary bureau, l got the principal figures
from which it appears that this committee is
now shipping regularly 800 900 a day, and the
amount so far shipped is about 5000 900. A
comparatively small amount of this can be
sent under a frank, the Democrats are
relying less upon speeches delivered In con-
gress than upon documents carefully pre-
pared on specific points. Besides the matter
shipped from here the committee Is supplying
stereotyped plates to local committees. en-
abling them to reduplicate documents at will.
At the start 1t was thought quite a joke to
report that the demand for pamphlets on
the currency was about is to / to those on
the tariff, but it is no longer near enough
to the truth to be joke for it is now over
100 to l.
POPULAR DOCUMENTS.
The applications are pleasantly impartial
Many Of them come from gold men who avow
themselves such, but express their anxiety
to read both sides. Many of the documents
are issued by Popuiists and few by Repub-
licans, but the demand is equally great for
these. OF the fifty leading documents issued
the fayorites Congressman Terry's Bat
tie OF the Standards" Senator Cockrells long
speech in the senate, Senator Teler's Rev
enue Not the Rem edy' and Bryan's speech
at the Chicago convention. After these the
speeches of Representatives Towne and Sibley
stand about even. and there is q large de-
mand TO: the reprint Of DIR. John G. Ridpath's
articles in the Arena. AT the risk Of being
tedious, repeat that the great demand is for
the highest order Of work. and that in the
terse yernacular of Mr.. Gardiner 'fubdub
doesn't go this year.
At the Republican congressional committee
got the same report. only much more So
Hon. Joseph w. Babeock chairman, was all
smiles over the news he had just received
from the West and in answer to my query
pointed to a vast pile OF letters with: "Just
look at that. There art orders for 5000, 600