The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1897-07-10
ARE MERE SERFS.
The Life Of a Government Clerk
Is Not q Happy One.
Young Men should Seek ANY other
Avenue Of BrcRd-WinninE Rnth-
ar Than Work in the De-
pnrtments.
TspeclaI washington Letter.l

Many pens, welded by descriptive
artists of superior ability have been
devoted to m~eritorious etchings of the
great postal machinery of the United
States. They have painted with
winged words the gilded pages and de-
pieted the exterior portions of tie
white sepulchers. Yet they have never
seen the inner life, and hence have
never presented to popular gaze the
serf of the republic. And the voice of
the serf has never been raised concern
ing himself, or the labOrs imposed
upon him, by a government which has
for him less consideration than was
shown to the slaves Of an effete Ne
gime.
The serf knows that he a little
grace his cause by speaking Of it. He
can only crouch and owe heneaththe
masters lash, thankful and p~rayerfuA
and willing to let well enough alone.
He is unwilling to exhibit the proud
aesh that comes Of his bruises. He
enn benefit neither the public nor HIM
self by exhibiting the decorations of his
feelings OF the m-aceration of his man
hood. Day by day he is mulcted of
the robustness of independence which
Is characteristic Of his fellow men; yet
he is silent. There Is around him an cs-
pionage that makes him shudder lest
the modern VidocQ discern his feelings,
wrest from him his self-consciousness,
and lay bare his secret thoughts of the
surroundings which make life a sheol.
Yet he has within his hearts hot cells
shut up, wrongs, bitter, burning
wrongs, withered hopes, crushed ambi-
lions, annihiIated manhood" Over the
arched doorways of the departments
at Washington it might well be written
in letters of rugged iron: Manhood
quickly killed for all who enter here"
This only to the serfs. No matter
whether the legalized disregard for the
constitution, yclept "the civil service
commission" or the executive mandate
of the wielder of the spoils system,
shall send him thither, he who enters a
government department at Washington
dies the death.
This is no more true of the post
Office department than of the others,
That branch of the executive division
| OI TIC RONSIHLnCub Is SS1eCLSu 1OE 0S-
scription because the writer is an ex-
serf emancipated from that prison
These are to you strange sayings. You
have never considered anything con-
nected with the civil service of the gov
eminent in any but it's most rOseate col
ors. Yet, to the actual public servant
a life spent in the government EN-.
ploy has not a spirituelle attractiveness
1t is a whited sepulcher. There is es
pionage upon every individual, and il
is so inquisitorial and shrewd that its
depth, breadth and thickness are abyss
NAL, boundless. Hope and ambition arr
choked, and their roots extracted anC
killed.
An elderly gentleman recently daret
to tell his experience to one whom hi
knew to be a trusty friend. He said.
II am wondering now whether it il
better to be a pauper or a puppy.
came into this place II years ago, will
high aspirations. l knew that l wa
active and energetic, and believed tina
l could attain almost any enhance il
government life. / believed that i coult
reach the position of postmaster
general. But in less than
year l concluded that if l coulC
only become chief of my di
vision 1 would be happy. 1 did NOR