Evening star., 1897-04-10


they encounter the kindly, searching gaze
OF q purely business man who yet waves
them to seat at his side with something
OF the reminiscent grandiloQuence of q Sir
Charles Grandson. II, however, the visi-
tor Is not personal friend of the Secre-
tary's-few visitors, thus far. have BEEN
and has not come for the mere momentary
exchange OF compliments, he perceives at
once that he Is sitting in juxtaposition
with man whose admiration for concise
ness. condensation and brevity amounts al
most to idolatry. The man with the long
story, the recital of a party's or a consti-
tuencys ingratitude, does not arouse the
Secretarys visible animosity: instead, he
exc!tes the Secretarys latent powers of
indifference, and. before he quite under
stands the reason why he has not made a
nit, he is being bowed out with smiling
commonplaces.
In wise lacking in a sense of humor
this Secretary of the Interior has two
blank. unappreciatiye eyes for the man
VINO thinks to make what ball players call
grand-stand play by telling him scream
lngly humorous story before embarkiug
upon the narration of his business A
Minnesota ofticeseeker of some consider
atle distinction in his own state made this
distressingly dismal mistake on his visit
the other day. He had scarcely been intro
ouced before he seized a trivial pretext a
qulp on one of his own words, to lessen the
Secretarys burden of state by telling him
the most frantically funny story in mis-
stock. MIR. Bliss listened gravely. with alb
solutely fixed countenance. ali the way
through. When the Minnesota man reach
ed his climax and exploded with the ter
rlllc hulnor OF his own yarn, something
that was almost gloom nimbussed the Sec
retary's face.
'Ha," said he. idly fumbling a hand-blot-
ter: quite so: l perccive:-eh-good morn
ing! And the Minnesota man probably
did not realize until he got into the cool
outer air that he had been dismissed before
he had related his business
Secretary Bliss. however deeply SUBJ
merged in business he may be. has a cor
dfa! handshake and an attentive ear for old
soldiers. He receives them at any and all
tlmeS and gives them whatever audience
they desire within reason. When they s:ap
from his office they Invariably appear to
walk with lighter tread than upon their
arrival and 1t is said that there is to pe a
Iather surprising list of reinstatementS of
discharged old soldiers in the pension Of
flee before long
MT Bliss only martyrdom of the day is
at the hands of some of the ladies' who
visit him. He is rather a shy man in the
presence of the sex. Oddly enough though
rome of his feminine visistors appear to be
IN the least bit shy or retiring in manner
For a single instant, the other day when a
majestic. fashionable looking woman If
forty swept into his room with the frou-
frou of si1ken skirts. and emitting the
somewhat violent perfume of orris as she
passed. Mr.. Bliss seemed just a trifie un-
decided as to what he should do with his
hands and feet. He did not look unlike a
man who wanted to run. He quickly re-
h)"tNcI, anu ueferent1aliy heard
the ladys somewhat prolonged story If
ne made any promise to Indefinitely retain
her husband as an Indian agent the laiy's
naughty and rather .'mxed'' appearance
dld not denote it as she emerged from his
office. ' 1''
When the Crowd Is Gone.
The levee all promptly over at 3 O'Clock
tonly very monumental man may get be-
yond the Secretary's threshold after that
hcur). Mr.. Bliss lights big, black cigai-
he Is an inveterate smoker-apd goes in
for an hour or two of hard work Now the
Department of the Interior being practi-
cally distributed all over the city of Wash
irgton in its numerous branches, it at first
seems difficult to understand how the Sec
retary of the Interior can easily keep his
hand upon the daily pulse of all of these
Gig estabiishments-the pension office the
Indian bureau, the land office, the patent
office and SO on. If it were not for the
system of work quite recently established
In the Department of the Interior the Sec
retary would be compelled to resort to the
rather unsatisfactory and tedious plan of
requiring all his various commissioners to
wait upon him at certain periods of the
day In order to make their reports to him
or what Is going on in their respective
offices. w
The present system has immeasurabIv
simpified The thing. In the Interior Dc
partment building there is maintained a 81
vision of each one of the big Offices under
the jurisdiction of the Secretary Through
the division of the pension office, ;, for in
stance, all of the mail that is later sent
over to the main pension office building has
10 pass. and from this mass of mail is
slIted every matter that is to require the
consideration of the Secretary An ah-
stTact of these matters is then made after
winch the sifted letters permitted to go
their way over to the pension office for
Whatever action the Secretary directs
Each one of these divisions of the n,.,in
bureau is thus made a clearing house for
us respective bureau, ard the heads of
these divisions, being in constant contact
with the Secretary, are enabled to give bi,,
complete daily report of all that is going
on in the departments numerous 10 80 -
important branches. ~
1t IS when Mr.. Bliss lights his 2 o.cl,cl,
cigar that he begins to receive these re-
ports. Seeing with a ready. trained eve
mo the heart of things, this Secretary has
already popularized himself immensely
with the Interior Department clearing
mouse officials He seems to krow the i'm
portant paper at the bottom of the divi
SION chle1s portfolio and digs it out first.
he mas almost the faculty of Iibrarian
SpoHord for throwing out stuff tb,t ba
does not deem important. Mr. Spofford
reads a oonderous tome in eight seconds
IN two seconds. Secretary Bliss. almost in
the process of unfolding a document of a
oozen pages of typewriter foolscap. prasns
with his mental eye its relative value. He
SNN t"Siity lelteTS, each OF consider
apie length, in ten minutes and win re-
call phrases from every paragraph of them
several days afterward-a little feat which
occasionally causes the division chiefs to
gaze at him with rather wondering eve
The Secretary goes over papers" said
one or these chefs. las if they were Sc
cur1ties of which he knew the ruling mar
ket value down to the eighths. and he
sorts them out and considers them as he
would sort out and consider railroad bonds
OF varying degrees of solidity which he
meditated buying"
by 1 clock he has finished with all of
MS division cniefs. and knows pretty thor
ougnly what has happened during the off,
ciftl day in his conference.-the official do
main. Then he rings for his stenograoher
and spends half AN hour-in the ranid die
tation of letters. The English he employs
IN these letters is admiral ble the old-fash-
loned organ notes of the CORRESPONDENT of
another day often swelling through them
that Is, they have the resonance of letters
Which able men used to write at their
leisure for the joy of it about hundred
years ago.
Regularly Secretary Bliss carriage awaits
him at the F-street entrance to the In
terror Department every evening at
O'Clock. Quite as regularly Secretary Bliss
sends messenger out to dismiss his car
riage and walks down F street toward his
hotel the Arlington, stopping at most of