Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-06-07
CULLOM'S BLUFF.
He Wanted an Appointment
and He Got It.
Pressure Of the Office Seekers One
Senator About Played Out.
The Skyrocket Career Of James Hamilton
Lewis Of Washington.

o. tne once seeking methods employed At
this capital are pathetically comic or corn
ically pathetic as you choose. Imagine an
DID, an eminent senator of tho United
States going to one of the departments
and talking about resigning and going
homo to his constituents unless he could
get an appointment worth 5000 year.
That is what the senior senator from Illi-
nois, Mr.. Cullom, did q short time ago.
Mr.. Cullom had been to tho White House
almost daily for three months. He had
rcligiously visited the heads of depart
ments. He had pulled and coaxed till no
was tired. But tho results had been al
most nothing at all. He could not "land''
anything. So one day he became desper-
alto. He started out from home determined
that ho would have something from the
administration before shutdown or know
the reason why. He went over to the war
department with one Of his followers and
saw the secretary.
The Blur Worked.
General Alger," said the desperate sem
ator, "there is vacant messengership
here and l want it. II / can't get a little
thing like a messengership in one of the
departments, may as well resign my seat
in the senate and go home. I'lldo it, too;
blamed if don't"
The senator talked as If he meant It,
and Secretary Alger became alarmed.
'tTut, tut, senator, he exclaimed sooth-
ingly. tThat will never do. You mustn't
talk that way. Wen see what we can do"
So the secretary tapped his bell and
asked to see a certain subordinate, and
when that official appeared the secretary
told him to make out the papers for Sen
ator Cnllom's man. The old senator
thanked General Alger and walked out of
tho department with a smile on his face.
'You didn't really mean that you would
resign, did you?' his friend asked him as
they walked down the steps.
"Resign?' exclaimed Cullom. 'Say, do
you think l have lost my senses? OF
course I wouldn't resign. But l wanted
that appointment, and had to make a
bluff for it.
There is, as usual, a great deal of COM
plant among the senators and representa-
tives because the president doesn't make
his appointments more rapidly. They have
tried in every way they can think of to ex
pedite matters, but the president is i'm
movable. AS l announced in these dis
patches long before Mr.. Mckinley came
| to Washington, he had made up his mind
| that he was going very slow in tho office
| filing business till after the tariff bill was
passed. and he has held resolutely to his
| discrimination There is II difference OF
| opinion as to whether holding up the offices
does any good. Some think the president
| is right to keep his capital in hand as long
fD.t. AZ. l. Al a,l,,
he goes the more pressure there is and the
more discomfort.
Dodging the Office Seekers.
| know IA senator whose constituents are
still so hot after him about offices that he
actually goes into hiding almost every day
| to get away from them. During the fore
noon he locks himself up in his inner COM
| mittec room, and the messenger at the
door is instructed TO say that he is not
! there. Watching u chance to skip to the
senate chamber, he snugglcs down into
| his seat and protects himself behind the
| rule that cards are not to be sent to scna-
| tors till after 2 O'Clock unless by their di-
| re ction. Sharp at 2 the senator HES him.
self by passagcways which are not ayaila-
| bio to the public to tho senate cafe, or ire
| fe tory as tho dignified senate insists
upon calling it, and there he is safe again,
| for none but senators and representatives
| is permitted within those sacred pre-
cincts. Luncheon over, he goes to the SEN
| ate cloakrooms for ii smoke, and from be-
| hind a screen observes the proceedings on
| the floor. In this way he lodges through
| the afternoon, and at night is never to be
| found at his home. It's dogs sort of
| life, tho senator says but he is utterly
| worn out and desperate after three months
of office seeking pressure.
| There is new star in the house. He is
james Hamilton Lewis of Washington.
Tho newspaper men have dubbed him
| "Hamlet'' Lewis because he looks like tho
/ distressed Dane. He attires himself very
much after tho fashion of Piccadilly
dude He wears long coats, spats, the
| highest of collars, gorgeous ncckties, and
his whiskers and hair are something fear
| fuland wonderful to behold. But with all
these eccentricities James Hamilton Lewis
mas made a hit He is looked upon as one
/ of the brightest men on the Democratic
side. He can talk like fire engine trying
| to put out fire in the stockyards district,
and he has wit and solid sense. He has
given Tom Reed some hard nuts to crack
| in the line of parliamentary law, and
/
one stops to listen, for it is well under
stood there is fun ahead.
A Skyrocket Career.
James Hamilton Lewis has had a me-
teoric career. Three or four years ago he
was an unknown, struggling lawyer and
newspaper man out on the slope. Then he
got hold of desperate CASE involving val
uable lands. No ono thought tcould DO
! yon-no one but James Hamilton Lewis
He stuck to it in the local courts, TOOK IL
| to the supreme bench, argued it himself,
won. pocketed $4,000 fee and at one
leap became one of the most successinl
LAWYERS in the far west. From that day
to this he has had all he could do and is
fast becoming rich. Three months ago
he came to congress and through nerve
and audacity has stepped to high place
| in the house. -.
Secretary Long appears to enjoy ms
work in the navy department. VISITORS
occasionally catch him humming an alr at
his desk. and it is usually something about
Harvard college. The secretary was Oh the
class of 81, and the other day ne was
heard humming:
| G:ye time the go by with will
l a