The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1897-08-19
WASHINGTON.
FROM our Regular Correspondent.

WASHINGTON, Aug. IS, 1897.
Is John Sherman losing his mind ? |;
It certainly begins to look that way. d,
He has had conversations one day /
with we'll known gentlemen, and the ,
next day denied every word that he
said to them. Mr.. Mckinley must
have his doubts, as he has issued
orders to State Department officials
TO see that Mr.. Sherman does not
get the country into some new foreign
entanglement, and especially to keep
him from meddling with the Cuban
question which Mr.. Day has from the
first had exclusive charge Of Mr..
Sherman isn't such an old man-his
next birthday, if he lives, will be his
seventy.ffth-and f his mind has
really broken down it is probably be-
cause of the humiliation heaped upon
him by the Hanna-McKinley-D Day
combine.
The absurdity Of allowing the Span
ish minister to send officials of the |
Customs service off on all sorts of
wild goose fillibuster chases was &C !
centuated this week when he had
Customs officers seize steamer at
Bridgeport, Conn, that had on board
lot of ammunition belonging to the
u. S. government, which was being
moved under orders from the War
Department 1t would be funny, if
the matter wasn't too serious to be
ioked about.
A system of spying on the clerks in
the Treasury Department has been
put in force that is causing much dis
satisfaction among those who believe
that men and women do not become
slaves when they enter government
employ.
Mr.. Benjamin Butterworth, Com
missioner of Patents, has gone further
than any of his predecessors have
dared to go in regulating the practice
before the u. S. Patent Office, in the
new regulations he has issued provld-
ing the qualifications of patent solicl-
tors. The evidence in the hearings
in the case of John Wedderburn &
Co., who are under charges and are
trying to show cause why they should
not be disbarred, shows that MIR.
Butterworth has not gone too far IN
those regulations. 1t has been shown
by that evidence that of the more
than s,7oo applications filed fol
patents by Wedderburn & Co. during
the last two years, more than I,Soc
have been rejected as containing
nothing patentable, and of the remain
der only few, probably not 200
have sufficient value to justify th'
expense of patent. Notwithstanding
these facts, the deluded applicant
have in many instances been per
suaded to apply for European patents
paying the attorneys fee in advance
and to pay John Wedderburn y &c
for advertising for sale worthless an
fully anticipated inventions.
1t is learned that Minister Wood
ford has been instructed to take h
time IN travelling to Madrid to a
even greater extent than was cor
templated when he left Washington
1t is stated that the administratlo
prefers in the unsettled condition
affairs in Spain, since the assassin
ton of the Spanish Prime Mnlste
that MIR. Taylor, our old SPANS
Minister, who is presumed to
better posted on the condition
affairs than a new man would b
should continue for a while to repl
sent the United States at Madrl
The fact is, the administration war
to see which way the Spanish cat
going to jump before showing
Cuban policy to the government
Spain.
Boss Hanna's fight for election
the Senate is being aided by the
ministration wherever possible.
George P. Hamlet, of Ohio, who "
recently made Chief of Post OH
Inspectors, was given that place al
reward for what he is expected to
for Hanna, There are nearly I
post Office inspectors, and the ch
Can order as many of them into
particular state as he may be pleas
to have there. The programme is
Mr.. Hamlet to keep enough lnsp
tors in Ohio to see that all the p(
masters in that state give Hanna
the help they can, and any one
them who fails to meet eXpectati
in that line will be likely to find t
the inspectors will discover someth
wrong in the way he conducts
Office. OF yes, of course, TINS
civil service reform administrator
between campaigns in which 1t
interested.
Rnd,,nol Pntnr To GranparS' Picnic