The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1902-05-09

FELLOW CLERKS PRAISED HIM.
is, one out of the six will receive a
visitor as cordially as will the secre-
tary and assistant secretaries.
Now go down another grade. You
want to see chief of division,
centurion who has immediate super
vision of about 100 clerks. There you
find man who seldom speaks to any
of his employees, and who requires
them to look away up at him, as
though he were superior being
stepping from star to star. There
are very few exceptions in this class,
and the assistant chiefs feel the
weight and worry of their great po-
sitions even to a greater degree than
do the chiefs of division. The latter
never allow their subordinates to
speak of them by their names, but
they are always referred to as "The
Chief" and this is pronounced as
though it were printed in capital let
tiers, and italics at that.
No department head is tyrannical,
but tyranny exists in the government
departments, as one nears the lower
rounds of the official ladder. The
government clerks are usually with
out influence and wholly dependent
upon their positions, so that they be-
come as subservient as serfs and SUBJ
nit to petty tyrannies which indie
pendent men would extremely re-
sent.
just about year ago there was
an official having charge of couple
of hundred clerks who made himself
so offensive as to court his death.
And when he was shot to death in his
own Office everybody commended the
clerk who killed him, just as the gen.
erations of men have praised Char
lotte Corday for striking down big
ger tyrant. Moreover, the oppressed
clerks crowded around the man who
had done the killing and praised him
for Kidding them of a tyrant.
This in republic? Yes, and
something similar is liable to happen
in the same department to another
tyrant who has learned nothing by
the lesson of last year. He is an op-
pressor of the employees, requiring
more of them than should be re.
quired, and COMFORTING himself as a
Pharaoh commanding that bricks be
made without straw. His methods
are supercilious and his manners ex
tremely offensive. He has good po
litical backing, because the senators
from his state do not believe that hi
is villain. In their presence he cal
"crook the pregnant hinges of the
knee that thrift may follow fawn
ing" If either of them had the wi
of Richelieu they would say as die
the cardinal concerning Huguet: "H
bows too low"
Whoever goes to tie pension offic
will find in the much abused commits
sioner, Henry Clay Evans, one of tn
most honorable, upright, genial o
gentlemen who greets all callers wit
captivating cordially. But the call
er who may go to the subordinate OF
ficials there will find the same auto
cratic bearing which has been dc
scribed as existing in the treasur
department.
On Capitol hill the sergeants-at
arms of the senate and house of rel
resentatives are cultured gentlemen
knowing well how to treat the cit
zens of this republic, and realizin
!. that they are not superiors to br
servants of the people. Go to the
!, assistant door keepers, however, VIII
. guard the numerous approaches t
= the halls of legislation, and you wi
;. find lot of self-conceited unde
strappers who imagine that the cal
itol is theirs and the fullness Their
of. Every one of them seems to
9 electioneering for the loss of his D,
= sition.
- Real life in the national capit
: cannot be understood without a DO
:, travail of these characters, SO TIL:
T. visitors may know how to see the
: way clear in their explorations of tt
= capitol and departments. Make va,
way to the heads of departments al
"a the head men at the capitol, and tn,
= will see to it that the understrappe
~ treat you with civility and courtes
i SMITH D. FRY
If
. Transparent
&c aocv to Gee THROUGH tba ~,