The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1903-02-26

ka r. e NEWCa

Gen. Booth, the great Salvation Arm.
leader, and his son-in-law, Booth-Tucker
were the guests of the President at lunch
while here, and the President had severa
members of the Cabinet to meet them.
= .
Old Chief Joseph, once the most power
full Chief of the Nez Perces Indians, ha:
been in Washington in war bonnet ant
scalp shirt, accompanied by several othel
braves, all seeking to be sent back to the
Walla Walla Valley, from which they were
taken by Gen. Miles in 1877. Their pies
was mo Bueno,'' for they will never be
sent back to terroriZe the citizens left
after the battles of Wounded Knee and
Cripple Creek. The Nez Perces are now
on the Colville Reservation.
DIR. Herman Mynter, who performed the
chief operation on President Mckinley,
died last week at his home in Buffalo.
He was a native of Denmark. and noted
for his skill in surgery, as well as for
his bluntness with patients.
1t is said at the offices of the Civil Ser
vice Commission that men clerks are
much preferred to women in the Depart
ments. The reasons given are that men
are easier to control in an Office than wOm-
en-; also, it is much easier to say to a male
clerk when work is pressing, Come back
after dinner" than it is to ask the women
clerks ITO please return after dinner and
help US out" The men always come, the
women only sometimes. Then, too. if
man has the backache he is told that
must not mar his record for work for that
day. If woman complains of the same
i'll, she must be sympathized with, and
perhaps sent home. On the whole, they
say at the Commission, men are much
better in Government offices than women.
1t is not generally known that to a
bar sinister on the escutcheon of a noble
House we owe our great Smithsonian In
stitution, but it is true. James Smith
son was the Legitimate son of the third
Duke of Northumberland. He came into
great wealth, but it gave him no pleasure,
for he knew that stain lay on every dol
lar of it. To revenge himself on England,
the greatest foe of the United States, and
to avenge the stain of his birth, he gave
the greater part of his estate to found the
Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
He seems TO have left England very much
to herself in his maturer years. and died
at last and was buried in Genoa, Italy.
The grave is in a lonely little tumbledown
cemetery, which is about to be removed,
and if this is done, the dust of the great
Smithson must be removed too, and as
there is now no one living to care what
becomes of his bones. it is proposed to
bring his body here to repose under the
shadow of the great building which his
munifcent benefactions founded. 1t is
eminently proper that this thing should
be done.
:. 1t begins to look as though the German |
Emperor, who rates himself as among
the "Anointed' and mighty little lower
than the angels, had been betrayed for
20 cases of wine, for which ambassador |
Won Holleben is held responsible. 1t is |
an ugly piece of business all around, but
it would probably have caused but little
stir if Germany had not had her nose
pulled in the Venezuelan matter.
How does this strike you for grave
subject: One of the unsuccessful candi-
dates for Congress in the last election
was Mr.. George c. r. Wagner, of st.
Louis. by calling an undertaken. He has
Instituted a contest against Representative
Butler of the short term from that dis
:trict ending March 4. Last week Mr..
Wagoners testimony arrived in six large
boxes. As these boxes were not easily
carried, Mr.. Wagner had them equipped
with regulation coffin handles. With that
fashion Of attachment they were lifted
from the House of Representatives mail
wagon and borne to the room of the E!ec-
tons Committee, where the confess is to
be considered.
By the time Congress gets through with
wrestling with the contest, most of the
members of the committee will probably
be ready to occupy the boxes.
Senator Carmack, of Mississippi GER
tainly does hate the Army. The way he
IambasteG our poor boys who served in the
Philippines, in speech in the Senate the
other day. was sin. He called our
brave soldier lads common murderers. said
there was system of torture among our
troops, and that the four courts-martial
which have been held were ''trayesties on
justice" Senator Carmack is young. oh,
very, very young, for his years. and he
has been called an orator so often that
he believes it, and likes to set his mouth
going. and seems to go off and leave it. for
surely there is. little evidence of brains
to back up the wild utterances with which
he often deluges the country.
Government employees are a favored
class of people. They get 80 days vaca-
ton with pay, and are allowed under the
law 80 days ''sick leave" That is. if
they are so i'll as to need physician. they
are allowed a day for every visit the
physician is obliged to visit them up to the
~ days limit. If they remain i'll after
that, they can in extreme cases have an
other ~ days, but no pay. The Depart
ments have been very lax in the matter
OF sick leave. however, and it is said in !
some of the Departments the clerks take !
their sick leave few days at a time,
without being at all ill, but use up the
whole 30 days, which is. of course,
straight steal. In some Departments a
physicians certificate Of illness has been .
demanded, but it amounts to nothing.
as obliging family physicians are perfectly J
willing TO certify that So-and-so was unfit J
for duty on the days devoted to sick leave. |
1t is said that in the Treasury Department
it has been found that the clerks nearly {
all use up the sick leave, so that they are {
absent from duty at least one>siXth of the |
year. 1t is rumored now that rigid in {
yestigation is to be made of every sick
leave absence, and those who are PLAYING |
sneak will be notified that they can 90 &
on being sick indefinitely, but that it will 6
not be at the expense of the Government.
A report of the rejection of immigrants
on the Canadian border during January {
has been received by Commissioner-Gen-
eral Sargent. The total number rejected
was 434. an evidence of the alertness of |
the immigration officials. OF these, 155 ,
were without certificates. 100 had ira ;
choma. no were considered likely to be- !
come public charges. 30 were rejected on J
account of contract labor laws, one assist
ed immigrant, one afflicted with tubercu-
losis, one insane, and one had favus Great
vigilance is necessary in the Canadian bor- l
der to keep undesirable foreigners out of /:
4 a latr fry 1n, r. II