Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1905-03-22
FROM WASHINGTON,

and tawdy blare of trumpets at
tendant upon the Inauguration of a
President of these United States
are passed gone, the crowds have
melted away, leaving the pocket
books of the saloon keeper and the
hotel man plethoric in the capital
city of the nation, which is the sole
object of all this rot that occurs
here once every four years. There
is not man in the city not the
direct beneficiary of all this noise
and beating of tomtoms who is
sorry that it is over.
Some day maybe the people of
the nation will have the good sense
to elect man President who will
eSchew all this tommyrot and who
will refuse to have anything to do
with it. He will be unpopular
with the saloon men and the hotel
men, but he will have the thanks
of all the quiet and orderly people
of the city and the country.
lftheyare to continue this idiocy,
then why in the name of common
sense do they not change the date
of holding this Inauguration to the
30th day of April You can be
assured of the nastiest weather on
record on the 4th of March each
year in this city of any time during
the year. And each year, or at
least each Inauguration, sees its
harvest of death from colds con-
tracted from exposure under in
clement skies while the President
Is delivering his inaugural address.
This time the victim was dear old
Senator Bate, of Tennessee. He
took cold and lived only four days
after sitting fifteen minutes in the
cold March wind that was blowing
while on the reviewing stand.
There Is no telling how many more
that we will never hear of, and
thus it is at each recurring inaugu-
ration. This parade of nonsense
and noise is becoming greater each
time. Either the American people
arc getting closer TO the ideas Of
the etfete monarchies of the old
world, and long to have king to
install on his throne, or else are
going crazy. 1t is the opinion of
all right-thinking people here that
the thing ought to be stopped.
All the Senators and a good
many of the members of the House
are still here, and there is more or
less political discussion and specu-
latiOn going on all the time. One
thing that is discussed is the fact
that the question of taaiff revision
that was uppermost as a topic
when the Congress met last De-
cember, has petered out complete
~. The President seemed to be
very insistent then that there must
be something done in the way of
tariff revision, and that if Congress
did not do something he would call
an extra session and ask them to
stay here until they did do some
thing, and altogether talked very
bravely about the matter. All this
courage on the subject that seemed
to be nearest his heart and in which
there really was something for the
benefit of the people, seems to
have oozed out at the ends of his
| fingers when the leaders of the
party read the riot act to him, and
now you hear not a chirp from
him or any of his sponsors con-
corning tariff revision. The stand
patters" have had their way abso-
lutely, the tariff wall still stands
as high as ever, the reciprocity
treaties are dead, the tariff barons
still reap<he harvest and the peo-
pie pay the bills. So it will con-
tinue so long as the Republican
party continues in power. The
promises of a Republican Execu-
tive in his messages to Congress
on this or any other reform that
will benefit the people are like
puff balls. One puff from the lips
of the Republican leaders in Con-
gress who are sent here and con-
trOlled by the special interests of
the country, is enough to dissipate
all such promises on the part of
the President.
The Presidentalso talked up right
pert on the question of railway
rates and regulations. He again
threatened to call an extra session
of the Congress unless something
was done on that subject. The |
Republican leaders got together
and decided that some sort of hluf