The Jersey City news., 1906-04-07
REPORT ORIAL
MIND READERS
Old Time Correspondents At
Washington Criticize the
Newcomers Who Know
It All
SOME LlURID TALES
ONLY TROUBLE ABOUT THEM
Is TIIAT THEY HAVE no FoUN-
DATIoN IN FACT AND ARE NOT
PUBLISHED AS FICTION.

have been enlightening % the great
American public this winter on the hab
its, actions and thoughts of their repre-
sentatives at the nations capital Wash
take off their hats to these modern
kn' ghts of the pe1-the Don QuiXotes Of
Eewspaperdom-fo they realize their in
fer.ority. Formerly a Washington cor
respondent spent years in forming per-
sonal friendships with prominent men
that he might gain their confidence, or
was sent here by a paper with particu-
lar relations with the members or sena-
tors from its State.
Thus, by slow degrees they came TO be
Of Use to their newspapers and the re-
positories of State scores. But before
the onslaught Of the ''exposers" the just
" famed Washington correspondents
have melted like wall of grass before
the heat of prairie fire; withered and
shrive'ed into nothingness. Ties wonder
0 it all is that any remain. For years of
s9rvsce honorable and upright. p3tisnt
insistence and skilled endeavor have fail
ed to win for a single one of them the
intimate knowledge of prominent men,
the comprehensive grasp of public affairs
that the wielders of the "search-light'
have accumulated IN a few days or
weeks.
It has been a great thing for the nation
a most fortuitous circumstance indeed,
that these keen minds have finally turn
ed their attention to Washington, and
have exposed to the world the. seething
mass of corruption which they claim to
have found beneath its placid surface.
Vet a word of extenuation, of apology
even, should be said n behalf Of the
Washington correspondents who have for
years trodden the grassy fields Of this
treacherous bog without slspeeting the
mass Of underlying filth.
They have been unaecustomed to delv-
ing in sewers for Information of interest
to the public. Not that they have hest
tated to treat unsparingly lapses from
virtue on the part of public men. Some
times, indeed, their pens have been per-
hap stoo trenchant. Eut they are more
concerned with reporting events, and in
an effort 70 keep the public measnrably
informed as to the significance of what
is happening than in discerning or reveal-
in gthe peccadiloes of this or that public
character. Nor are they equipped for the
task. 1t take sa master to tell at a glance
the working of the innermost mind of
an Aldrich, a Spooner. or an Allison.
It is only those whose nostrils have
been long familiar with the stencil Of cor
ruption who can scent from afar that
these and others like them are thrieves
or imbeciles Details matter nothing 10
them and should be Of no concern to the
public. Our Don Quixotes have pronoun-
ced the Senate rotten and corrupt-the
House imbecilic. Like Caesar, they
came, they saw, and they admit they CON
quered. Therefore let them pass on to
fresh fields. The capitol Still stands and
Congress is yet doing business. Unlike
Joshua, they have blown the trumpets
seven times around the walls of ericho,
but instead of falling the walls have
merely returned a hollow. mocking echo
Speaking these gentlemen who ac-
auire in fortnight the wisdom of years,
attention is directed to an article in an
entertaining and instructive weekly of
wide reputation, in which a new Repre-
sentative was tempted to sell his vote in
favor of the ship subsidy bill to save the
job Of his prospective father or grand
age Of senility and occupied d position
which really never existed and the
counterpart Of which was long ago abols
ished The young, able and honest Rep
sresentatiye he must have been honest to
have been the hero Of Washington po-
litieal story--was unalterably opposed to
the shipping bill and the price Of his
vote was to be grandpa's job But he
stuck nobly to his opinions and voted
against the iniquitous measure. Pre-
sumahly grandpa lost his place, but the
hero won the girl
And this would have been highly enter
taining for the author Is one of the best
q modern tictionists. were it not for the