St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1909-10-09

/ whenever the government issues
publications, maps or other goods of
which portions are given members of
congress, the several members are
credited with their quotas and the
government relinqufshes all right and
claim to them. They become the alb
solute property of the member, and he
may use them for any purpose he
| elects. The government takes no cog
nizance of geography, climate or loca,
ton in issuing the goods to members.
All get the same number of anything
that is issued.
The Kansas member who hasn't
enough water in his district to swim q
tadpole gets as many surveys, projec-
>tions, maps, etc., of the photographic
or geodetic bureaus as the member
from New England with two to five
hundred miles of coast, while the
member from the Harlem districts in
New York city gets as many vegetable
seeds to distribute to the tenement
and fiat jewellers as though his dis.
trict lay in Kansas or Missouri.
1t follows that the member who has
geodetic surveys and needs seeds is
anxious to meet the member who has
seeds and needs geodetic surveys. It
would be undignified, of course, for
members of congress to take part in
such trading. That is where the men,
bers' secretaries get busy. 1t is a
PO
to stop at the door of the room of
some member and shout:
"What'll y give FIR eight ags?"
Now "ags" is short for the annual
report of the department of agricul-
ture. Flippant secretaries attached to
members from little, old N'Yawk'
also call them "hicks," "yaps" and
other names of bucolic tinge, but the
of1ce-building patois is "ags."
Give you ge-od," replies the Sec
rotary addressed.
mot for mine,' replies the N'Yawk-
er. He says it just like that so that
no one will suspect he came from
New Jersey. "Why, there are yahoos
out in Kansas and Missouri that'd
climb five barb wire fences to get
one Of those" AS matter of fact,
it is probable that the Missouri or
Kansas members constituents have
been clamoring for the book But the
western secretary also knows that
some influential firm who needs a ge-
odetic survey has written the N'Yawk-
er prodding him about his failure to
keep his promise to send on a geo
detic survey.
Haven't much call for the 'ags.' :"
replies the rural secretary in tone as
casual and uninterested as possible.
Fact is, we have a big stock on
hand"
The N'Yawker knows that isn't true
Nobody in congress has too many of
anything that constituents may get
for the asking.
"Tll tell you what I'll do" says the
westerner. I'VE get 900 'ags' and only
As goods 'I'll trade you one 'ge-od'
for 20 'ags.'"
mot for mine" replies the N'Yawk-
er, Lets trade on the cash basis.
'Ags' are worth eight cents and 'ge-
DDS 40 cents each. I'll give you one
'ag' for five goods"
Each needs what the other has, so
a trade finally is arranged on some
basis. An odd thing about the trading
is that what the New York secretary
said about the money value of various
federal commodities is true Every
publication has cash basis and may
be sold to some member of congress,
through his secretary, of course, for
cash.
So trading on the four floors of
the two congressional Office buildings
is carried on on par basis, which
the actual value Of the commodity is
taken as a basis of value, or in "flur-
ries" at any price which the shorts"
are forced to pay to cover their de
liveries.' When the member Or
ders his secretary to get some COM
modify, he gets it, whether he has TO
secrifice several times the value or
not, 1OE IL ulSduS tudL me pO6S IN
some assembly district or the road
overseer in some county has put in an
insistent demand for the immediate
forwarding of something which the
government has issued.
The jargon of Wall street is not alb
sent In the hurried trading which fol
lows each of the four daily deliveries
of mail in the two buildings, the per-
son unused to the tongue might well
wonder at the uses to which English
may be put. In this trading vegetable
seed becomes "yeges," flower seed
flower" maps of the United States
"U. SEES" geological professional pa
pers "profs," books on diseases and
cures Of animals horses" or "cattles,''
while there are scores of other alb
breviations which sound as Greek to
the uninitiated.
Old Treasury Official Dead.
William MacLennan, for 40 years
chief of the diVision of bookkeeping
aud warrants in the treasury depart
rlent, died recently after an operation