The Colorado statesman., 1910-10-22

4 az extinct in Wash.
ington as the dodo is said to be every
where Not only is Washington not
"cluttered" with office-seekers at any
time any more. but the rising genera
tion of young people simply do not
know what the old-time type of Office
seeker in Washington was like. They
used to swarm here. of course. by the
thousands, and go broke while wait
ing for the Office that never came, and
camp out on the park benches and all
that sort of thing, but that is all an
cient history. The joke about the chap
who comes to Washington at change
of administration to get billeted to the
court of St. James, and who, after
long period of hope deferred and un-
productive waiting, finally accepts
job juggling waste-paper baskets in
one of the departments. is just about
as live a joke, in SO far as 1t refers
to this town, as the sewing
on-the-shirt joke is in these days when
all men wear collar buttons and don't
know what shirt button looks like.
There are people coming here all
the time from all sections of the coun-
try to take jobs in the government
employ, but they're not office-seekers
of the old-time type that existed before
the civil service law. They're office
landers. They've got their billets.
They've passed their examinations,
got their rating papers and, most of
them, their appointments, before ever
.attipo foot in ochin otOn Onca in. a
while, when sa i man or woman has
passed particularly high examina-
tion, he or she comes on to Washing
ton before actually receiving an ap-
pointment, having reason to feel pret-
ty secure that the appointment will
be forthcoming in due time. And
most of these people, too, look around
for something to do outside while
waiting for their government appoint
ments to materialize. They don't
haunt the corridors of the depart
ments. nor clamor at the doors of
officials, or sit around hotel lobbies
telling their wrongs, because they
know just where they stand. have no
wrongs and are altogether just as far
apart from the old-time typical office
seeker as | am from Papuan.
Change of Administration.
"Eyen when the administrations
change there are no clamorous.
crowds here looking for the higher
appointive and unclassified positions
professional place hunters, that is.
Men engaged in business or in the
professions come here, it is true, at
the request Of their senators or repre-
sentatives as often as not when ad-
1ninistrations change, to be introduced
to the new presidents and to have
their claims considered for certain
positions; but after visit or so at
the White House these men, unlike
the old-time brood of office-seekers,
quickly go back to their homes, in
stead of hanging around the town Civ
ing utterance to their walls over the
delay in giving them the high-paid
work. A Washingtonian doesn't have
to be very old to recall the seedy hun
dreds and even thousands of profes-
sional politicians who used to haunt
the cheaper Washington hotels and
boarding houses, looking for govern
ment billets, at all times, whether the
administration was in process of
changing or not. They'd get away in
arrears in their board bills and after
long months and often years of wait
ing their few remaining friends would
take them in hand and chip in to send
them back TO their homes. They
hung on around Washington as long
as they could, because they hated to
go back to their home towns to ac-
knowledge that their big claims hadn't
been recognized, but that was what
most of them were forced to in the
long run.
People With Claims.
and in other striking respects. the
Washington of today is far different
even from the Washington of dozen
or twenty years ago. For example,
there is no longer any brood of plaus-
ible and eloquent people with claims
before Congress in Washington, as
there were for good ~ years or
more after the war. Some OF them
were noted characters, usually OF a
pathetic sort, but many of them, In
cIuding the women of the lot, were
erafters and cheerful workers of the
most pronounced description. Some
of them had actual claims. with, how
ever. little or no prospect of getting
them through and as little reason why
tbey should be put through, but most
of them had claims before Congress
that were as purely imaginary as
they possibly could be.
"Some of these female claimants
used to hypnotic confiding old board
ing house mistresses by narrating
tales of the enormous wealth that was