Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1910-10-28

| L n a 1
4EHHE@ - it was in the days
- sss @yERs before the Civil
- IL war. The office
seeker as a type is
q as extinct in Wash
| 4ngton 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
ton 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
c1ent history. The joke about the chap
who comes to Washington at a change
| of administration to get billeted to the
| court of ST. James, and who, after
! long period Of hope deferred and I'M
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 it refers
| to this town, as the sewing a-buttOn.
| On-the-shirt joke is in these days when
all men wear collar buttons and don't
know what a 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
setting foot in Washington. Once in
while, when a man or woman has
passed a particularly high eXamina-
| ton, he or she comes on to Washing
| ton before actually receiving an ap-
pointment, having reason to feel pref
| 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 Hobbies
| 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 a Papuan.
Change of Administration.
h. nI,N 1e,+,. tiNr
| 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-
ministrations 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 Oftice-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 profess
! 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
90 hack to their home towns to &C
| 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 a 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 a good 30 years or
more after the war. Some OF them
were noted characters, usually Of
nathetic sort, but many Of them, in
Guiding the women of the lot. were
grafters 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
they 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
bound to come to them eventually
from their claims before Congress,
and TO promise the boarding house
women that they would not only pay
thau, all of the money thew owed