Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-12-14

Before tho civil service law went
FSnto effect members Of Congress were
under a constant and
pofronooa heavy pressure for pa
NJ tronage in the govern
1eAaIty. ment departments. The
following paragraph in The Star Of
December Z, 1859, indicates that an
effort was made to relieve legislators
from opportunities for Office by pro-
posing penalties for them IL they
sought office for their constituents:
Mr.. Trumbull introduced in the
Senate today a bill that provides that
any member of Congress who shall,
directly or indirectly, solicit or rec
ommend the appointment to once py
the President or heads OF depart,
ments of any person, or VINO snaii
of any person in any of the executive
departments. except such recon-
mendation be in writing in response
to a written request from the Presl-
dent or a head Of department asking
information. or by a senator in CIV
manner provided in the Constitution.
shall be guilty Of a misdemeanor and
on conviction thereof shall be nned
not exceeding $1,000 for each onense.
And it shall not be lawful for the
President or the head Of any depart
his department any person who shall
be hereafter directly or indirectly
recommended therefor by any mem
Der of Congress or delegate OF ter
ritory, except in a manner herein-
before excepted"
Those who saw the play Abraham
Lincoln" in this city recently will re-
member the episode
TIM Eomoue of the Pre- s e n t
reading a bit Of the
4uAAVIAStS' humor of Artemus
Ward at the cabinet meeting at which
he signed the emancipation proclama-
ton. The following extract from The
Star Of December 9. 1869, discloses
that Artemus Ward was high in the
death of Lincoln, though Mark Twain
was coming into popularity:
"Artemus Ward set the fashion OF
the inconsequential lecture-that is
to say, if his text had the smallpox
his sermon wouldn't catch it, SO far
tured at Wizards Hall upon The
Babes in the Woods and had not a
word to say about those unfortunate
orphans until the close, when he re-
marked that they were the offspring
of rich but respectable parents and
matter-of-fact people in his audi
ence. Mark Twain's lecture last night
upon the Sandwich Islands did deal
somewhat with the subject, but the
lecturers approaches to it were SO
elaborate and involved SO much mas
of
by our early Napoleons of the rebel
lion that the audience began to think
they were the victims of another A.
Ward Joke. Marks fun Is OF the
quaint, close. dry order OF the New
Englander, and the slow. passionless
manner in which he gets off good
thing and apparently abandons 1t TO
dts fate, as the ostrich leaves It's
eggs, reminds one irresistibiy Oh
some dry Yankee joker of cast-iron
countenance and lazy utterance. we
saw apparent because. despite his
wooden manner, he laughs a good
deal under his bushy eyebrows ano
sandy nnustache and after every shot
aimed at the risibles Of those in front
he takes a business look, ana those
keen gray eyes see now ms Hlss. sue
neat any of the fine things-for Mar
can be eloquent and pathetic as well
az droll-or the funny things OF the
lecture, as they are his property, TO
be used q good many times in the
course Of the winter. and he has sui
fered already by newspaper depreda-
TONS
-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT prevailed to
large extent in the western part OF
this country fifty
Unemployment t year a;.us ago Sa s
on the Increase. becoming alarm
ing. The Star in its issue OF Decem-
Der 9, 1869. thus refers to the sltua-
<.rp,c NJ the nOSSihle temDtd-