Year: 1861

DLYNNkS IN OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. y
who is an applicant for the Nashville Post Of
| flee, in letter written from Washington to the
Nashville Patriot, thus shows up the economy of
the Federal Government


| The way the Government gets its work done
is curious. As an illustration, you and your
family meet 10 convention of the whole, and g.
dopt resolution authorizing the construction OF
a hen-coop in your back yard. You at once ap
point me superintendent of the work, putting a
thousand or two dollars in bank for me to check
on. get you to appoint my brother-in-law
chief engineer.


| appoint two of my brothers assistant super
intendents, and my brother-in law appoints two
of lis brothers assistant engineers-all at your
expense. We buy Us each fast horse and bug
gy, and ride around town, drink cocktails and
play billiards, until the bank deposit gives out
when we make out printed report of seventy
three pages, furnishing you a complete topo-
graphical survey of your back yard, and a vas,
amount of statistical information with regard tc
the number Of hens you are likely to have fol
the next forty years. We wind up the report
| with the announcement that the site Of the hen
coop has been selected and a call for another
appropriation to prosecute the work, which we
assure you will be done with "vigor" You put
another thousand or two in bank, and we en-
ploy two hundred hands at three dollars day
to transport seventy-fve cents worth of lumber
(Which costs you under our management about
ten times that many dollars) to the place of ope
rations, which requires about three months.
| In the meantime, we drive around and 20 on
vigorously with the liquor and the billiards.
We then come up with another report and de.
mand for another appropriation. With this we
get the walls OF the structure up, and with one
or two more appropriations, and q great many
more cocktails and billiards., we get the thing
covered in; and at the end of twelve months
which we very appropriately style our s'6sca
year," we put you in formal possession of ten.
thousand-dollar hen coop, that any negro carpen.
ter would have been glad to knock up some Sat
urday afternoon for suit of your old clothes
| He thus inodestly excuses himself for episto-
larry brevity:


| meant to write you long letter tonight
but onhappiy find myself placed in singular
ly unfavorable position for writing with my ac-
customed force and perspicuity. My room is
situated in wing of the building. Just opposite
is another wing, with narrow court yard be-
tween. There must be concert or circus. OF
some sort Of show in town tonight, for at q
window Immediately opposite to mine q couple
of very pretty what ] would suppose to be echam-
bermaids, have been putting on their clothes fol-
the last hour, as if they were fixing up to &c
somewhere. This is very annoying to a man of
family, and if it were not so far down stairs,
would 60 and complain to the landlord. Il
would require an individual of tremendous pow
er of concentrating his thoughts to write an able
letter under such circumstances. would close
the blinds aud get further from the window, but
| expect to pay for staying in this house, and
am not to be driven from pillar to post by such
a spectacle as is now before me.