Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1892 — SENATORS GO BROKE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SENATORS GO BROKE.

MILLIONAIRES OFTEN DISTRESSED FOR MONEY. t A Washington Merchant Wouldn’t Loan Paddock soo—Ex-Senator l'almer Had Three Thousand Dollars of Salary Due Him and Forgot About It. Washington Letter.

WASHINGTON correspondence: “There (goes a man who is worth a | million dollars," said a well-known newspaSN " per correspondent to ffSM a little group standee,! ing in one corner of a Senate corridor as Senator Paddock of Nebraska walked fi'Brajpast and bowed with HWhis accustomed politeness, “and yet I S«rar?saw a man once re--1.. fuse to’’ lend him » money until I .indorsed his paper.” U 11 ' “You Indorsed his

paper!" exclaimed a chorus of voices, “and he is worth a million? Why, how much are you worth?” “Not a red cent,” was the reply, “and yet I had to indorse Paddock’s paper for SSO before a Washington merchant would put up (he loan. It all came about through Senator Paddock’s thoughtlessness. He is so much engrossed izj his pure-fcod bill and other legislative matters that he forgot the little details of every-day life such as pocket money, railroad expenses and other things. It Is a fact that he once left Washington to go to his home at Beatrice, Neb., and neglected to take sufficient pocket money with him, having to depend upon the hospitality of a host in Chicago during a stop-over there until he could telegraph home and have money forwarded to him. Luckily, however, he had procured his tickets, and had those safely stored away In his pocket.” This incident reminded Charlie Reade, Assistant Sergeant-at-arms of the Senate, of some experiences he had had helping the millionaire Senators out of financial straits. “It is not an infrequent occurrence.” he said, “for some of the wealthy Senators to ask me to loan them money for a few days. I find there is a popular superstition among the millionaire solons against carrying large sums of money on their person, for fear of being robbed. I remember a case of ex-Senator Palmer, of Michigan, who has been estimated to be -thrice a millionaire. He came to me one day and wanted 'to borrow S4O.

“ 'Why, Senator,’ I replied, T regret to say that I have not that much money with me; but I will see if I can’t find it for you.’ “I went to the disbursing officer of the Senate, and found that there was more than $3,000 in salary duo Senator Palmer, which in his thoughtlessness it hod never occurred to him to draw. When I informed him that there was so much money due him, he seemed surprised, and said that he had been forgetting for some time past to draw his salary I accompanied him to the disbursing officer. “ ‘I guess,’ said he, ‘I will take a thousand dollars of that money that is due me.’ “ ‘Why not draw it all?’ I interposed. “ ‘Because,’ he replied, ‘l’m afraid if I have any money I will be robbed,’ and then, as if suddenly reminded of something, ‘I guess I won’t take a thousand dollurs; you may give me fifty.’ “A week later ho struck me for $lO for a cab-fare-down-town, having again for-

gotten the balance of hie account on salary. “I once helped Senator Stanford out of a financial difficulty,” said Mr. Keade. “One afternoon the Senate adjourned early and nearly all the Sena-

tore except Stanford had gone home. Suddenly he came into my office, apparently in great mental distress, and wanted to know if I could lend him S3O. I had but $25 and asked the Senator if that would be sufficient. He said that it wouldn t; that he must have S3O at once. He didn’t explain why he wanted it, but I naturally concluded that it was to carry out some sudden philanthropic impulse. Doubtless some of the many mendicants that throng the Capitol had poured a tale of woe into Stanford’s ear, and it was in response to such an appeal that the Senator wanted S3O at once. I suggested the disbursing officer again, and we went together to that autocrat, but he coolly informed me that Stanford had drawn all the salary that was due him to date, and it was against the rules of the office to pay out any money in advance. He refused to advance us even $5 to add to my $25 and help the Senator out of the difflculy. It has long been the rule of the disbursing officer of the Senate not to allow any Senator to overdraw his account. Finally I appealed to a friend of mine and he loaned us $5, and thus betweem us we managed to bridge over the difficulty temporarily. “It struck me ab being very ridiculous that a man of Stanford’s wealth should find himself compelled to ask in vain for a loan of $5 from Uncle Sam, but that was an instance Where he did it.” Some of thesq millionaire Senators have queer superstition's. Ex-Senator Fair lived in constant dread of poverty. He once said to. his private secretary when .the later exhibited surprise at a remarkably striking exhibition of frugality on the Senator’s part: “George,, .you know that I’ip worth at the very lowest ■ $20,000,000, and yet I’m continually haunted by a fear that I wiU some day be reduced to poverty, ifr'hs-a. strange feeling that continually hovers over me and I am unable to shake it off. ’’ The late Senator Anthony of Bhode Island paid all his creditors from lime to time with checks on a single Boston bank. It was a great inconvenienco often to persons receiving the checks, and merchants here in Washington/frequently complained because he did not check on the banks in Washington. His private secretary one day suggested to him that it would be a good plan to open an account with one of the local banks ngainstwhich he could check tor the benefit of local creditors. The Senator demurred to this idea, and said that ever since he had been able to afford a bank account he had made it a business to check against a single bank in Boston. He said in this way he thought he was better able to guard against forgeries or other accidents which result in financial losses.

It was a wholly unique and original scheme of financiering, and the Senator explained it in these words: “I had to devote nearly half my life to the task of accumulating what I have, and now that I have it I lind that it will require the remainder of my life devising schemes to guard it. ” Visiting the White House. “It is very curious to listen to the remarks which strangers make after having shaken hands \7ith the President at a reception,” said an !l attache of the White House to me recently," l "I have stood on more than one occasiott'beybnd the line and have amused myself by paying att< ntion to such observations. Dn« visitor will say, ‘He is n6t such a very tittle man, after all!’ Another will

ejaculate, ‘He doesn’t IcOfe at all like most of the caricatures of him in the comic papers!’ Still another will remark, ‘What a pleasant old gentleman!’ And so it goes, each person having hia or her own impression to express. “It seems to me very queer that comparatively few of the strangers who come to the White House know how to address the President. Of course, the proper form is, ‘How do you do, Mr. President?" But lam constantly asked by people who feel nervous about meeting the chief executive what they ought to say to him. Many are so embarrassed that they make no remarks whatever. I remember that on one occasion an elderly person, evidently Iroju rural parts, rushed up to me and ched, ‘I voted for your grandfather years ago, and I voted for you in 1888. Hope I may have a chance to help eleot still another member of the Harrison family to the presidency some day!’ Doubtless, he had prepared the speech carefully in advence.

“The brides who visit Washington always want to be introduced to the President. Newly married couples a,re apt to hunt up Congressmen from their district and ask for points on this subject among other things. The best politicians among Senators and Representatives are always attentive to such couples. They often go out of their way to see that they have a good time at the eapital, because they know that such services will never be forgotten. The people will go back home and tell all their neighbors how nice their Congressmen have been to them. There is many a legislator for the nation who, without any abilities in the way of statesmanship, gets and keeps his place through cultivating popularity. To remember people’s names is a great thing. I know a man in a great wholesale establishment in Chicago who gets $7,000 a year just for remembering names. His

business is to speak to every one who comes in by name and to introduce the customer to the clerk of the department sought. If he does not introduce the person to the clerk by name, the clerk is expected to find out the name and communicate it quietly to the gentleman near the door, who bids him or her goodby by name. This always flatters people and they come back again.” Bleeding the Nation. That most fruitful source of Congressional scandals, the Congressional funeral, threatens to break out again. This time It is in the House Committe on Accounts. It appears that the enterprising firm of undertakers in Knoxville, Tenn., who were the "funeral directors” on the occasion of the late Congressman Houk’s burial, have considered the United States Government a customer that( might be charged “special rates.” They have sent a bill for $1,974.90 as the total cost of burying the dead legislator. As a general thing, no questions are asked by the sub-committee which audits the funeral bill, .but this year the committee, with the recollection of the many severe criticisms made over tho Hearst funeral, determined to examine the accounts closer than is ordinarily done. The members of the committee found to their surprise that the enterprising undertakers had inserted items In their bill like this: “Burial casket, $1,200; trimmings, $200; draping the church, SSO; stenographer at church,

sl6; photographs, $31.” It occurred to the members of the committee that $1,200 for a burial casket was rather too high a figure. They made inquiries, and learned that the most expensive casket of which they could be informed was the so-called Spear casket, which costs $550. They also, by looking over the bills for the Senate funeral expenses, found that the Hearst casket had only cost S2OO, and yet the Hearst funeral had been expensive. Mrs. Honk, the widow of Judge Houk, is now In Washington and is much distressed at the exorbitant bill of the undertakers. She, herself, expected to pay the expenses of her husband’s burial and offered to do so before the amount was made known, but she was promptly informed by the undertakers that she need not concern herself about it, us “the government always pays the bills.” The Committee on Accounts proposes to put a stop to this system of indefinite charge, and has notified the undertakers that they must give a very definite account of the S2OO worth of “trimmings,” of which no one seems to know anything, and that they must cut down their charge for the casket to something like SSOO. Mat 13, 1865, at about 6 p. m., the Sixty-second United States Colored Infantry fired the last volley of the civil war. It was between Boca Chico Strait and White’s Ranch, Texas. Cayenne pepper sprinkled where rats resort will cause the pests to leave the premises.

EX-SENATOR PALMER.

HAVE SEEN THE PRESIDENT.

THE UNDERTAKER AND HiS BILL.