Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1899 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

A good many people think Agoncillo ought to be expelled from the country or locked up as a mischief maker. Others believe a mistake was made by not taking him into confidence when he first arrived and making him a useful tool instead of a mischievous enemy. Agoncillo is a very smooth citizen. He possesses all the traditional cunning of the Malay race and has done a great deal of important work without being able to speak the English language. He has an interpreter. He has called upon all of the members of the Committee on For J eign Relations. Some of them received him kindly, others asked to be excused. He has been in constant communication with several members of the Senate who expressed sympathy for Philippine independence and opposed the ratification of the treaty.

Uncle Sam printed just a few postage stamps during the year 1888, number of 2-cent stamps issued during the year was about 2,500,000,000. Such a number, obviously, is beyond the grasp of the human mind, but perhaps the matter may be made more clear by putting it otherwise. An ordinary 2-cent stamp is exactly one inch long. From this face, by a Jittle calculation, it is easy to discover that the number of stamps of this denomination issued in 1898, placed end to end, would extend a distance considerably exceeding 39,000 miles. In other words, they would make a continuous strip of stamps, each one adorned with the head of the father of his country, stretching in a belt more than once and a half around the equator.

In the lowa congressional delegation there are four spellbinders of considerable ability, and whenever it is known they are to addrpss the House the galleries are crowded. These orators are Dolliver, Cousins, Hepburn and Henderson. It would be a difficult matter to say whether Dolliver or Cousins would win the honors in an oratorical contest. Gen. Henderson, the one-legged veteran, is an orator of a different character. He always espouses the cause of the soldier. Hepburn is a clear and incisive debater and he frequently waxes eloquent. Taking the lowa delegation as a whole, it is one of the strongest in Congress.

United States Indian Inspector McConnell has made an agreement with the Klamath Indians of Oregon whereby the Indians will cede to the Government a tract of land comprising about 600,000 acres. The amount they are to receive is about $600,000. This strip has been in dispute for some time. It is settled by whites, but really belonged to the Indians. The Government now makes amends for a mistake in the survey.

At the request of the Treasury Department thetTar Department has issued an order for the Chinese exclusion act to be enforced in Porto Rico the same as in the United States. The Chinese can go back and forth between this country and Porto Rico, but not between Cuba and Porto Rico. The order is for the purpose of circumventing a scheme by which it was intended to flood Porto Rico with Chinese, who would afterward come to this country.

Many petitions are being received from the people for a decrease in the letter postage rate and indorsing a bill which was introduced by Representative Loud of California. They ask that the letter postage be reduced to one cent; that the rate on paper covered novels be advanced from one cent to eight cents per pound, and that the Government departments be' required to pay the net cost of handling' their mail.

For the first time during the war President McKinley exercised executive clemency and spared Captain George V. Lane, Eighth Illinois infantry, from being dis-4 honorably dismissed from the service, by disapproving the sentence of the court! martial. Captain Lane was found guilty 1 of failing to resist mntiny, in violation! of the twenty-third article of war, and! conduct prejudicial to order and military discipline. The postoffice appropriation, reported to the House, makes an appropriation of $300,000 for the rural free delivery servicq during the next fiscal year. In view of this Assistant Postmaster General Perry S. Heath has felt justified in issuing an order increasing the salaries of all the regular free delivery carriers who provide their own horses or other modes of conveyance from S3OO to S4OO per annum. The Canadian members of the high joint commission say they never saw such a stubborn set of men as their American colleagues. The American commissioners say the Canadians are as obstinate as a I whole caravan of mules. The Canadians I insist the Americans are unreasonable in I their demands. The Americans say the I same of the Canadians. And there they I stand. Either there must be anextra session I of Congress or many important measures I must remain unacted upon. While the I party leaders still profess to believe there 1 will be no extra session, among the mem-1 bers there Is a strong and growing belief I that it will be necessary to call one. I President McKinley announces that hel will not appoint any more commissioners! to the Paris exposition for two or three! months. There are twelve vacancies for! which there are several hundred applica-! Rons. “• •* . _ 1 Representative Clark of lowa is the first! member of Congress to take official notice! of the case of Brigham H. Roberta, thJB member-elect from Utah. He introduce* a resolution which declares that no per! son who practices polygamy shall be * member of either house of Congress, nncH shall not be permitted to hold a seat ijfl Congress. There is a disposition manifested in thll Senate to promptly pension widows of thl sailors and soldiers who lost their Uv*l during the Spanish war. |j