Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 March 1900 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

Ali Ferrouh Bey, the Turkish minister to the United States, has obtained permission to take his harem to Washing-

ton. The Turkish minister to Stockholm, Sheriff Pacha, also 1 took his wife to Sweden; buE she was an Egyptian princess, the daughter of Halim Pacha. The prohibition to Turkish diplomatists to take their wives with them caused

some time ago the suicide of Saadu’iaTi Pacha, Ottoman ambassador to Vienna for twenty He was separated from his wife and children, who remained at Constantinople. Being uiiab.le to obtain leave of absence to be present at his daughter’s marriage, he committed suicide.

Four widows of revolutionary veterans are still on the pension roll, although the war of the revolution ended 120 years ago. They range in age from 83 to 99. Seven daughters of revolutionary soldiers are still drawing pensions. Of the $69,000,000 which has been paid in revolutionary pensions $20,000,000 was drawn by Widows. One pensioned survivor of the war of 1812 remains. He is Hiram Cronk, 99 years old, and his home is in northwestern Sew York. The last pensioned soldier of the revolution did not die until 1869. He was 109 years (J months and 8 days old. lie lived in Freedom, N. Y. More widows than soldiers of the war of 1812 were pensioned. Il* that war 296,916 soldiers served sixty .days or more. The pensioned were JO,000 soldiers and 35,000 widows. To the sole survivor of the war of 1812 the Government is now paying $193 a .year, and to widows of that war $293,097. * *»«»*«

Census taking is not the political picnic that many people imagine. Few appreciate the magnitude of the work. The eleventh census cost more than $11,000,000, and in the twelfth census an office force of more than 2,000 for about twe years and a field force of over 50,000 sot from two weeks to a month will be employed. Then, too, the Hollerith tabulating machines, by which the population is counted and the returns tabulated, make census taking a huge industrial process. The census office becomes a factory; the dim-tor of the census a captain of industry, who, if he is to be successful, must possess all the directive energy and genius for organisation which characterise our most successful manufacturers and railroad presidents. Senator Depew receives as large a mail as Senator Hanna, which is saying a great deal. Several times a day the pages distribute the mail in the Senate, and the pile on Mr. Depew’s desk is almost mountain high. He is not only addressed in his official capacity as Senator by constituents who want favors, but his personal acquaintance is so large and his financial interests so great that his correspondence from these two sources alone would keep his stenographer busy. Mr. Depew is very systematic in disposing of his mail. He does not allow it to accumulate, and thus it does not become a burden to him. More invitations to deliver after-dinner speeches come to Mr. Depew than to any other Senator.

There is a movement on foot for the passage of a law requiring defendants m criminal cases in United States court's to furnish bail through surety companies rather than individuals. While there is very little bail forfeited in the Federal courts compared with the State and municipal courts, nevertheless there Is always more or less trouble in this line and it is almost impossible to recover 6n a bail bond without legal proceedings? The same difficulty was found in recovering on bonds given by civil officers Of the Government until the system of surety companies was introduced. No surety company has ever declined to pay a bond except in one instance, where a dispute as to liability‘occurred. The condition of the negro in Washington has been made the subject of investigation by John W. Ross, who for twelve years has been one of the district commissioners. In the district governgovernment as officials, clerks and messengers are fifty negroes receiving annual salaries aggregating $28,000. There are forty negroes on the police force in various capacities drawing $31,400 a year, while there are 500 negro men and women in the school system as teachers, whose yearly pay is $290,000. These, with the negroes in various public institutions and the water, street and sewer departments, bring the total up to 2,600 drawing an annual compensation of about $1,000,000.

Commissioner of Health Reynolds of Chicago has written a letter to Surgeon General Sternberg at Washington protesting against the shipment of the bodies of soldiyrs from the Philippines to the United States and proposing a conference of the sanitary officers of the country to consider the bubonic plague. The doctor fears the plague may be* brought into the country in this way aud he asks the surgeon general’s assistance to prevent the bringing home of bodies until the plague has ceased in the Philippine Islands. Enumerators for the census in June will be furnished with badges by the Government, which are to be worn in a conspicuous place so as to be plainly seen, and which will be their credentials for gathering their statistics. These badges will be made of German silver, one and pne-fourth inches wide by one and fivaeighths inches long, shield shaped, surmounted with an eagle and bearing the words, “United States Census, 1900.” An order has already been placed for 60,000 of these badges by the director of the

ALI F. BEY.