Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 May 1884 — Some Curiosities of the Government. [ARTICLE]

Some Curiosities of the Government.

rNext to the president of the United States, the best cuhl federal official is the clerk of the supreme cbnrt. i The states of Colorado, Delaware, Florida* Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont have iess than one-half the population of Illinois, Ixut have the same number of representatives in congress—twenty two. Pennsylvania lias a larger number of post offices than any other state. , Not a clerk in the pension office draws less than SI,OOO a year salary, the average for the 1,173 clerks being $1,201. Even the copyists get S9OO a year. These clerks have light labor and short hours. The average salary of the railway poetoffice clerks throughout the country is only $977a year. These men work hard, at the most trying labor aud have long hours. - Eighty yearn ago North Carolina had as many representatives in congress as New York. North Carolina now has nine, or one less than she had in 1800, while New York has thirty-four. There are 410 type-setters, besides apprentices in the government printing Estimating congress to be in session two hundred days a year, the salaries of senators and representatives amount to about SIO,OOO a day. The state of Nevada, wliich has two senators and one representative in con--1 gress, has not So large a population by 217 souls as the city of New Haven, Conn. A number of the United States senate’s emploves are put down on the records as “skilled laborerr,’’ and draw pay at SI,OOO a year, whije those who are merely “unskilled laborers” get SB4O a year. The distinction between the two is the kind of brooms they manipulate. Tlie “skilled” laborer uses a common broom to sweep stone flagging, while the “unskilled” laliorer yields a coarser broom in sweeping carriageways. During the past ten years the government has expended nearly $70,000,000 in caring for the Indians. * The total number of Indians attached to agencies is only 246,000, and of these 60,000 in Indian territory, 7,700 in Wisconsin, and 5,000 in New York are supposed to be at least partially self supporting. Last year the post office department used SII,OOO worth of ink for stamping and cancelling letters. The five states of Belaware, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Oregon combined have not so great a population by abont 100,000 souls as the city of New York. Yet New York city has but eight representatives in congress, while the five states have sixteen, besides their ten senators.

In the fiscal year ended June 30 the government’s disbursements for pensions reached a sum which exceeds by $6,000,000 the disbursement for all purposes in the year 1860. There are in the railway mail service fifteen clerks who draw the salary of sl2 a year each. From the five states of New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Massachusetts and Oliio the government derives onehalf of all its postal revenues. It costs $30,000 a year to light the Capitol and grounds. More than one-half of the internal revenue receipts of the government comes from the four states of Illinois, New York, Ohio and Kentucky. To wait on the seventy-six senators there are 212 employes, not counting police, watchmen and librarians. Virginia now has the same number of congressmen she had in 1790, when there were only sixty-five members ol the house. There are several poetoffices in the country at which the annual salary of the - postmaster is only sl. Postal cards cost the government fifty-four cents and four mills per thousand. “Five hundred and eighty-nine dollars for wines, liquors and mineral waters for use of visitors to naval academy,” i* an item in last year’s expenditures of the government. The pension office expends me re than $60,000 a year for investigating alleged pension frauds. At the signal service training school, Arlington Heights, the students ol meteorology, barometers and anemometers are compelled to leave their study tables in the exact center of the room, their bunks in a certain position in a certain corner, their coats hung upon wartain nails, and their text-books piled up in a certain manner before retiring for the night, these and a hundred more similar regulations being prescribed “by order of the chief signal officer. ” Their Sunday dinner is coffee, bread and dried apples stewed. After having spent more than a hundred millions of dollars upon its builds ings in the district, the government finditself paying nearly $6,000 a month for rent of private buildings. The postoffice department uses SBO,OOO worth ol wrapping twine a year. The thirteen states of Arkansas, California. Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island,. Vermont and West Virginia, With an aggregate population which does not exceed that of New York alone, have twenty-six United States senators to New York’s two. Ampug-the expenditures of the government last- year was an item. ‘‘For manufacturing medals, $25,498.23.” It costs the government $187,000 a y«ay to msjgfain lights and buoys on the Ohio, Mises»ippi and Missouri riven. Two-filths of all the newspapers and periodicals sent through the mails by publishers at pound rates ore mailed at New York City. To supply public buildings throughout the country with fuel, light and water requires an expenditure cf SI,OOO a day, Seven hundred and fifty persons are 3onstantly employed by the two houses as congress (while in session) in and ibout the capitol. The government lias sold more than $200,000,000 worth of public lands in eighty years. Til the last twenty years the govemaotent has paid for interest on the public lebt the enormous sum of $2,089,000,)00, a sum which would defray all the expenses of the government, excepting interest on the public debt, for nearly .line year# to come at the present rate of nependiture; and for nearly thirty-five years if expenses could ho limited to shat they were in 1860. ' V '"T Is Mexico women are net allowed to Utend at funerals. They can t keep ’em iway, however, from weddings.