The present Secretary of the Interior is Hon. Columbus Delano, of Ohio, a man who has been long in public life, first as Member of Congress from Ohio, then as Commissioner of Internal Revenue, now as Secretary of the Interior. I have but one objection to make to Mr. Delano in the position which he now holds. He found twelve-hundred-dollar-positions in his department filled, as they had been from the beginning, by women. He degrades them to nine-hundred-dollar-clerkships, to make place for his voters. Judging by the course he pursues, we may believe that he is of the same opinion as the Secretary of the Treasury, that “four hundred dollars per year are enough for any woman to earn,” unless she should be a Delano! I hope that Ohio will reward him by not giving him the desire of his heart and making him Senator, till he practices justice as the supreme virtue of a public servant. Columbus Delano has a face which nature never weakened by cutting it down to absolute fineness, but added to its power by leaving it a little in the rough. Iron-gray hair, shaggy eyebrows beetling over a pair of straight-forward, out-looking gray eyes, make the more prominent features of a face which you willingly believe in as that of a strong and honorable man. CHAPTER XXXIX. THE PENSION BUREAU—HOW GOVERNMENT PAYS ITS SERVANTS. The Generosity of Congress to Itself—How Four Hundred Acts of Congress were Passed—How Pensions have Increased and Multiplied—Sneering at Red-Tape—The Division of Labor—Scrutinizing Petitions—A Heavy Paper Jacket—The Judicial Division—Invalids, Widows, and Minors—The Examiner of Pensions—The Difficulties of his Position—Unsatisfactory Work—How Claims are Entertained and Tested—What is Recorded in the Thirty Enormous Volumes—How many Genuine Cases are Refused—One of the Inconveniences of Ignorance—The Claim-Agent Gobbles up the Lion’s Share—An Extensive Correspondence—How Claims are Mystified, and Money is Wasted—The “Reviewer’s” Work—The “Rejected Files”—The “Admitted Files”—Seventy-Five Thousand Claims Pending—Very Ancient Claimants—The Bounty Land Division—The Reward of Fourteen Days’ Service—The Sum Total of what the Government has Paid in Pensions—How the Pensions are Paid—The Finance Division—The Largest and the Smallest Pension Office—The Miscellaneous Branch—Investigating Frauds—A Poor “Dependent” Woman with Forty Thousand Dollars—How “Honest and Respectable” People Defraud the Government—The Medical Division—Examining Invalids—The Restoration-Desk—The Appeal-Desk—The Final-Desk—The Work that Has Been Done—One Hundred and Fifty Thousand People Grumbling—Letter of an Ancient Claimant—The Wrath of a Pugnacious Captain.