270 MARK TWAIN'S SKETCHES. 



and while they are waiting, they only get barely, 2000 dollars a year for it. It is sad- 

 it is very, very sad. When a member of Congress has a friend who is gifted, but has no 

 employment wherein his great powers may be brought to bear, he confers him upon 

 his country, and gives him a clerkship in a Department. And there that man has 

 to slave his life out, fighting documents for the benefit of a nation that never thinks 

 of him, never sympathizes with him — and all for 2000 or 3000 dollars a year. 

 When I shall have completed my list of all the clerks in the several departments, 

 with my statement of what they have to do, and what they get for it, you will see 

 that there are not half enough clerks, and that what there are do not get half 

 enough pay. 



