THE CLASSIFIED SKHVICE. The 1'rcHidcnt Trylnjj to Plcnsc theFrlcuil and Enemies of Clvll-Scrvlco Ilcfoi-iu. President McKinlcy is evidently muc perplexed by the turn which civil-sei vice matters have taken. Of all me : who ever occupied the executive chai ho is the most conciliatory nntl possesse the happiest faculty of making the par tisans of both sides believe that ho i sincerely with them. In the war witl Spain this triumph of diplomacy wa carried out to perfection. In most o the peace newspapers of this country h is held up to praise as the great peac president , who with his restraininj hand kept back the demons of strife t the very last. On the other hand wherever members of the foreign affair committees or leaders in congress havi stated , as Representative Moody o Massachusetts did .in thn republicai state convention of Massachusetts , tha the president was not far behind con gress in its actual war purpose , ho ii hailed as the great war chief. Now , in the matter of civil-service re form , President McKiuley comes verj near to accomplishing the same thing It is notorious that the actual evasion ! of the law have never been more wide spread than today , and yet the press dispatches describe reformers as coming away from the white house satisfied thai the president is heartily in sympathy with them. The newspaper organ o : one member of the cabinet , in a receui editorial article , went further , and de clared that Mr. McKinley was a bettei friend of civil-service reform than auj of the persons in the country who an now presuming to urge him to stand bj the existing law. But the president's embarrassmenl comes about in this way. He has foi mouths been officially "considering' whether to take the 4,000 medical ex aminers of the pension bureau out o ] the classified service or not. The civil service commission has finally recoin mended that he do one of two things- either to exempt these doctors and be done with it , or suggest to his peusioi ; commissioner , Henry Clay Evans , thai he pay some real regard to the existing law. As administered by Mr. Evans , with full knowledge of Secretary Bliss , the thing has become simply a farce. The statute permits the creation of an extra board of examiners at the dis cretion of the commissioner in any town where he sees fit to do so. In theory , this is for emergency purposes , but Mr. Evans , availing himself of a strained interpretation of the law , established . these extra boards almost everywhere. To them ho gives the business , and , of course the fees , and thus starves out the regular officers , who are still legally in existence. This violation of law by in j direction has been going on ever since a Mr. Evans took charge of the bureau , and is no secret. Mr. McKinley has r > doubtless had sufficient influence witl his own administration to have il stopped any time in the last eighteer months if ho had cared to do so. Th < civil-service commissioners are now cold-blooded enough to say that in preference eronce to the present absurdity thej would recommend that the ยง 950,000 an nually appropriated for medical exam iuers' fees be directly turned into the coffers of the party workers. This is r choice which Mr. McKinley had nevei intended to make , and hence his delaj about bringing out the much-promisee order of modification. Last Saturday another covert blow ai civil-service reform emanated from a responsible sponsiblo officer of the administration , Deputy marshals and deputy collectors of internal revenue are nominally within the classificed service , and new appoin tees must be taken from the eligible reg ister. But in case a United States mar shal does not do it , and selects his own men as ho sees fit , what then ? David M. Dunne of Portland , Ore. , for in stance , has paid no more attention to a civil-service-reforui law and rules than to the ceremonial requirements of the Koran. The civil-service commission , in view of contemptuous violations which were steadily growing more frequent , made a formal demand upon the auditor of the treasury for the state and other departments that the vouchers in pay ment for services rendered by these deputies appointed outside of the merit system be disallowed , in order that a test case might bo brought as to the val idity of such appointments. This the auditor refused to do , politely referring the commission to the comptroller of the treasury. This means that such barriers against violation of the civil-service laws as are now supposed to exist are being rapidly swept away , and it will not beef of much moment what decision the president reaches in regard to the classi fications themselves. Whether ho takes old offices out or puts in new ones it does not matter so long as "the boys" act ually get "the jobs. " Representative Grosvenor was not the pliant weakling that some persons supposed when in congress ho gave up the fight against the appropriation for the continuance of the civil-service system. He simply came to the conclusion that there was nothing worth fighting for , and in this events have proved that he was too nearly cor rect. rect.There There has been a little stir within a few days about the distribution of 150 railroad tickets to voters by the new head of the fish commission. The of- 'ence is acknowledged , and if a railroad ticket is "a thing of value , " the statutes of the United States have been openly violated. But why should this disturb the fish commissioner ? His appoint- nent itself by the president was an squally flagrant violation , in spirit at east , of the statutes of the United tates. Ho was the man who , instead of possessing a scientific and technical knowledge of fisheries , would , according to Mr. Elkins , his senatorial backer , be "bright enough to catch on all right. " The civil-service commission itself now receives some criticism on the score that it is not so aggressive as in the days of Col. Roosevelt , who was feared by eveiy man who tried to use public salaries as a bribe for political service. But how are appointees of a president , like civil-service commission ers , to compel him to pay any attention to what they have to say unless ho sees fit to do so ? This brings the whole sub ject down to a very simple basis. The proper enforcement of our civil-service law depends absohately upon the per sonal attention of the president of the United States. None of his subordi nates will long violate laws or rules against his will , and , on the other hand , none of his appointees can rise superior to their chief and compel him to give attention to them. New York Evening Post. CHUKCII-WELLS. . sometimes asked , why every church-building has a boll upon it , which is kept in operation , as the neighbors think , a large part of the day and night ; is it that in this ago of the world one who wishes to worship requires to be reminded of the place and bime by the ringing of a bell ? With respect to the present usage , the practice would appear to be justified by the results obtained. Balls are found attached to churches , school houses and 3ourt houses , and in precisely those places do performances begin at the liours for which they are announced. In other lands of public gatherings , as in meetings of lodges , city councils or jommittees , it is useless to attend at the set time , and one is safe in happening in anywhere within a couple of hours of it. There are even theatres , in which the surtain is supposed to rise at 8 o'clock , where the commencement is delayed until it is thought that as many are present as mean to come. From this point of view , it is clear that much val- lable time would be saved to the com munity if bells were multiplied to the ooint of distraction. But as to the period when , and the ) bject for which , religious societies first ; ook up the use of sonorous metal as an idjunct to their worship , it does not ap- jear that there is any man who knows ; his. The practice seems to bo universal. Wherever mankind is found , the ruling jowers are addressed in the voice of ) ells , or if the worshipers are still too udo to be able to fashion bells , they sontrive some other kind of clatter to inswer the same end. When they be- jau it is only known to the deity whom hey all thus variously seek to propitiate. Che Egyptians , for thousands of years efore Moses' time , used peculiar rattles o notify their gods that they were , bout to bo praised or petitioned iu due