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Show THE liS AND 0DT5-A FlGHT, So lar ns wo know the, majority of the people ot Utah are interested in ft very slight degree only in the pending quarrel between tho ins and outB among tho federal officials and would-be would-be officials here, for this id the secret and substance of tho forcshado wings of an investigation which lias been invited at TVaahinctou int.) the official conduct of Messrs. Nelson and Howard, who re-peclively hold the offices of United States marshal and district attorney. Notwithstanding Notwithstand-ing tho fact of the so-called civil service reform eyetora of the Hayes' administration, tbero is no end of hungry republicans who look with envious eyes upon the fat pickings of tho federal treasury, and are unwil ling to forego an opportunity, which may probably bo their last, to participate partici-pate in tho rich feast. Under the Bystom of civil1 service uow in vogue, permitting removals only for cause shown, a great deal of vigilance ia dow being diiplaycd by ambitious office icekers to obtain aharges of official misconduct against present incumbents of profitable federal places, which are tiled in the appropriate appro-priate departments at Washington for the purpose of obtaining their removal re-moval and creating vacancies, aiving the applicants a ehauce to step into tho empty seats in accordance with the approved rules of civil service ro-form. ro-form. It is evident that under this system there will bo no cud of public scaudsl, though it mny not bo without with-out public bone tits, for it will ensure the presence of a corps of active detectives de-tectives constantly aiert to spy out the weak points and misconduct of all public officials and bring them to light. The value of such disclosures U none the less because they are prompted by selfish interests, for these interests sway to a great ex-tout ex-tout every individual agent and competitor com-petitor in the affairs of lite, and the successful administration of the departments de-partments of public morals and public pub-lic justiee could not be achieved without with-out the employment ol such agencies. agen-cies. It may be, therefore, that tho new requirement of Mr. Hayes virtually vir-tually inviting investigations of tho official action and conduct of all public pub-lic officers against whom suspicions of irregularity or other misdemeanors may rest, will become a valuable feature of the civil service, tending to its needed purity and elevation. It is currently stated that charges preferred against Marshal Nelson have bean filed at Washington, but the substance of them has not yet come to light. In regard to those against District Attorney Howard which have also been tiled at Washington something may bo gathered from the dispatches published iu to day's HtRALD. They rest on an affidavit made by one Edwin Oilman, formerly for-merly a deputy marshal, and re cently employed as a guard at the territorial penitentiary, who swears that Howard obtained a- confession from Leo under tho hope held out to him Lee) of a respite of his sentence, and that this confession as published after tlio execution was materially alte.'cd, and portions of it suppressed. Mr. Howard, in a d'npatch to thu New York Herald, denounces Oilman's Oil-man's affidavit as utterly false; but the document having reached the department of justice at Washington, ( its serious charges will doubtless ro- ; ceiva a full investigation immedi- 1 atcly. Of course the cre libiliiy of Oilman will be taken into account, , with all the attending circumstances, and District Attorney Howard will havo to faco tho music. We confer there is something strange and in-comprohonsible in-comprohonsible in the whole mutter. Tho manufacture of such a etory from wholo cloth would show oven Gil-man's Gil-man's remarkable genius for invent ing falsehoods; but there so ins no sufficient motive for Mr. Howard to play tho role attributed to him. The whole facts, however, will soon come to light, when a clearer understanding understand-ing of the case may be reached. Tho fight will bo curiously viowod as it progresses, and its result regarded very much liko tho scrimmage between be-tween tho bear and tho man, whoso wife disinterestedly ex claimed: "Uo it. bear! go it, old man 1 I don't oaro which licks." I |