The Portland gazette. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1818-1824, 1822-02-19
POLITICAL MISCELLANY.
Inc following extracts VIII show how the membeIs
OF Congress spend their time in Washington.
from the National Gazette1

ltIom the National Gazette.
Washington, jan. 81, 1892.
avail myself again Of the leisure enjoyed here on
this day, TO notice for you in my rambling way. the
principal movements in Congress and matters in gen.
eral- We are scarcely able to snatch minute for
correspondence or reflection. from Monday morning
until Sunday. The House does not il is true. meet
until noon and rarely sits later than four O'Clock but
the members and other sooumers like myself in the
boardnghouses and tavens retire late 10 bed and can
not Of course rise early. The dinner and evening
parties which succeed each other without remission
occupy us from four FIVE in tic afternoon until ten
or eleven at east-two three hours more than tic
average period spent in the hall-Brcakfast is tardy
when the coffee and cakes beefsteaks cold chickens
&C. (our first meal Ia tourctette as the distances
require) dispatched, we lean our elbows and
chat at tabe-tcad the newspapers; fetch walk
visit each ether in rooms; make call Of
the officers of the Executive departments 60 the
rounds Of tile Offices for the transaction Of our own
private affairs. or those Of our friends In this way
insiertitial vacancies are left in the interval BE-
tween lcapins and crawling from bed and entering tile
House.
No small proportion Of the members arc engaged
every day 10 feasts and CONVERSATIONS. When not
invited private houses, they dine BY invitation at
each others messes in a socable manner, and proong
the easy flow of talk for some time after the cloth is
removed. Those who DO choose 10 avail them
selves Of the hospitality which throws omen almost
every door, the few who remain so obscure that It
does not detect and pursue them spend their evenings
in friendly game Of cards their lodgings,
bles in ther sleeping apartments alternately. to hold
high discourse BY the coal fires of the affairs of the ma
tion the merits Of speeches and speakers the current
anecdotes of the metropolis, the topics OF the newspa
pers, &c.
I The new members, who come from the TOW States
and the small towns in the interior must crafty their
curiosity; and the vocaliss tumbcrs uglers and lee
turcrs expect atonsh the raw natives, besides get
ting portion of their PER diem. Tue uotern gentle
men are not so easily caught the Western and South
Western: the former are domestic az il regards
public entertainments perhaps and then they
may be tempted to those snug suppcrs Of oysters and
teTrapins which you see advertised for their accclno
dation.
| Formerly members used 70 haze much to do with
the banks Of the Distct-discourting endorsing
gotatiag notes-some spcculated in lots and wives
4
courtshp is out Of fashion Cupid is a powerful god
with the legislature though Mr. Nelson, Of Virginia,
Of the House, once. when he represented Minerva,
instead Of Venus, rescuing Paris from Menelaus, and
was corrected By scTnc classic member aedged that
it not decorous recall that GODDESS thereATn
filter. The bachelors, cid and young, on
the alert, futterng n the bellies, Indigenous and
extoc. whose society may be enjoyed here more fire.
quently and more EaimGbl. than crowded capitals.
1t is in the evenings only, az routs and balls that
they are to be encountered, of to the greatest adj
vantage-in " the best bib and tucker"The member
meets them in the forenoon al the doors and in the
lobbies Of both Houses-hc can gaze upon them, as
they gaze upon him from the galleries and he can
nod and wink at them-and occasionally while the
debate progresses he can 60 IN to them, and even
get into so pleasant colloquy. TO lie betrayed into
laugh OF litter which extorts cIy Of order from the
! speaker or the SERGEANT at arms
Hy,eJfu eft Tfl r,J1-D 3D. 1922