New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-12-29
THE STATE CAPITAL.
MODERN IMPROVEMENTS.

OF PROGRESo' ~
A,n.Ny Dec. 17-It was in theyear 1910 that Dr:
nrson NJ Aaben, by grace of majority OF the iegas
,,votcrs in the County of Delaware, was melOeI "a
fine Assembly of this State. At that PERIOD INC DVV
k,r had but recently taken the Hippocratean o"'u
and received diploma, couched III leaIneu 49, 1Is
under the authority Of which he proceeueu " Dioo
and blister to purge and plaster 10 cu' anu
lie TO saw and splnt TO battle ana DahuaSe, ~ ."
rordance with the established formulas Oh tho pio
fesson and, though he no douDt Wen' Non
oas and Mills TO prognoses and bills II Is propaDie
80, IT, d.hor ,,onpg doctors he was blessed with
oIetbora of patients and paucty OF pay 1t was IN
fba midst of his peripatetc practice that the Doctor
can0bt ND by the whirlwind of politics and car
red 70 this city, here to try his hand in physckmg
,he body nolitic which then as now had its annual
ailments demanding council for consultation.
"A wear or two later, Mr.. Thomas G.. Alvord OF
Opondaga and Mr.. William W. Snow of OtsegO were
snatched from transformations retirement by relent-
aess friends tumbled into cumberOus stage-coaches,
and, valise in hand filed with documents and
oickeys they started for the State Capital certified
as constituent atoms by right, of the law-making
mower of the State; and we are bound to believe
that on the first convenient opportunity, the ado
descent commoneT of Onondaga made the Assembly
Chamber ring with his Ciceronian accents, uttered
Sn impressive periods, upon a theme around which
clusters fond sentiments and romantic associations
the chloride Of sodium. Once or twice since, II am
not mistaken. has Mr. AlyOrd waXed declamatory
flor he has been often returned to the Assembly, on
1he same saline subject Mr.. Snow, too, well dis
charged his duties that he was promoted and sent
50 Congress.
Each of the aforesaid gentlemen remained here at
fhe seat of Government during the session for which
they were elected and moved, and resolved, and re-
ported and voted ana enacted, with a full and in
feligent understanding OF every question presented;
Dr not they looked WISE pretended to understand,
ind nobody ever knew differently. They each drew
their constitutional compensation of s. per day,
portion of which was, doubtless, paid to their re-
speciye landladies for board and washing; and 1t
may be that, moved by the exuberance of feeling
which often characterizes young Legislators away
from their homes they rushed into reckless extrava-
gauce and wasted the residue IN TiOtous living. No
4,ody whispered ofsacorruption as connected with
fheir official action Nobody suspected that money
was offered to influence their votes and much less
shat they accepted it; and their memories would
never have been eXhumed were it not that each of
the gentlemen has been recently elected to the AS
sembly and in January next they will meet here at
the Capital.
Their colleagues in the Legislature over quarter
Of a century since were such men Henry g. Whea-
fon Seth C. Hawley, Enoch Strong, VIM B. Maclay,
James l. Roosevelt, Solomon Townsend, Robert Den
niston. VIM. Duer Levi S. Chatfeld, Saxton Smith,
tJohn A. King Charles Goodyear, Daniel b. ST. John,
Michael Hoffman Clark B. COchrane, Joseph S. Bos-
worth Thomas jeremiah, HoratiO Seymour, Elisha
aitchfeld VIM. +. Allen, Calvin T. Hulburd. ard
'GeoTge Redngton--Whgs and Democrats, but alike
4usted for their intelligence and integrity, and their
discrimination to do what they believed 10 be right
Iut strange contrasts will be apparent to the three
gentlemen / have named, as their recollections
rdge over the space of more than quarter of cen
will fIGObp in
place of Hawley they will behold Bamler they will
look for Bosworth and find Burns; and, in the
manner they will reve in the ecStacies of transition
from Maclay to Cavanaugh from Roosevelt to FrSar;
from Townsend to Irving; from King to OKeefe
from DenuistOn to Lyon; from COchrane to Shana-
ham from jeremiah to Murphy; from Sey-
mour to Jerred from Allen to Howe. Then, too,
they will DO astonishcd TO observe how quickly
fhe first and second reading of bills is accomplished
IA compared with the deliberatiOn which was char
Rcterisc of legislation at the outset of their expe
Iience. They will be appalled, TO thousand
bills reported for the action of the House where
1hers was formerly less than two hundred. They
will learn that legislative intuition has been SO
uuickened that a bill of hundred printed pages
will become law without its provisions being read
either in Committee Committee of the Whole, sub
COMMITTEES of the Whole, or House. They will dis
cover that in the whTligig of time, strange muta-
tions in parliamentary practice have taken place
Innocent old souls they may suppose that the refer
enCe of bill TO committee with power to report
complete" means an authority to merely change the
Nerbiage and harmOnize any provisions inconsistent
with the general purpose Of the act, which, in the
rourse of amendment may have been Incorporated.
They will soon learn that now, under such an
authority the Committee can strike ont the body of
The bill and insert if desired, the rules of draw
poker the Westminster Catechism, the grant of
street railway and an appropriation of the public
funds to establish a race-cOurse or build mp a con-
vent And, what will be interesting to Dr. Allaben.
AZ a medical gentleman, he study the with
which the Assembly this Winter will be delivered of
two pOnderOus tones of statutes, when, in 1870 the
firth of a volume of laws bigger than Medium
sized psam-book was attended with agOnizing pains
aud doubtful apprehensions.
II the old-fashioned gentlemen should he invited
into the cloak-rocm or the Dclayan House to see7
Mr. Sapper or Mr.. Miner Of the Third House and the
Vcrde-antique arguments which he may confiden-
TALLY and clandestnely urge in favor Of little
local bill" in which ne is interested, they must not
Dc startled for this is an OF progress, and they
must not hold too tenaciousy their antedluvian
ideas of personal honor and official integrity. Nor
must they be surprised TO learn that a member can
save vastly more money and live in more sumptuous
apartments on e. a day in greenbacks than one could
thirty years ago on the same in silver or gold
MI three Of the gentlemen, / understand, were
Democrats on their advent into public life Messrs
hllaben and Snow are still of the faith. They
will lie with the majority this Winter and if they
aesire to be fully instructed in the modern improve
,ments in legislation they may be safely commended
TO their Democratic colleagues from New-YOrk and
WiuVs Couufy WlO have ZcalOuslV kent pace with