The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-04-30
FRIDAY, APRIL 80, 1869.
LEGISLA TIVE AMENITIES.

80 MoNsTROUs!' exclaimed Prince Henry,
when be inspected the scraps of paper found in
the pockets of Sir John Falstaff; "but one-half
pennyworth of bread to this intolerable deal of
sack!" II Prince Henry could have examined
the personal accounts of some of our modern
legislators he would have been even more
astounded, and convinced of the fact that in
their bringing-up the maxim of Falstaff-'If
had thousand sons, the first human principle
would teach them should be to forswear thin
potatoes, and to addict themselves to sack
had enjoyed full swing. Unblushngly
impudent as were many of the doings of the
Hundred and Thirty-three Thieves" recently
in cenclave at Harrisburg, we are inclined to
think that they were slightly deficient in
knowledge of some of the tricks of their trade.
At any rate, while they might do very well for
Harrisburg, they were scarcely fitted by know
ledge and experience to take front seats in the
Albany den.
special committee of the New York Legis-
lature entrusted with the duty of investigating
the right of certain claimants to the occupancy
of seats in that body, has completed its labors
and reported the expenses attending their pro-
secution. Altogether, three seats were disposed
of by the committee two Democrats being
kicked out of very disreputable company
to make room for two Republicans
who are not particular about their
associations, and one Democrat being
thrust aside to make room for another of the
same political complexion. The total cost of
the committees work was $9000 quite mode
rate, we think, when regarded as whole, but
certainly very curious, to say the least, when
we come to examine it by detail. The first
thing that strikes us in gancing over the per-
sonal expenses of the committee is the excessive
indifference with which its members appear to
have regarded the common demands of nature.
In truth so engrossed in their laud-
able work were they that they seldom
paused to satisfy the cravings of hunger. The
aggregate cost of meals, during the period of
their labors, is put down at $15 Here indeed,
we have the very extravaganza of official absti-
nence, the very consummation of legislative
economy. Fish, flesh, fruit, and flour of the
aggregate cost of $15 served to maintain the
union between soul and body, and to keep those
two elements of manhood on entirely satisfac-
tory relations towards each other. With the
ength of time we are not familiar. but the
marvel of the whole thing is that committee of
any legislature in the land could sit even once at
table and consume only $15 worth of vctuals.
But while the invitation to victual heard
so seldom in the committee-room the other omi-
for the echo, and three hundred and siXty-eight
dollars worth of brandy, achisky, and ,cine
trickled down the parched throats of the COM
mittee-men, as they sat at their patriotic task,
enyeloped in all the smoke that could be evolved
from cigars of the value of $430'57. Burdened
with such loads of whisky on an empty stomach,
and almost strangled by the accumulated vapor
of the weed, no one will be surprised to learn
that the committee did not prosecute their labors
by night as well by day. Human endu-
rance has it's limits under all circumstances, and
the stomach of legislator is not necessarily
fire-proof The unhappy fate which befell
MoKinstry when his contents were destroyed
month or so ago, will be remembered as sub
stantiating this quite automatic principle. In
the evening the committee rested from their
labors. And if they were grand when in motion,
they certainly were magnificent when at repose.
Duly impressed with sense of their high and
responsible position as lawmakers, and
thoroughly appreciating the teachings of re-
yarded virtue and discounted villainy their
evenings were passed at the theatres
of the metropolis contemplating
the English blondes in such great moral dramas
as The Female Forty Thieoes. The profit which
the committee received directly from this source,
and which must ultimately and indirectly inure
to the benefit of the people of the State of New
York, cost the trife of $276 besides small
allowance in the way of livery expenses, for
cartipg their legislative carcasses to and from
the theatres when the whisky, brandy, wine
and cigars had proved too much for their empty
fre-proofs.
But this theatrical recreation was not the only
respite the members of the committee enjoyed.
Desiring to behold the wonders which are re-
yealed only to those who go down to the sea in
shins. and TO commune with nature on dry land,
AWAY from the dust and turmoil of the city
perchance, as the old saying has it, "to look
through nature up to-" etc.-they made modest
tourney down the bay, rambling through the lanes
of Staten island, at the very moderate expense
to the State of $50. Despite all this, however
their official labors, and the oppressive burden
of whisky, brandy, and wine ON empty stomachs
sufficed to undermine their constitutions to sucl
an alarming extent that physician was sum
moned, and an additional expense of 800 thercb.
incurred.
Now, although the people OF this city AM
State are not directly interested in this shame
less exhibit, Albany is not so far removed fror
Harrisburg that the lesson it teaches is rendere
of no avail for us. This committee of the NeN
York Legislature is merely type OF the institu
tion. and the scandalous manner in which the
have attempted to swindle the people OF thej
own State is merely on par with what we hay
witnessed, over and over again, in Pennsylvania
II shows how utterly rotten, corrupt, and de
haucbed has become the class of men into who's
hands the business of legislation has fallen l
tbe greater portion of the country. For tn
al Il