The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-22
MEN AND MEASURES AT WASHINGTON.
from O1~ 'OWn Correspondent.
Ahe Senate's Veto of the Inauguration
Rail-

tne committee on the Inauguration Ball. The
resolution granting the use of the rotunda for
The dance went through the House with such a
flourish that no opposition was anticipated in
the Senate. But the Senate is grave body, and
the Senators are crotchety sometimes. There
is only one ching certain about them; that Isl
they will not pass anything without debate
No matter how trivial the subject every Senator
has an idea that he must say something about
1t, whether he really has anything to say OF not
The debate-everythiug is dignifed with the
name Of debdte-in the Senate on the resolution
IN question occupies nearly three solid columns
of the q ODE. 1t is curious TO note
the motives aud reasons which influenced
Senators in voting for or against this resolu-
tiOn. Mr.. Fessenden favored it because, LSough
he don't dance himself, he does not wish to -
so selfish as to keep other persons from dancing.
Mr.. Patterson, of New Hampshire, is Pre5by
terian, besides being an ex-professor of New
England college, and neither his religion nor
his sense of propriety would allow him to
dance. The jolly Senator from Nevada-Nye-
remembers that lie was once young himself and
imagiues that he could do his share in ball.
room yet, and so he goes for the resolution
Our Scotch Irish Presbyterian, Cameron, nigh
favor a legislative caucus at which the nomina
ton of Senator was to be fixed" being held
be sacrilegious 10 have a dance there. Besides,
1t is to be dry dance" and our Senator thinks
glass of generous wine" is good for both
young and old. BY the way here
just where the Committee made
their mistake. They thought TO
Conciliate the temperance men of the Henry
Wilson stripe by prohibiting the use of all kinds
of liquors al the ball. But they not only had
the temperance men against them, but the
Senators who like a glass of generous wine.n
clause of this kind in the resolution might
have saved it, for the temperance men are far
from being in the majority in the Senate 1t
may be very proper in the Senate to forbid
dancing in the rotunda, and their action no
doubt looks very virtuous 10 people at a dis
tance. 1t is cheap virtue, however, and those
who have seen proper to indulge i'll it on this
occasion do not happen to have the merit OF
consistency. l need hardly say to old visitors
at the Capitol that the commitleerooms the
reception. room, and the lobbies OF the Senate
are not the best places in the world to acquire
high.toued morality. l shall not say what
might be said about the committee rooms, but
shall simply content myself with stating what
most people here know TO be a fact to wit That
the character OF many of the visitors at the
reception. room OF the Senate is such that high
toned, virtuous women do not care to be seen
there. Two wrongs do not, of course, make one
right; but still the Senate reCeption-room is so
much nearer the Senate Chamber than the
rotunda. that the wonder is the former did MOI
come in tor share of the pious concern mani
tested about the latter.
The Senate "LazzRrOni."
Nothing is more common than to hear Sena-
: tors aud mem beis express their contempt OF the
criticisms of the public press. They are respon-
sible, they say, 10 their 'cOnstituents'-torget-
ting at the same time that these Constituents"
are dependent upon the newspapers for most, if
not all, OF what they know about them. And
yet, perhaps no class of meD, whether in official
or private station, are So intensely sensitive to
the criticisms of the press as these same con-
temptuous Senators and members. Scarcely
week passes without three or four personal
explanation" in both houses. OF course ne VS..
paper paragraph is al ways the text from which
the explanatory sermon is preached. SJme
unfortunate newspaper correspondent, whose
duty it is to SIT in the reporters gallery, and
submit hour after hour aud day after day to the
inhicton of the dull routine OF legislative
business, aud the still more intolerable punish-
ment OF listening 10 heavy, uninteresling
speeches, is usually selected as the scapegoat gu
these occasions. He has the pleasure Of hearing
himself denounced by some injured Senatorial
innocent, and his only revenge is to take djwn
the worst things said and correct the Indifferent
grammar and worse English OF his assailaut
The most recent "personal explana
ton" was made by Senator Harlan, of Iowa, on
Monday last. Harlan is "A quiet, nofens ye
sort of a man, not remarkably brilliant 1t
reported to be very pious, and, like Cesar 5
wife, above Suspicion. He very seldom speaks,
except upon subjects relating to the puOlic
lands or matters pertaining to the Indians Upon
both OF these he is perfectly at home. II az
sumed decidedly Injured appearance while the
Clerk read the extracts about the railroad and
other jobs in whi3h he is accused of being con-
cerned by the cores pOndent ef the Cincinnati
Gozele. Everybody supposed that the Iowa
Senator would treat the erriug correspondent
mildly, even if he did not regard the whole
thing phiOs ophIcally. At first, indeed he was
disposed TO be philosophical, and divided the
newspaper men INTO three grades but at that
moment he must have caught the eye OF the i'm
petuous COuness o. California, who mas had come
experience IN tue business of personal eXpana-
tions ara who ike the war steel that scents
the battle aar Of. was eager to participate in
the fight. Harlan caught some of the dery
nature OF Copness, and shaking his fist at the
reporters' gallery denounced the occupants as
"lazzaroni and sea Yengers." Well, we shall see
who GETS the best OF the fight. Perhaps the in
dustrious correspondent of the Gazette may fee
it his duty to print some things which nethe
Senators Harlan Pomeroy, or Conness arr