The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-21
TUE NOVEMBER MAGAZINES.
"THE ATLANTIC,

frequently pause to admire the ingenuity and
the studious habits of q certain respectable
colored man who serves rs doorkeeper to an
august national court. it is an established
principle at Washington that an American
citizen visiting the capital of his beloved
country shall never be allowed to open door
for himself; and consequently wherever
there is door, there must needs be n door
keeper A being more superfidous than
doorkeeper to the room in which this high
court is held it would he difficult to imagine.
The door has been provided by grateful
nation with a convenient loop or handle of
brass, adapted to the meanest capacity, and
with a spring which causes it gently to close
without the lnterposition of human hands 1t
closes, too, upon something SOFT so that there
is no danger of the deliberations of the court
being disturbed by bang. Most Of the per-
sons who enter the room are familiar with all
its arrangements; and if their hands should
chance to be full of papers, they could
easily thrust out one little finger, and
Inserting it in the handle, pull the light and
unlatched door wide open. Nor does the
doorkeeper show to seat the awe-strucl,
visitors who are occasionally attracted to the
apartment by curiosity. Within the room
other officers, white in color or higher in
rank. stand ready to prevent ladies from rush
ing forward to the bench of the Judges or
losing themselves among the lawyers within
the bar The sole business of that respecta-
BILE colored man from II A. M. to 3 p. M. is
TO open light door which shuts itself BEING
a man of resources, he has provided himself
with a chair and tied string to the handle of
his door. He goes to his place every morn
ing provided with reading-matter. and there
he sits, holding his newspaper OF book in one
hand, and the end of his string with the
other. When anyone approaches, he knows
it by instinct, and gives the string mechani-
cal pull, without looking up or being mentally
aware that he has performed an official duty.
Behold the typical man in him. He re-
presents a class in Washington. He is one
of the small sins which Congress permits and
Commits.
The sins of this kind which Congress COM
mits are worse than those which it permits
After satisfying the curiosity of the ladies
with n view of the Supreme Court-a work of
three minutes--you naturally ascend to the
gallery of the Senate. This is the paradise of
doorkeepers. 1 think 1 counted fourteen
doors to this gallery. There are doors which
admit only ambassadors, doorkeepers' friends
and other privileged persons. There are doors
which exclude the public from the reporters
gallery writing-room, and telegraph office
There are many doors which admit ladies'
and many more that open into the portions
of the gallery used chiefly rs a warming-place
by unemployed negroes. Each of these doors
and are kept shut by the attraction of gravi-
tation What q field for bookkeeping is bere
At nearly every leaf of these numerous doors
sits or stands dooTkeeper, his hand inserted
in his brass loop:-One man outside TO let in
the coming, and another inside to let out the
departing guests. From their keeping such
tight clutch upon their handles, / think there
must be more doorkeepers than there are
doors. Every man seems afraid that if he
should let 90 his handle another might get
hold of it, and thus rob him Of his slight
pretext for being on the payroll. Half
dozen locks and hundred latch-keys would
deprive of all semblance of pretext the gen
tlemen who exclude the miscellaneous public
from the Ambassadors Gallery and the Re
porters apartments; and the rest of the door
keeping could be well done by two men. But
that would never do in Washington. The
pretext for being on the payroll is the very
thing wanted.
If the visitor is rash enough to hint that
two men to each door is rather q lavish ex-
penditure of human force, considering the
scarcity of labor on this continent, he
is silenced by the question, How
could two OF three or half a dozen
men :" clear the galleries 2" They
could not. Nor could forty, if the auditors
were determined to sit fast. But the Speakers
simple order, addressed to people habituated
and wholly disposed to obey properly consti-
tuted authority, clears them with all requisite
despatch. If not, there are thirty-three
bored, yawning, inexpressibly idle men about
the Capitol, in blue uniform and steeple-
crowned hats, who are styled the Capitol 20
lice They have a captain and two lieu
tenants, to head any onset upon stubborn
public which the Speaker might order. and
r 1t would relieve the monotony of their ex-
istence to be ordered upon any duty what
ever.
Congress has indeed, furnished itself most
literally with servants The Senate, which
consists of seventy-four members, is served
by at least one hundred officers of all grades.
from secretary to page. The House, which
numbers two hundred and fifty-three mem
bers when the States are fully represented.
has not less than hundred and fifty officers.
although the investigator does not find so
many in the published list We observe a
considerable number of persons employed
about the Capitol whose names elude the
search Of those who pore over the Blue Book
OF Mr.. Disturnell or the useful and excellent
Congressional Directory of Major Ben Perley
Poore. II we add to the officers EMPLOYED
about the two chambers the printers and
binders who do the work of Congress in the
pubic printing office, we shall find that Con-
gress has many more servants than members.
10 may be that most of these are necessary.
The Secretary of the Senate may require the
assistance of twenty-one clerks, The heating
apparatus of the Capitol may be of such
complicated and tremendous nature that it il
as much as fourteen men can do to manage
1t. Members may read pand consult such
pPodigous number of books and documents
as to need the assistance of more Librarian