The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-01-28
Facts about congressman.

From data found i'm Ben Perley PoOr's
Congressional Directory are compiled
the following facts:
The average age of Senators is not
far from fifty-five; that of Representa-
tives not far from forty-five.
In the Senate there are five gentle
men under the age of forty; i'll the
House, there are five members under
thirty.
The youngest Senator, is Mr.. Spen-
Ger, of Alabama, born November l.,
1886, and, consequently, is thirty-three
years old. The youngest Representa-
tive is Clinton l.. Cobb, of North Caro-
lima, born August 26, 1872, and cOnse-
quently but little over twenty-seven.
The oldest Senator, is Simon Cam
eron, of Pennsylvan ia, born March s,
1893 He is also the oldest in Congress
sion.l seniority, having taken his seat
i'm the Senate, i'm 1915. He has, how
ever, had two long interruptions i'm his
Senatorial career, SO that his whole ser
vice amounts to eleven years. He is
the only member of either House who
was born before the commencement of
the present century.
House of Representatives, iE congress
siOnal seniority, is Fernando Wood,
who took his seat i'm 1S41, i'm the twen-
ty-seventh Congress. His age is but
81.
Mr.. Garrett Davis, Senator from Ken
lucky, was earlier in the House, than
any present member of that body, hav-
ing, in 1889, taken his seat in the
twenty-sixth Congress. He is the on
Iy member of either house who sat in
Congress more than thirty years ago.
Mr.. Davis, however, belongs to the pres
ent century, he having been born
in 1891, two months earlier than Sena-
tor Vickers, of Maryland.
In point of long-continued service,
Mr.. Sumner is the father of the Sen
ate," having served for almost nine
teen years without interruption. He
has five years more to serve on his
present term.
Henry l.. Dawes, of Massachusetts,
is serving his seventeenth continuous
term.
General Banks and Horace Maynard
in their sixth term, not continuous.
James Brooks and S. S. Cox, of New
York, and Nathan Il. Dixon, of Rhode
Island, are each i'm their fifth term
Mr.. Brooks was the pioneer Washing
ton correspondent, and also the first of
European correspondents for American
papers.
The youngest Representatives are
Thomas Fitch, of Nevada, 81; Gcner-
al J. S. Witcher, of West Virginia,
80; Charles NJ. Hamilton, of Florida,
%; Logan III. Roots, of Arkansas, % ;
and G.. j.. Cobb, of North Carolina, q.
Messrs. Hamilton and Root were mem
bers of the last Congress.
The average length of the Congress
sional biographies is ten lines. The
longest is that of William +. Prosser, OF
Tennessee, which occupies twenty-six
lines, but they are so CANNED with in
cidents that it could not he VIII con-
densed.
The hardest worked Senator in COM
mittee service, is james W. Patterson,
of New Hampshire, who is chairman
on the joint committee on retrench-
meEt, and is a member of three 9TH
erS.
The blondes of the Senate have it all
their own way in the committee OH tn
judiciary.
In the House, the most fortunate men
OH committees, are John Lynch, OF
Mayne, who is chairman of two COM
mjttees, and stands second on that OF
banking and currency, and Thomas "A.
Jenckes, of Rhode Island, who is chair
man of the committee on patents, and
those of retrenchment and civil SER
vice.