The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1874-03-31
evening state 9uarnat.
CAPITOL NOTES.

4 Ine basement oOys are Catching IL neaVy
now-none so poor as to do them rever
ence. The individual thwacks, the news
paper pounding, the judicial pokes an,
the legislative digs they now get---all ad
ministered in behalf Of virtue, sobrety ant
honesty--would astonish party not a,
quainted with the amount of such commo
dties an average Virginian carries arount
to expend on other people less fortunate.thaI
himself 1t is sort of holier than thou
feeling, and don't fool experienced parties |
bit. We understand that all the basement
is now undergoing term of probation
Seven of the younger ones have sent up
their names to be prayed for.
The citizens of Gloucester do not like
their county judge, and have petitioned the
Legislature to remove him, on the ground oil
incompetency. Those who have signed
the document will take good care not to
let the judge get judicial swing at 'em.
If they let their foot slip, the judicial err
mine would be wanting in respect to itself
if 1t did not 60 for them to the full extent
of the law. The signers probably know
on which side their bread is buttered
One newspaper man, while admitting that
an extra session of the Legislature was a
necessity, says tits the fault Of the people,
who are constantly sending green and mex
perienced parties here, whose legal quota
of ninety days are consumed in learning
how to 90 the work they are sent to per-
form. This is new view OF the matter,
and may be the correct one.
The morning dress parade of the Sen ate
is thinly attended. Yesterday not quite
half of the members were on duty. 1t is
proposed hereafter to call the roll on absen-
tees.
The bill now pending in the Senate rela-
tive to county subscriptions to railroads,
provides that bonds given in aid of such
roads shall thereafter be registered at the
first auditors office, and that that officer
shall annually levy and collect through the
county authorities sum sufficient to pay
the interest, which amount is to be de-
posted in the state treasury, subject to the
call OF bondholders. This is very good
scheme, if it would wo.ls, but we fear in
practice there would be found hitch in
the connection. Besides the auditor has
about as much as he can do now, without
piling more work on him.
Marshall Hanger, Esq, Speaker of the
House, is a very popular officer, and de-
servedly so, as he presides with dignity,
hears calmly and decides impartially.
The House, in its conduct this session,
has borrowed some of the dignity Of its
Speaker. 1t is seldom we find delibera-
tive body more orderly, or the individual
members of which are more sensible of
the proprieties and decencies of life in
their intercourse with each other.
The voluminous, able. exhaustive,
searching and lucid report of the joint
committee to investigate the defalcation in
the office of the secretary Of the sinking
fund is now in the hands of the public
printer. 1t tells what we knew before,
but more succinctly. The committee con-
demns the negligent manner in which the
affairs of the sinking fund have been man
aged, and add, "they deem it an important
question for the General Assembly to de-
termine whether the officers of the sink
ing fund board are not responsible on their
official bonds for the deficiencies existing"
The tax bill drags its slow length along,
like wounded snake, in the House, and
some of the debates on mooted points are
occasionally eminently nonsensical. The
House wrestled with six sections yester-
day. OF the six or seven hundred sections
composing the bill only one hundred and
five have so far been disposed Of.
The Governor to-day refused to pardon
Bradford Robinson, colored, who on the
Goth of September, '73, by the Police
Court of Richmond, was sent to the city
Jail for twelve months, for grand larceny.
His cxcellency pardoned Abraham Wood
house, sent at the March term of the Cor
poration Court of Norfolk to the peniten-
tiary for four years, for forgery.
The bill to lease the penitentiary will
probably be called up tomorrow in the
House.