The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-10-31

A CALL OF THE HOUSE.
Hon. s. S. Cox, in Harper's Magazine for No
yember.
It will be impossible for me to forget my
first experience on a call of the House. II was
in the merry month of May, 1858. 1t occurred
secrets of the prison-house. Being caught by
the sergeant's officer on my way to my duty.
1 was grsciously allowed the freedom of the
mail wagon. How chafed under my first
arrest WHAT would lynx-eyed constituents,
and especially my opponents in Ohio, think.
tremb BILE as l recall these apprehensions. L
was brought before the bar with Zollicoffer
and James B. Clay. The then leviathan of
the House, Humphrey Marshall, was IN the
chair. How he glowered Oil me with pom
derous savagery.
He made me feel that I had personally
affronted him. told him that was sorry to
,oaist his precious time, and would lean on
his mercy; but there was no mercy in him.
What company there was that night. In.
lister Washburne. Gen. Quitman. Jones of
Tennessee, Gov. Houston of Alabama. Gen.
Sickles, Grow, Stevenson. Colfax, Bishop of
Connecticut. Bingham, Lamar, Groesbeck,
Pendetop, Gov. Smith of Virginia, Giddings,
Fansworth, John Cochrane, and many others
since then Ministers, Governors and Senators.
Some of them are in the cold, cold ground.
"Where be their gibes now?" Another
.'call has SUNNI oned them to more serious
mission. But it happened on that night, as
frequently since, that the vigilant and lead
ing men were absent, while the dilatory wags
were on guard.
How they delighted to catch Mr. J. Clancy
Jones, Chairman of the Ways and Means, at
President Buchanan's dinner table What q
RANT row was made over his white tie and ru-
bicund face and the Pennsylvania delega-
ton, with the u. B. brand on their brows
fresh from festivity! Few excuses were re-
ceived, though many were rendered. men,
Der from Niagara had "paired off" with his
wife; another felt so bad because his wife had
gone home he could not participate in DELHI
Grafton; member from Maryland was re-
marked as showing disposition to be in the
hail by being in the gallery; one member
found the sergeant before the sergeant found
him, and asked to have that officer fined; a
Kentucky member had attended all day, ex-
pecting to die in his tracks for favorite
measure; but as the measure did not come up
he could not die, so he left for home!
When John Cochrane was called, we all
knew he had been to the Presidential dinner;
aud his exculpation was not only fine piece
on the House, as he did on the "fell Ser
geant who had shocked him by the arrest.
The man physiological was astounded, the
man physiological was appalled,, his federal
constitution trembled, and nature gave signs
of woe that all was lost, for had he not been
grasped by the hand of authority? He had
been called high-he felt low; and then some
one suggested that the Sergeant-at-Arms held
"Jack" and the game. Upon these occa-
sions the native style of the member thus
comes out. A dozen members explain that
they had gone out for bite, etc.; but Gen.
Cochrane disdained the ordinary Saxon
tongue, and sailed into the empyrean of Epi-
Gurus.
The stately Groesbeck is brought in. He
asks for counsel Counsel is freely rendered.
He makes a solemn plea in extenuation,
whereupon Hughes, of Indiana, ikens it to
the sermon the old lady heard the best she
ever heard. She could not remember the
text, or the points, or the sermon, but it had
such . cody tone! Gen. Curtis, of Iowa,
comes in voluntarily; and he is fined for
coming in without compulsion. Then arises
the member from the wildcat district of
Pennsylvania, Mr.. Gillis He makes his ex-
cuse. 1t is expected that he should know the
rules of such disorderly body. He con-
fessed that he had been to dine with the
President. All he knows of etiquette is to 90
and dine when asked, and he is willing to pay
for it like man. He had heard he was to be
arrested, and flew, not to the horns of the
altar, but to the horns of "Old Buck" Harry
Phillips, of Philadelphia, who had himself
moved the CALL had abandoned the house for
the dinner. He was caught. He claimed to
be the author of all their amusement, and
threw himself on their gratitude.
And so on through the long night the i'm
prisoned members indulge in what seems the
very peuriiity of frivolity.