New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-10-24
A Call of the House.

1t will be impossible for me to forget my
first experience on call of the House. 1t
was in the merry month of May, 1858. 1t
occurred on private bill. l had not then
learned the secrets of the prison house.
Being caught by the sergeant's officer on
lowed the freedom of the mail wagon. How
l chafed under my first arrest! What
would lynxeyed constituents, and espec-
tally, my opponents, in Ohio think? treI1-
BILE as recall these apprehe was
brought before the bar with Zollicoffer and
James d. Clay. The then leviathan of the
House, Humphrey Marshall was in the
chair. How he glowered on me with pom
derous savagery! He made me feel that
had personally affrOnted him. told him
that was sorry TO 'caiSt his precious time,
and would lean on his mercy-but there
was no mercy in him. What a company
there was that night. Minister Washburne
General Quitman, Jones, of Tennessee; Gov
ernOr Houston, of Alabama, General Sick.
lee, Grow, Stevenson, Coltax, Bishop, of
Connecticut; Bingham, Lamar, Groesbeck,
Pendleton, Governor Smith, of Virginia:
Giddings, Farnsworth John Coohrans and
many others since then ministers, Cover
nors and Senators. Some of them are in
the cold, cold ground. where be their
gibes now9' Another "call' has summoned
them to a more serious session. But 1t hap
pcucu Ou tuhG ulRut, db
since, that the vigilant and leading 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 Buchanans dinner
table. What a RANT row was made over
his white tie and rubicund face and the
Pennsylvania delegation, with the u. b."
brand on their brows, fresh from testivity!
Few excuses were received, though MANY
were rendered. member from Niagara
had "paired off, with his wife; another felt
so bad because his wife had gone home he
could not participate in deliberation; a
member from Maryland was remarked as
showing disposition to be in the hall by
being in the gallery; one member found the
sergeant before the sergeant found him,
and asked to have that officer fined; Ken
lucky member had attended all Iday, 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 din
ner, and his exculpation was not only a
fine piece of oratorical humor, but he turned
the tables on the House, as he did on the
'fell sergeant" who had shocked him by
the arrest. The man physiological was as
founded, the man psychological was ap-
palled, his federal constitution trembled
and nature gave signs of woe that all was
lost, for had he not been rudely grasped by
the hand of authority? He had been
called high, he felt low; and then some one
suggested that the sergeantat-arms held
Jack" and the game. Upon these oc-
casions the native style of the member thus
comes out A dozen of members explain
that they had gone out for bite, etc., but
General Cochrane disdained the ordinary
Saxon tongue. and sailed into the empyrean
of Epicurus.
The stately Groesbeck is brought in. He
asks for counsel. Counsel is freely tan.
dered. He makes solemn plea in extenua.
ton, whereupOn Hughes, of Indiana, likeps
it to the sermon the old lady heard, the
best she ever heard. She could not remem.
Der the text or the points or the sermon,
but it had such godly tone! General Cur
tbs, 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 excuse Is it expected that he
should know the rules of such disorderly
bodyY He confessed that he had been to
dine with the President. All he knows of
etiquette is to 60 and dine when asked, and
he Is willing to pay for it like q man. He
had heard that he was to be arrested, and
flew, not 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 din
ner. He was caught. He claimed to be
threw himself on their gratitude
And so on through the long night the i'm
prisOned members indulge in what seems
the very puerility of frivolity.-Ho,s. S. S.
Coz, in Harper's Magazine for Noyember.