Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-02-26
OUR LEGISLATURE.
me COurfereJournaI Man Gives n
q Picture of Our SOlOns and
how they D0n't do ft.

Inc MMh ONNG0 y
PEN Picture OF Our sOlOns and
how they DON'T o IL.
l wrote 70 you that this Legislature
had passed three bills since it came here,
January 4th. ! will tell you the throes
Of agony which all Of them had to endure
ero they had reached that sublimated
state OF perfection which justified the
grand, gloomy and peculiar Tennessee
law givers in setting their sign and seal
to them.
First they are introduced and read in
all their dreariness, by the clerk, aud
then go through a process known as
passing on their first reading They
are then referred to a committee, by
whom they may or may not be consid.
cred, and are reported back to the House.
Then comes the tug Of war. The
Speaker m down on the floor,
Lee Head, or some other equally modest
young man, gets into the chair, the
House is now in committee Of the whole,
and trouble is about to begin. The orig
inal bill is amended. added to and
changed, until il becomes as %variegated
as the forest trees when the frost has
fallen. When the ingenuity of the
committee has been exhausted it
arises and reports the bill back to the
House, which Immediately proceeds to
undo what the committee Of the whole
did. Then the bill is passed on its Sec
ond reading. But it's not done yet.
Mayhap some Scion will take it back into
committee OF the whole again, go
through the same weary routine as be-
fore, only to have it oil undone again by
the House. BY the time the bill is ready
for its real passage on the third reading,
its original provisions are so changed
that its author does not recognize it. 1t
looks like Wards man who had gone
into a threshing machine where the straw
does, and had come cut near the thigam-
Jig where the horses walk.
The above account will be recognized
by all who know how inefficient a thing q
State Legislature is, as not being over
drawn. 1t is about as correct a state
ment as can be given of the manner in
which this body here doesn't pass a bill.
And yet they seem happy enough what
with the few creature comforts of this
life that can be secured from a per diem
of 81. with an occasional Mardi Gras or
birthday thrown in.
1t only costs the State 5000 per day to
run the machine, and the fewer bills they
pass the easier the State will escape. All
legislation is mixed, some being good
and some very bad; but if my dear little
fellows in the House continue in their
present course they can 60 back to their
dear people, and boldly say that they are
the authors of less bad legislation-or
any other kiud-than any other Legisla-
ture has been for years,
Several Of my friends have good
naturedly ehided me because Of my
habit of speaking out in meetin' about
them. When | ask them for the slight
est indication of Immature in my letters,
they admit its absence and the justice OF
my comments, and say that, while |
seem to speak in jest, still tell the whole
truth about them. That's what hurts,
you know, and | leave it to any candid
member If the General Assembly hasn't
reason for being ashamed Of itself for
the ridiculously small amount Of per-
fected work it has turned out. But a
few more days and it will have measured
the period of its existence, and what will
It show for the one it has cost2