The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1876-04-13
from our Regular Correspondence

pressed with u significant change that
nus taken place during the compare.
tlVely short erl0d that the Forty
fourth Congress has been In session.
There IL q marked dimInutlon OF lobby.
lists and the demi monde. II may not
DC on account OF the yestal virtue of
the present Congress, but from some
cause they seem to have gone else
whittier. Yesterday the weather was
me, aud, only u year ago, wooed by
such an atmosphere, the rotunda, lob.
biea aud galleries would have glittered
win the briissiest most volatile, aud
wlckedest human pot p0tDTi that any
terrestrial nation can present. But the
magnificent pile was almost deserted.
heard young woman say that It
seemed lonesome
In going to the Capitol, from any of
the large hotels, II Ia convenient TO
take an Avenue car, which will land
you near the Western wing, the part
occupied by the House OF Representa-.
lives then ascend the long flight of
exterior stairs that you see to the left,
III the pictures, open the bronze doors,
and You will he In the lobby OF the
floor Of the House. Write your name
on scrap OF paper and sent ii, by the
doorkeeper to your member he will be
sure to come and show you around,
providing he Is not in committee
room, conducting an investiga-
ton, or out taking drink
OF tea, or something like 1t.
But II you are q journalist, that il o
newspaper man or woman, you will
ascend another flight Of marble stairs,
TO your right and look through the
glass doors of the gallery to that part
reserved for reporters, which Is over
the Speakers chair and facing the
House, This glance at the reporters
gallery may save you the labor of
making the entire exterior circuit of
the hall to reach II, for If IL Is not
pretty well filled with the correspon-
dents Ut the various papers representa- |
here, you will know at once that the
center of interest is elsewhere. Yes
terday the gallery was almost empty |
and | listened only long enough to
hear some sophmoric statesman,
speaking upon the Sandwich Island |
annexation bill, throwing his arms
around dangerously, say: "Mr. |
Speaker If the United States should |
annex these islands she will become
the very brightest gem in the coronet |
of nations" feeling little sea sick
after this, | went to the Senate gallery.
From the Senate we will 90 to the
room of the Supreme Court, where the
Chief Justice sits in chair planked
ON eithe side by the four Associate
Justices, all robed in black silk gowns
like those worn by Episcopal Ministers
Chief Justice Waite givs the impress.
sion of a man, dazed by unexpected
promotion, making a martyr like eff
fort to balance himself aud appear ju-
ideally composed upon the heighth to
which he has been boosted, which the
eight Associate Justices appear sullen
and in mutl because a man of such
little legal celebrity was promoted over
them. Physically and facially the
Chief Justice is not bad ilgure-head,
and, come to think OF it, President
Grant has made but few II any mis-
takes from physical point OF view,
in his official selections. Nearly all of
his cabinet and other appointees are
distinguished either for stature or
breadth of chest stomach, or buttocks.
Secretary Fish is of the raw-boned an
gular style of beauty, but he has the
inches and the averdupoise. The Sec.
rotary of the Navy, the antithesis of
this type, is so completely made up OF
curses that he has been christened
"the Rotund." Boss Shepard called
the Postmaster General little bob
Yankee, but Mr.. Jewell
will weigh as much AS the Hercuean
Boss. Chandler is fully six feet in
height, and well proportioned, while
the recent Secretary of War had coll
lossal figure that statuarys would love
to copy. In short since Boutwell, has
gone, there is not one knock-kneed,
hump backed, pot-bellied man among
them.
But we have not quite done the Capt.
toll. and will go to n little room in the
western wing under the House of Rep
reseptatives. The door-keeper hesi-
tates to admit US, but we speak the
magic name of our paper, and the door
is opened with alacrity. All here is
the center of interest, we have found
the correspondents and reporters at
last. At the end of a long table COW
cred with black oil cloth sits the Chair
man of the Committee on WarClaims,
Mr.. Clymer. The other gentlemen OF
the committee are on his right. Gem
eral Babcock is giving his version OF
ths Rell testimony; his statement Is
lucid and unbroken, though somewhat
embarrassed and labored, as OF q
man who has had little
too much of this fun recently
for the good of his nerves. HIS pro-
nunciation was like that OF the othet
West Point graduate we had just heard
In the Senate, not that of an educated
man. When he used words that were
not commonly colloquial, be some
times pronounced them incorrectly,
and he said that he gave Bell NIFTY OF
seventy dollars, or something in that
vicinitv. Would it not be well for West
Point to give little more atteht lla W
pure old English and little less W
dancing? no
The notwithstanding man to the
left of the chairman, WIN his we
half.closed and covered with his hand,
to shield them from the dazzling glare
Of the sunlight reflected from tne
white marble of the portico, is Gibson,
of the New York Sun. II his eyes are
closed his ears are open, ana nov ope
word or incident of the investigator.
escapes this most terrible detective o,
political evil-doers that the country country
has ever been blessed with. Mr.. Wnlte,
of the Tribune, a slender, reilned,i ,';io
inc gentleman, listens standing, takins
no notes, but remembering everything
that is said. Mr.. Washington OF tne
louisville Courier-Journal,. leans
against the mantel and jots down tne
more important parts of the evidence iae6 r.
But General Babcock asks to READ an
affidavit of Bell, in order that II may
be placed upon the record. u Is ga =
document of many pages, ana tIe
room is hastily abandoned by tne
newspaper men. Have we not Ior az u.
Ai.,o ho,,~o lrpnufn the DllfDOrU