The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-04-11
.ake an axenne cav xhich win land YOU

b. The Hons OF REPRESENTATIVES,, tnen
sSscsnd Inc long eight Ct interior stairs
that You sea. d the picturea open the
bronze doors ana you will be inthe lobby
Of. the floor of the. House. Write your
hans on scrap of paper and send 1t 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 Investigation. or out taking
q drink Of tea or something like 1t.
But if you are journalist, that is a
newspaper man or woman, you will as
cend another grand flight. of marble
stairs, to your right and look thu ough
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
it, for if it is not pretty we'll filled with
the correspondents of the various papers
, represented here, you will know that the
centre of interest is elsewhere. tester.
day the gallery was almost empty, and
listened long enough to hear some soph-
moric statesman, speaking upon the San
wich Island annexation bill, throwing bis
arms around dangerously, say: Mr..
Speaker, if the United States should annex
these islands she will become the very
brightest gem in the coronet ofnations;'
feeling a little sea sick after this, l went
to the Senate gallery. heard Senator
Bogy, of Missouri, who is an inottensive
speaker, end Senator Maxey, of Texas,
who is not, debating the postal bill. 1t
is not agreeable to patriot to hear a
United States Senator make mistakes In
the pronunciation of common words and
use such language rs Saving at the
spigot and wasting at the bung;" and
this is especially disagreeable alter we
have given him an expensive education
at West Point. Such metaphors are
odious, and odorous of groceries, distil-
leries and whisky rings. They suggest
q poverty of culture, and an excerable
taste, both in the Senator and the legisla-
ture that sent him here.
From the Senate we will go to the
room of the Supreme Court, where the
Chief Justice sits in chair fanked on
either side by the four associate justices,
all robed in black silk gowns like
those worn by Episcopal ministers.
Chief Justice Waite gives the Impression
of a man dazed by unexpected promo.
ton, making a martyr like effort to
balance himself and appear judicially
composed upon the heigth to which be
has been boosted, while the eight associate
justices appear sullen and in mutf be-
cause h man of such little legal celebrity
was promoted over them. Physically and
iacially the Chief Justice is not a bad
fgure-head, and, come to think of it,
President Grant has made but few if any
mistakes, from physical point Of view,
in his official selections. Nearly all Of
his cabinet ard other appointees, are dis
tinguished either for stature or breadth
of chest, stomach or bu,tocks. Secretary
Fish is of the raw boned, angular style of
beauty, but he has the inches and the
averdupoiso. The Secretary of the Navy,
the antithesis Of this type, is so complete,
ly made up of curves that he has been
christined 'ahe Rotund" Boss Shepard
called the Postmaeter-General little
bob-tailed-clam. yankee, but MIR. Jewell
will weigh as much rs the Herculean
Boss. Chandler is fully six feet in hight
and we'll proportional, while the recent
Secretary of Wa had a colossal 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.
tol and will 60 to little room in the
Western wing, under the House of Rep
resentatives. The door-keeper hesitates
to admit us, but We speak the magic
name OF our paper, and the door is open.
ed with alacrity. An! here is the centre
of interest. We have found the CORES
pondents aud reporters at last. AT the
end of long table covered with black
oil cloth. sits the chairman of the Com
mitlce on War Claims, Mr.. Clymer. The
other gentlemen of the committee are on
his right. Gen. Babcock is giving his
version ofthe Bell testimony; his State
ment is lucid and unbroken,
though somewhat embarrassed and
labored, as of a man who has had
n little too much of this fun recently
for the good OF his nerves. His pro-
nuRciation was like that Of the other
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 he sometimes
pronounced them incorrectly, and he
said he gave Bell fifty or seventy dollars
or something in that rtci'aty Would it
not be well for West Point to give u lit
tie less to dancing?
The determined looking man 10 the
left of the chairman, with his eyes half
closed and covered with his hand, to
shield them from the dazzling glare of
the sunlight reflected from the white
marble Of the portico, is Gibson of the
New York San; if his eyes are closed
his ears are open and not
one word or incident Of
the Investigation escapes this most terri
BILE detective of political evil-doers that
the colntry has ever been blessed with.
Mr.. White, of the Tribune, a slender,
refned-looking gentleman, listens stand
ing, taking no notes, but remembering
everything that is said. Mr.. Washing
ton, of the Louisville Courier, leans
agaiust the mantel and jots down the
more important parts OF the evid zee.
But Gen. Bsbcock asks to read an aft
davit of Bell IN order that 1t may be
placed upon tho recor6--it is document
of many psges-and the room is hastily
abandoned by the newspaper men. Have
we no. for n. leas: twelve hours known
she purport OF that atfidavit3
Mr.. Clymer remarked good naturally.
"the air will now be better for those who