The Portland daily press., 1877-03-01
A Pen-Picture Of the Commission.

Mary Clemmer, in letter from Washington
to the Cincinnati Commercial, thus describes
Inc electoral Commission in session:
The gold and azure of the Incompatible day
nltered IN through the crevices of the curtains,
10 play hide and seek on the bald heads aud
across the gray locks of the judges. They sat
IN row without their gowns, and looked wider
aeoye their heads, where Dolly Madison, Mrs
Livingston, Mrs. Adams and the bellies of that
DAY used to sit, was now well packed with
knights OF the press, looking. listening and
writing dispatches! Opposite the judges, on
OF their distinguished predecesssors-Ia
looking strange without his wrinkles; Chase,
with little of his living beauty; John Jay by
Frazee, and Oliver Ellsworth py Anger. Here
is John Marshall, who was Chief Justice and
Secretary of State at the same time, and all the
rest of this illustriOus line.
THE room is small, only seventy-fye feet
wide and forty-fve feet high, semi.circle,
VIII wnite walls, gray pillars supporting the
You'd them, lighted from the roof Its velvet
carpeT Is OF red and brown, its semi-circular
seats inning the outer walls are of dark, rich
mahogany. Within railing are the seats and
them, in straight row, sit The justices. D-
rectly before them this morning stood Evarts-
slender, delicate. motioness, emitting a steady
stream of long involved, splendid sentences.
The judges sat intently gazing on this intel
Jectual wonder. Field took calm, contempla-
tive view, through his large glasses. Bradley
looked out either side of his very high nose, and
neither eye could tell any tales on the other.
Justice Clifford sat in the middle big as Jove,
but too lazy to launch humboldt. Justice
Strong, with white head sharp features and
Foxy eyes, was fussng about in his chair, as if
the argument were a bore Justice Miller
leaned back the image of serenity, placid as
May morning.
Then there was Edmunds, looking like
Jewish Iaw-giver; and Frellnghuysen, medtat-
1ng on his grandfather; and Morton, who has
the most lncOnsequent nose everj set as a vesti-
bule to SO grand head. 1t is like classic
tower with barn door entrance. At the end
sat Bayard, whose fine, strong head and face
honor his grandfather, and next him, Thur
man, mutfied to the ears in cashmere scarf,
worn with neuralgia and looking as if he has
the mumps. At the opposite end sat Henry
b. Payne, of Ohio, classical looking gentle
man; and Josiah G. Abbott of Boston, who
looks like Hawthorne: and James A. Garfield,
whose head and face certainly do not lack
strength of outline, whatever else they may
iack; and George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts,
trim. clear cut and gray; and Eppa Hunton
of Virginia, with pug nose, coarse cast un-
illuming eyes and high head.
Among the lawyers within the circle leaned
back Stanley Matthews, looking like Brigham
Young; and as straight as a ramrod beside him
sat up David Dudley Field, like meditative
and disappointed cat who had just missed his
prey. There is something Enthusiastically feline
In the cold, pale, half-shut eyes, and the half
cruel face lines radiating from the long, hard
shut mouth of this man. In height and head
ne is not without majesty; but Nature. when
divine sympathy which makes the height kin
to the lowliest human want and tenderness, and
instead, let the ichor of pride thin his blood
and spoil his temperament"