Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-06-28
The Closing Scenes

OF long and eventful Congress are always
more or less fraught with interest, but few,
if any adjOurnments have equaled this. In
the Senate the accustomed dignity and de-
eorum Of that body was pretty well maint-
ed, and disposition to ''object" to about
every measure other than the appropriation
bills, killed of much wise and some perni-
eIous enactments at the last moments. In
the House there was much that was inde-
fensible and disgraeeful to the American
Congress. As the hours wore away on
Wednesday night and the small hours of
Thursday morning still found the SHndry
Civil or Omnibus Bill, unpaSsed, it became
evident in many ways that there was an
element in the House determined upon
having a regular ''spreen Of it. And while
the democratic side enjoyed monopoly of
q too apparent and disgusting insbriety.
eandor eompels US TO state that there were
few members who were drunk, who were
not Democrats. The clerks and officers
had been greatly overtaxed and worn out
with work and want Of sleep, and to keep
up their tagging energies, they too had
reSorted to the stimulant that intoxlcates,
until taking the House as a whole-msm-
bers and subordinates-it was about as
lively and disorderly a ''circus" as one, is
ever permitted to see wrought out of a de-
Lucrative body. While much may be par
doned TO the excitement of the occasion
and the severe strain upon body and brain,
it can only te said, that the disorders ram
pant in the House were 81 1ply disgracsful
and unpardonable. A little before mid
night Randall lost his temper in his efforts
10 maintain order, which the mischievous
element on the floor instantly took adyan-
tage of to still further exasperate him.
They called for the useless reading of Bills,
and when the clerk gave out Sam Cox was
urged to go to the desk and read. No
sooner did he essay this substitute duty
than cat-calls and whooping of Louder,
louder" were shouted all over the House,
until poor Cox was drowned out and sur
rendered amid a pandemonium of 4oise.
Next about every member was on his feet
shouting at the top of his lungs, 'Mr.
Speaker! Mr.. Speaker and Randall,
scarlet in the face from anger and from
desperate rapping Of his gaYel, order
ed the Sergeant-at-Arms to march
through the aisles and arrest every mem
ber not down in his seat. This officer took
his heavy mace and tugged along with it
as if transporting half grown sapling,
and as fast as he approached a seat the
member would drop into his chair to rise
the moment he passed on. The farce was
played until he got over on the Republican
side, and espying Ben. Butler out Of his
seat and standing in the aisle he started
on full run for the Essex statesman. As
soon as this was discovered, the yells, ''run,
Butler, rum ''run you devil, "-"hes after
you, ,"-Hhe'H catch you, ''dig," &c., rend
ed the air and echoed all over the chamber,
and Butler, seizing upon or being seized
with the hilarity of the occasion, did run
up the aisle into and out of the cloak room
hotly pursued by the Sergeant-at-Arms
with his huge club of mace dragging sf-
ter, till Butler, stumbling completely over
the desk next to his own, fell squat into
his own chair like baseball champion
tearing for his base, while the whole House
and the galleries, being densely filled,
cheered and yelled and whoOped and whis-
tied worse than the street arabs Of New
York in the Old BoWery Theatre pit. The
scene was irreslstably ludicrous, but the
place and occasion made it none the less
painful for any one to witness who cared
ought for the dignity and fair fame Of our
highest national legislative body.