Connecticut western news., 1878-02-28
THE SENATE ON A DRUNK.

Was hineton Letter to Ulica (N.Y) Herald.1 A more dlsgraceful scene than the Senate displayed during the debate on the silver bill Friday night has not been seen for years. Au all night session IS never Q very credltable affair. Senators grow careless as the galleries empty. Boots are drawn off. Mea lie down at full length on the settees in taeir stocking feet. Vests are unbuttoned. All the attitudes of rail road car at ga. m. are assumed. Smoking goes on all over the floor. The doubtful jests of the cloak room float out among the desks. Last night matters were worse. The Senate was unmistakably drunk. A
 mere small frac sion was affected, but they colored the scene just as a few noisy boys make school a dlsorderly school. It IS net pleasant to write these things. It,s worse | to see them. It is scandalous that they should happen. The Senate sat, you lust
 remember. from noon yesterday till this morning. seventee on hours Q long straln on any ones patience. Matters ran smoothly enough till between and 8. By that time far portion of the Senate had "dinsd." There was spread" in the serQeant-at'
 arms room-he IS an officer under charges,
 not wholly secure in hls seat. There WAS
 another spread ln a committes-roOm, con
 fined priuclpallv to some thirty-four bran dy bottles and a dozen tumblers. Other bottles were accessible in a cloak room
 Things were not set out quite as straight forward a way as they used to be four years ago in the committee room of the House devoted to the committee on pubic
 buildings and grounds, where a whlskey barrel was tipped on end and provided with 8 faucet and til, cup for all corners. but hQuor flowed nearly as freely.
 The effect showed slowly. From 8 to 10 it was noticeable that senators were inter. rupting each other with great freedom and singular lack of coherense. Around Ger. tain seats men were shouting with laugh, ter at the drunken baube of senators wLo were leaving the room at intervals, meas urlng theIr drinks while absent, senator remarked to me, by perpendicular, instead of horizontal "fiuRers." From 10 on there could be re possible doubt about the cou. dltlon of affairs on the floor. aud two q three senator's wives, among them the wife of an offeudlng member, were glegling be- hlnd theIr faus at the 'fuu." Steps grew more unsteady, faces 'uore flushed. Inter. ruptloDs mere lncoherent. A distinguished senator from California strolled back and forth with that spongy aud uncertaIn ac- tlon of the knees which plainly suggests that one foot or the other has been caught In skein of sewing silk. Ills arms went around every man he met in sone maudliu embl ace and both sides of his desk were needed when he rose to vote Thsre was another Senator, distinguished for hls op- position to the pending bill, who displayed great anxiety Ito strike out the second line of the word 'governmenti" (shrleks of laughter); finally, by help of dillgent whis pering, a man prompting and supporting on each side, gave his amendment correct ly. dropped back in a drunken stupor the amendment was voted down; he woke rose. repeated hls amendment (wlld and uncomfortable merIimeut). repeated 1t the third time (Seuato:s around hlm nearly crazy with mIrth) and ar last persuaded in hls befogged mlnd he tottered from group to group, denOuncing the unfalruess of a vote on his amendment "whiIe was down at dluner." He dined ats. The amsad'