The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1879-01-24
THE DEAD CONGRESSMAN.
Something About the Life and Death
of Four congressman.

Something About the Life and Death |
of Four congressman. |
Correspondence of tho Mobile Register.] |
WASHINGTON, January II, 1879.
The death within the past four weeks |
of four members of the present House,
and the serious illness of two others,
has certainly cast gloom over the
city. The deaths of Representatives
Hartridge and Schleicher are especially
regretted, both being young men of
more than ordinary ability, superior
education, and who gave promise of
increasing usefulness. OF the four dead
Representatives, Mr.. Schleicher alone
had been reelected, and he will be
greatly missed in the next House, in
which, with increased experience in
parliamentary usages, his services
would have been very valuable, not
alone to his party but to the country.
He was chairman of the present Com
mittee on Railways and Canals,
member of the Committee on Military
Affairs, and chairman of q sub-com-
mittee of the Military Committee for
investigating the troubles on the Texas
border. For the latter position he was
! exceedingly well qualified, and he filled
it to the satisfaction of every one. He
was not a strict party man, and on the
question of reducing the army voted,
with few other Democrats, in the
negative, believing that the interests
of his constituents demanded an in
crease rather than q decrease of the
military service.
AS to tho causes which led to the
deaths of Mcssrs. Williams, Douglass,
Hartridge and Schleicher there is a
deal of gossip, much of which it would
DO idle if not simple to repeat. There
arc those who attribute every death or
serious illness which occurs here to ma
laris while others declare that intem-
pcrence has all to do with it. Old
Neutrality-suspicious., who have been edu-
Gated in tho belief that this Is the most
healthy city in the universe, cling to
their own opinions very tenaciousIy,
despite the ugly facts now and then
revealed which go show that the sew
erage is defective and that the accumu-
lating filth of the river flats contains
poison enough to faint the air of con-
tinent. That there is now, and has
been for some months past, an unusual
amount of sickness in Washington,
and that the most of this sickness is
mainly due to malaria, can be readily
proven. But so far as Congressman
are concerned there are other causes
which produce illness of more or less
fatal character. The air of the capitol
building is poisonous in the extreme.
1t has certainly shortened the lives, if
it was not the immediate cause OF the
deaths of several correspondents whose
duties confined them to the reporters
galleries. These galleries are to-day
| excellent places in which to study the
1~n10 r.,O 49, rs ,s, HIM 1pr-
man system. The ventilation is worse
now than it was ten years ago, and yet
within that time not less than $500, 200
| have been expended in efforts to i'm
prove 1t. AS promoter of ill-health,
L consider hotel tables next in order.
| Not that the cooking is really bad in
all the Washington hotels, though it
| certainly is in most of them, but that
! the Nj. G. who sits ut a hotel table is
tempted to eat unwholesome food, food
of quite different character to that to
which he is accustomed at his own
home. He is, moreover, apt to eat
irregularly, and is in some instances
compelled to do so if he is faithful in
his attendance at the capitol. Here
are sufficient causes for ill-health, even
if the Congressman be cold-Water
man. In some cases a moderate use of
stimulants would no doubt be benef-
cial. But there has always been, and
is now, certain number of Congress
men addicted to the immoderate use of
stimulants, and liable to pay the penal
ty thereof.
I have never witnessed a more dis
gushing exhibition of cowardly malig-
nifty and hatred than was presented the
other day by party of Western Con-
gressnen-Isepublica of ccurse-dis-
cussing the funeral services over the
mains of the late Representative Hart
ridge. They assumed-and by so doing
exposed their ignorancc-that the hon
ors paid to the deceased were unusual
and extraordinary and they seem to
take it especially to heart, as sore
grievance, that tho President and his
Cabinet, and tho Justices of tho Su-
prcmc Courts, should have joined those
assembled to honor the memory of an
cX-Confcdcrate. 1 do not propose to
report their indecent if not sacrcligious
language, and only refer to the incident
to show the state of feeling toward the
South and its people among a certain
class in tho North and West. 1t is
hardly necessary to add that it is rare
to find one of this class who have ever