The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1879-05-03
WASHINGTON.

duced by Senator Wallace to authorize
payment of certain claims for the arrears
of pay and bounty was referred to the
military committee. 1t provides that
widows and minors, heirs of deceased
Union soldiers, who have been defrauded
OF bounty and arrears of pay due them by
law, by means of forReries rerpetrated by
their attorney, shall, when such forgeries
have been the result of no fault Of neGli7
gence on the part of claimants, be paid the
amounts equitably due them.
The Senate has rejected the nomination
OF Ihos. NJ. Mason to be Collector of Gus
toms at Bangor, Maine, vice E. L. Fox,
whose commission has expired, This is
the second time the Senate has refused to
consent to Collector Fox's displacement.
the previous nomination, and that of Mason
to-day, being alike rejected unanimously
upon the ground that the present incum-
bent has served faithfully, and that his
displacement would be extremely distaste-
tul to Senator Hamlin
Democratic Caucus.
WASHINGTON, May 2.-The Democratic
| House caucus was held in the hall of the
House of Representatives shortly after l2
O'Clock. Before any business was trans
acted. owing to the full reports of speeches
which have been published, and which
were made in the caucus sessions, a select
com mlttee consisting of Vans, Talbot,
King, Mcmillan and Wise, was appointed
for the purpose of making tour of the
upper lobbies and galleries with view of
ascertalning if there were any parties
allowed access to the rooms or halls ad-
joining the House gallery during the pro.
gress of the caucus. It appeared to be
the idea that members of the press, in
some way, secreted themselves in this por-
ton OF the building to obtain reports of
the proceedings, The ommittee, how
ever, tailed to discover the presence of any
one in the upper lobbies except the at
tendant upon the ladies retiring room.
All doors leading to the galleries of the
House were found to be securely fastened
and not sound could be heard from the
inside. During this investigation, APRON
lnent member of the Democratic party
appeared at one of tAe back corridor
doors (Which are carefully guarded by
two reliable doorkeepers, who never
permit any one, EXCEPT members, to enter
the corridor during secret session. aud
upon taking his stan between the door
keepers, with the door a little aiar, dis
patched a messenger to colleague inside
telling him to speak, now that be was al
, the door listening. After waiting a few
minutes without hearing syllable he re.
marked: Il told them nothing could b,
heard out here, and re-entered the hall
At 2:30 the caucus took a recess
: Chalmers and Carlisle, members OF tht
house caucus committee, being dispatched
3 TO confer with the senate committe of
e like character. Returning at 2:45 p. IN.
the caucus again resumed business.
The democratic senators at o'clock thi
afternoon also went into caucus for tn
t purpose of receiving aud acting upon th
Q report OF the joint committee concernip
the army appropriation bill, but it wa
D prematurely terminated upon receipt {
D information brought them By a member c
O the house branch Of the committee ths
: the caucus at that end Of the capitol ha
n failed to accept the report. The debat
n had not proceeded sufficiently to indicat
d what degree of favor the report woul
e have met with had it been brought to
Al vote.
If The caucus adjDurDed shortly after
o'clock. Representatives were never NOR
;, eagerly sought than they have been tC
}: An old member shook his head whe
# questioned and only said, The most ca
j. do is to assure you that to-day's actiC
3 contemplated the safety of the country.
,e Another member after positively declinir
d to say anything, blurted out, We'll. I
J. conclusion was reached" All sorts of r,
N mors are rife. One is to the effect th
s. there was a split in the caucus, and that
r adjournment was taken until tomorrow
a. that there was great deal of talk to I
" purpose, and that every member prese
was then sworn to secrecy This latt
in statement is plausible in view of the ia
r that at an early hour tonight callers we
informed that ''Mr. - is i'll and will S
On no one. MIR. - has retired for &
r. night, ETC., etc. At all events, defni
ed information is not TO be obtained.
81 Another story, and it is probably t
n correct one, runs that the caucus abs
al lutely declined to accept the report of t
tie Joint committee, as outlined in these d
ed patches yesterday.