The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1880-04-14
A WOMAN IN WASHINGTON.
Conkling and Other Senators Photographed.
Washington Letter to the Springfield Repub
licanl

Conkling and Other Senators Photographed.
Washington Letter to the Springfield Repub
lican.l
To go into the House of Representatives is
to the uninitiated very much like being let
into menagerie, for the atmosphere is very
hot and close, the ventilation is very defect.
ive-an odor of cigar smoke adds its burden
to a sensitive organization-and there is an
immense amount of bowling on the floor.
This is my impression of it all although I've
listened very intently and tried TO become
informed In the ways of the government OF
my country. The speaker spends most of his
time in pounding violently with his gavel,
and nobody seems to care whether he pounds
or not-he apparently does 1t for his own
amusement Then with a very few excep-
lions erybody that speaks acts exactly as
if he intended to annihilate every body else
1 never can understand what they say, ex-
cept by snatches and what do hear seems
to be OF very little importance. 1t does
seem 80 ridiculous for man to get up and
work himself into a tremendous passion,
swinging his arms, pound on his desk,
walk up and down the aisle, grow red in the
face and swell up the veins on his forehead,
and end with a grand peroration about
blowing the bugle till IT resounds again''-
all of which 1 heard and saw
the other day while all the
other members are reading newspapers
smoking outside the rail, writing at their
desks, chatting with each other and continu-
ally passing in and out, while nobody seems
to pay any attention to all this exhibition of
feeling. They seem to take especial delight
in contradictlng each other fatty, insisting
that somebody is out of time or order, and
on the whole I've come to the conclusion
that things couldn't be much worse any
way-and who knows If they mightn't be
better?-even il women had place In this
august (?) body.
The Senate is better-thst is, they don't
rant so violently-but seems slow and
stupid, and I've found myself wondering
several times what it all amounted to after
all. l have been able, after giving the clos
est possible attention for some time, to make
out that they've been sgitaiing the question
of mud road somewhere in Indiana, and
have heard something about the Indians,
and that's all. As our Senator Dawes
doesn't seem to have a boom even in the far
horizon, let's hope that the Edmund's boom
may amount to something, and just for this
reason. that Mr.. Edmunds appears to know
everything that is going on, and to listen at
tentively to whatever is being SAID, as il he
really had a conscience concerning State
affairs. l think Mr.. Hoar is the hsndsomest
man in the Senate-General Burnside may
be perhaps excepted-he certainly has more
of a society air, and is an elegant and dis
uDguished looking man. Ferry is ooDsid-
cred handsome, but the fact that he is the
rich bachelor of the Senate, and has more
over, the aroma of a dead and gone aud half
mysterious love affair hanging about him,
may have something to do with that notion,
for to the casual eye he is certainly not
beauty, although well looking enough, but
his beard is very Western and needs prun-
ing. Plumb, of Kansas, has q thoroughly
good and honest face full ofpurpose, although
his appearan ce is unpublished / had entirely
oh.
the other day colored man of dignIfied ap-
pearance walk calmly across the floor of the
Senate as if he belonged there. At first |
wondered idly If there were colored door
keepers, when he sat down at his desk, and
then | remembered. He has undoubtedly
good-or bad-white blood in his veins
the shape of his hands alone would indicate
that. He is not of the particularly light
color, and his hair, although evidently
brushed with pains taking care, is very
kinky. am sorry for him and more sorry
for his wife, Who l understand, Is so white
that no one would suspect her colored
blood. Sac is called upon by the wives of
the other senators, but still it is under pro-
test, after all-the old race prejudice clfngs,
and will cling.
Conkling looks exactly like Nasts picture
of him as ''Jackdaw Conkling." His face is
handsome in q certain way, but mean. bad
and cynical. He looks like man who, all
sweetness in society, would be selfish, snarl-
ing and sneppish at home-in short, what he
has proved himself, coward. A man cspa
bic of compromising a woman, and then
running away. From the curl on his fore
head to the tip OF his aristooIatic boot he looks
all this-but is no longer 1.-The blonde
Mephistopheles of the Senate" for he's
growing gray fast, and looks as if he hated
it. Here is story typical of the vain and
small nature of the man. A hotel keeper in
Washington who went to school with him
hadn't met him for years One day Conkling
went to his hotel to engage rooms, and stood
in the office talking to the clerk. The pro
prietor came down stairs and stepped up
and held out his hand, saying, Roscoe, how
are your" Conkling took no notice of the
proffered hand but drew himself up and
said, Il am Senator Conkling, sir" you're
a damned fool, that's what you are" was the
response. Conkling turned msjesticalIy to
the clerk and said, Can have rooms here?"
mo, SIR" shouted the irste proprietor. mot
in my house, nor upon any terms" by
the way, l desire to know what essential
difference there is between "d-n" and
damn? George Eliot does not think there
is any diffe renee