The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1880-12-15
otR WASHINGTON LETTER.
tFroa OuE SrruAL CoEEEsrosDESr.l
WAsnIyeroN. Dee. 7th. 1850.

The Democratic Congress met in
final session Yesterday. The usual
-scenes took place at both end Of the
Capitol.
At ten o'clock the Avenue was
crowded with pedestrians and car
riages, and the tide of travel set to-
ward the Capitol for the first time
since last June. An hour before the
time Of meeting, the galleries of the
( House and Senate were filed with
spectators. The reserved galleries
were occupied by the families and
/ friends Of Senators and Representa-
tives and many persons having
tickets of admission were unable to
procure seats. Passin. up the hall
| got the eye of my old friend Ma
jor Snyder, OF Altoona. who prcsidcs
over the ladies' gallery ON the Dem
ocratic side and soon | was fixed,
mot too comfOrtable,' but, 'iust
comfortable enough" btwecn two
big buXom gals from Tyrone who
thought it was awful nice to be
squeezed up so close. It reminded
me of going slcighing on a cold win
ter night, everybody trying to get
closer and closer.
The floor of the House resembled
the celebration Of a hugere-union of
family ofgrown people. There was
more hand-shalcing than at a White
House reception only one man did
not have to perform all the work.
Democrats, Greenbackers and Repub-
licans mingled togetherin sweet com
munion. The victors were not in
clined to boast of the conquest, and
the vanaished appeared to take de
feat good-humoredly.
Men who had abused each other
upon the stump to their heart con-
| tent, strayed amicahly into the Sc
I clusion of committee rooms to wash
down together the last rccollections
Of the campaign. Scattered about
of the chamber were groups Of men
explaining to each other how they
came to be defeated, or elected, as
the case might be- General COT
froth put his defeat to the foolish
ness of the Democratic party in
adopting Tariff for Revenue Only"
as their motto in the campaign.
There was q general 'walk-a-
round" on the floor for half an hour
before Sin JOSS Bandall, raped the
meeting to order. During that
a general bedlam prevailed. Re
elected members received congratu-
lation Of friends and plenty OF bo-
quets, while those who were elected
to stay at home were briefly condol-
ed with and asked the usual ques-
ton whats the matter with the
people up in your district" The
answers to these conundrums were
various, according to the Democrat
ic side. Some blamed the green
hackers for bad faith, some the tariff
question, some John Kelly, others
Sam Tilden, few the solid South.
while the rebel Brigadier twits the
dough-face with "Soljee 10 biggec.
barrel too littee andall damn foolie. :"
So it went, everybody trying to make
the best out OF a Waterloo. Some
members received more attention
from their colleagues than others.
/ On the Democratic side Joe Black
burn, Alex Stevens. and rebel Joe
Johnson took the lead, while on the
Republican side, Conger, Robson,
and FRYE seemed to be the tavorites.
Weaver the presidential candidate
seemed very dignifed over his de
feat, and held little leyec for Il
cent all to himself at his seat on the
centre aisle.
The roll call showed quorum
present, two hundred and thirty
four members answered to their
names. A committee was appoint
ed by the speaker to wait on the
President and inform him that the
House was in sessions, consisting of
Blount, Kelly and Singleton, while
they were performing that duty the
show commenced and some cx-
citement prevailed as Mr.. Calkins
offered a resolution rcciting the al
legation that there are in the Wasing-
ton post Office certain bags Of mail
matter which were attempted to be
sent through the mails under a
frank, although they did not contain
frankable matter, and calling on the
Postmaster General for Il report Of
all the facts relating to the detention
of such mail matter. This franka-
BILE matter is a cart load or two Of
Hancock & Engligh campaign doc
uments which the democratic pan-
ayers tried to steal through the mails
without paying the postage on it.
Then a breezy political discussion
was sprung on the House by Mr..
Bickwell Of Indiana who wanted the
Senate joint resolution in reference
to counting the electoral vote called
up. A running debate was kept up
on n,this subject by Brickwell, Ran
dali, Cox, Conger, Robson and Wea-
yer until the Presidents Message
was announced. Sin Joss Randall
after examining the envelope and
writing broke the big red seal on the
back of the envelope and looked in
side. Several experts in chirogra-
ply for the simple minded democ-
racY Immediately concentrated their
almond-shaped visionary organs
upon the Presidents sign manual
appended thereto and helped All
Sin to get the big letter out and trans
late it. The experts were unani-
nous in the opinion that the BODY
OF the letter was not in the hand
writing of Rutherford. That fact
was soon settled But there was a
question about the signature to the
letter which was referred to All Sin
Hewitt. After gazing intentlv for a
moment, like couple of old Manda-
rms scrutlnizing parchment hand
ed down by Confucius, the Hon.
Ah Sin produced from his side
pocket an old private letter which
he had received from President
Hayes early in A. d. 1877. Sin Joss
looked over All Sins shoulder as