The Portland daily press., 1881-02-11
The Daily Life of a Representative
in Congress-.

Persons who are ambitious to serve their
country in Congress may have their aspira-
tions modified by this description of Repre-
sentative's life drawn by Washington CORE
spondent: "If anybody investigates the life of
a faithful Representative, he will find that it
is a regular treadmill. Every morning as soon
as he has eaten his breakfast and glanced over
the papers, he must go through a heavy mail,
which is sure to bring lot of inquiries about
pensions and one thing and another that re-
quire visits to the departments. These visits
must be made dnring the forenoon or not at
all, as the House seldom adjourns till after the
departments are closed Nor does the Repre-
sentative have even the brief forenoon for this
purpose every day, as he belongs to commit
tees whose meetings will call him the capi-
tol as early as half past tea o'clock two or
three days in the week. AT noon the House
meets and its session usually continues till or
o. Ii Congressman pays strict attention to
the business thatis going on he can't do much
else, though there are plenty OF members who
keep hard at work over their correspondence
and other private matters at their desks all the
afternoon, only stopping when their vote s
needed, when they ask a neighbor how it
ought to be cast. In the evening, especially
during the last half of the session, there are
not unfrequently meetings OF the House which
every member ought to attend, though it is
very seldom that half of them turn out. But
faithful Representative always finds ample
employment for his evenings in attending to
his correspondence and investigating questions
which have been referred to him by his COM
mittee. A conscientious member thus finds
his time fully occupied from tie time he gets
up till he goes to bed, and good deal Of IL is
spent on trivial matters leaving him little leis-
ure for the great questions of legislation which
come up every day.
A Congressman who honestly tries to dis
charge his duty to his constituents, therefore,
very little in the life that is attractive to man
OF scholarly tastes. Even a man who can
stand pretty well the hurly burly of large as
sembly is quite apt to grow disgusted
with body so much given over to clap
trap as the House Of Representatives. The
Senate is an infinitely more attractive
place Indeed, q Senatorship seems to
me on the whole the most desirable office
in the government. Especially is this
true In those cases where a man holds 1t virtu-
ally by life tenure, as Sumner did in Massa-
chusetts and Edmunds does in Vermont. AL
though the standard of qualifications is steadi-
ly lowering 1t is still true that the majority of
the seventy-six members are gentlemen of
character and culture. Then the methods of
the Senate are those of gentlemen, the only
fault in this respect being an abnormal devel-
opment OF courtesy. In the House a man has
to make his speech when his chance comes, or
nos at all, while IN the Senate, II it is getting
a little late in the day and he feels as though
he would rather wait till the next morning,
there is almost always a readiness to adjourn
for his convenience. There is none-or at
least, very little-of the confusion which so of.
ten prevails in the House. Being so small
body, there is a chance for its members to be-
come generally acquainted, and the long terms
offer opportunities for warm friendships to
grow up. The pleasant committee rooms pre-
sent convenient harbors of refuge when bore
gets the floor for a long speech. In short, all
the arrangements conduce to comfort. 1t is
not strange that public men should SO gener-
ally prefer seats in the Senate to places around
the Cabinet table"