National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-01-29


question for others far wiser than we.
General Garfield has wisely refused to
allow his name to be used as a make
weight in senatorial struggles agithin the
party. He may well consider whether he
shall not prevent it from being so used as
against the party itself The majority in
Pennsylvania will never surrender. To
do so would establish the right of seces,
sion or boiling, and two years from now
would give the Democracy walk-over III
every congressional district against the
tapo Republican candidates who would then
be running. This would give the Lower
House of Congress to the opposition.
In Virginia, if pretended friends Of the
new administration are to act as the allies
of the Bourbons by keeping up separate
Republican organization in order to defeat
the Readjusters, then the latter will very
naturally expect their representative in
the Senate, General Malone, toantagonize
the administration which is thus hostile
to them. This is well known, and is
being conspired for by a few selfish
schemers in Virginia against the we'll
known wishes of the main body of the
party. Whether they shall persist in this
will depend largely upon what they may
believe to be the wish of General Gar
field himself, whose patronage fills the
measure of their desires.
The party ship is drifting on to a lee
shore and will soon be beached, unless
mutiny and greed are throttled by those
who have been entrusted with her nayi-
cation.
Carbonic Acid Gas at the Capitol.
Resuming the subject discussed in
these columns on yesterday, there re-
mains to be added that many of those
who have been obliged to endure the bad
air of the night sessions of the House
have been painfully conscious that there
was something wrong, and yet have not
been able to comprehend fully the cause
or the extent of the evil. Many who
prefer health to duty to their country
have shirked attendance in such an un-
wholesome atmosphere. Others whose
sense of duty was paramount to consid-
erations of safety or comfort have
retired from Congress with shattered
health, and still others have pre-
maturely gone to their final rest in
consequence of their exposure TO the poi
son blast Of those who now remain there
are not wwho have found their health
undermined and their vigor sapped by
this treacherous and insidious attack upon
the citadel of life. In the hurry of con-
gressional career they have not taken
time to pause and investigate or act in
securing laws that would have shielded
them by their operation, and the men
whose duty it has been to attend to such
questions have shut their eyes to conse-
quences. If column and arch were in
proper shape and of proper strength; if
the painter and the cabinet-maker had
made the most of their skill, it was all
that seems to have been thought of or
cared for in that direction.
When Colonel Casey Young took the
business Of publication of the atmosphere
of the House in hand its deleterious
effects, its fatal consequences, had long
been felt, but there was nobody to sug
gest or apply remedy. Before that
time the atmosphere of the chamber, in
the course of long night session, be-
came only little less pestiferous than
that of the Black Hole at Calcutta when
it was crowded with brave men in the
agonies of suffocation.
Through his eXertions measures were
taken for the rapid removal of the foul
air; but the principal source of the pollu-
ton remained undetected until it was
pointed out in THE REPUBLICAN of yester-
day.
The effect of that immense congrega-
ton of gas jets in the roof of the hall must
always be far greater than would be pro-
duced by the breath of four thousand
men packed into that room; yet, because
acid gas is colorless, tasteless,
and odorless, our Congress has endured
its sitting action, and has not perceived
why or from whence they have eX-
DeI1SHCSu tIldt ONSI poh wiling sSIiSS vi
suffocation which has, within the knowl-
edge of the writer, compelled men to rush
out into the outer atmosphere to seek re-
lief.
How many latent germs of disease in
individuals have been thus aroused into
activity we can never know, nor
can We estimate the pain and suffering
caused thereby; but it has been, and is,
within the experience of most of the
more active members that when a night
session has been prolonged, in full
House, and the chemical laboratory over
head in full blast, their intellects gradu-
ally became clouded, and their brains
ailed to perform the usual functions, and
hat then, if ever, is the time when they
ose their ability to think quickly and
execute promptly.
The rawlings of Sprague.
Whether William Sprague is pitiable