Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1881-02-16
A VIE w OF THE HOUSE FROM
THE GALLERIES.

From the galleries of the House of
Representatives popular government
appears 10 consist of a confused mass of
desks and desultory men-the desks
Uttered with books and papers, and the
men continually walking about in every
direction of vast amount of private
correspondence, relay of page-boys
obeying a Turkish magnifcence ofclap-
ped hands from this and that member
to do bis errands; and a monotonous
droning by the clerks, together with a
minimum Of oratory. All this against
dignifed background of cigar smoke
in the lobbies, and of coat-roons and
barber-shops, where Congrossmen
lounge and joke, or o1fer on coming
measures. 1t is also apparent, from the
amount of workdone with the penkDife,
that the House is determined to have
order as to its fnger-nails, whatever
may be the fate of public business in
this respect You hear some half-au-
dible speaking, but the general walking,
talking, and rustling suggest how De-
mosthenes, if he had enjoyed the priv
lege of scat in this body, might have
dispensed with the aid of the sea.
Then a division takes place, and
members pour in from the lobbes. the
restaurant, the committee-rooms, to
pass like a drove of sheep between two
tellers The efforts Of inexperienced or
unimportant members to get attention
are pathetic One is perpetually swag-
gering about, but never speaks T; anoth-
er gets up and murmurs, but being ig-
nored by all parties, sits down, with a
CHASTITY disappointment, and tries to
look as if he did not feel he was being
looked at; another, with Chadband
hair, rises for information, asking in a
bland voice question so needless that
some one on the other side answers it,
to save the Speakers time, and Chad
band, after swayilg uncertainty on his
toes for an instant, subsidies so abrupt
ly that be can't at once recover the use
of his limbs sufficiently to steal away
toward cloak-room. Yet at almost
any moment, except in the morning
hour and on private bill day. an ex-
citing and mastery discussion may be-
gin, which promptly fills the chairs and
enchains every listener The general
demeanor of the House, too, is more
business-like, excepting for the amount
| of preoccupstion, than that of the
House of Commons. Those who come
to look on, with imaginations trained
by history and the press, are grieved
to GO away without seeing n single
member spring at another's throat, or
even call him a liar. The hOmogeneity
of the faces and persons on the floor is
another point for remark. 1t is clear
that Americans are Americans, how
ever wide asunder their abodes may
be, and it occurs to one that if the rep
resentatives of different sections were
to get hopelessly mixed up and chang
ed about some day. it would produce
no incongruity so far as their outward
appearance is concerned TIC imagine
these comfortable gentlemen arrayed
in their frock-coats of identical make,
on opposite sides in civil war, or as
the law givers of separate confederacies
would be grotesque, if the reality few
years ago had not been so tragic. A few
distinctions of east and south and west
may perhaps be traced in the physiog-
Monies, but individual pecuiarities as
sert themselves far more strongly. The
man of the people, with his indifferent
neck-tie and 'well-met manner; the
SNUG, well-to-do lawyer; the elegant
speaker : the richest members, with
heads partially bald and faces scanned
with fine wrinkles, wearing a look of
long resignation to the collection of
| dividends or the plethoric, rosy-faced
man who gains his point by private
champagne rather than public speech (;
the quiet gentleman of refined manners;
and the CORY antagonist-allt these, and
other types besides, may be sharply
Disseminated without regard to State
or geographical lines. 1t has grown
to be the fashion to say that Congress
accomplishes nothing except to disturb
trade but if that is SO, it is not due to
idleness. Accomplishing nothing was
never before so laborious a task. House
members are the busiest people in the
country, with their caucuses, their in
cessant committee meetings, their
speeches and preparation, their dense
correspondence with constituents, and
interviews with visitors The House,
too turns out a vast amount of work,
its committees being efficient agencies
for transacting business. Every day
e. 4 L.. ID fro IN
armful of newly printed bills, many of
which are trash, to be sure, but HARM
less. The real and great defect of the
popular branch is its fatal capacity for
distorting, manning, or destroying
good measures matured in committee,
by unforeseen amendments carried in
general debate A few laudable enact
ments, however, always survive this
general massacre of infant bills, and we
must remember that the amendments
often represent wholesome watchful-
ness against special class or private
legislation Whatever the evils of
Congress- finally, they are faithful re-
fections of the the avarice, ambition,
or low sense of honor in the communi-
ties there represented and the people
: do not do wisely TO sneer at their own
exposed deformity, without trying TO
remedy it 10y cultivating morals more
assiduously in business and in political
opinion.-GeO p LdthrOp, IN Har-
per's Magazine for March
| Twenty Years A Sufferer.
: Dr. X Y. Pierce: