The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-02-12

at night with solicitude. Most of them
have somebody beside themselves to take
a share of their earnings.
Beyond their regular pay, there are
various perquisites and fees which
swell their income considerably. Thus
they may often be seen slipping an open
book, with bit of blotting- paper,
under the nose of some member who is
sitting at his desk; it is an album for
somebody who wants the signatures
of all these statesmen which the
statesmen kindly give, but which
nevertheless are not always easy to
obtain, owing to the difficulty of
finding individuals in their seats, as
all of the Congressman are by no means
in constant attendance, many of them
being busy in committee-rooms, or
lounging in cloak-rooms. or lunching,
or following the bent of their inclina-
tons in other ways, and seldom coming
in after roll-call, save to hear heralded
speech, or to vote on measures with
which they are already familiar, either
from the reading of the daily journal of
proceedings, or in the committee-room,
or by the word of mouth of others. For
every album that they thus fill with
signatures the boys receive ten dollars
from the eager visitor of the Capitol,
and they fill good many during the
year.
In another way they also sometimes
earn an additional penny. For after
any gentleman on the floor has made a
particularly strong speech, the mem
bers ou his side Of the question ara
wont to subscribe for the printing of
thousands of copies of the speech, to be
sent broadcast into their districts; the
pages therefore go about with subscrip-
ton papers, and they are allowed two
dollars for every thousand of the
speeches that are taken.
If the boys of whom we are speaking
are very bright, they are apt to be
spoiled, as in such case the Members
and Senators take pleasure in indulging
them to some degree But there are
not many, it may be imagined, who are
thus injured. Some of them, indeed,
are as careless as the blowing wind;
these have no awe or reverence in their
compositions; the great men with whom
they are brought into contact are not
great men to them, but simply folks
who send them on errands, and the
directions given them go in one ear and
out the other-as we all know never
happens with boys anywhere else. One
little chap dispatched to the Document
room for the 'Fortification bilr' asks for
the Modification bilr'; another, sent
for the Census" asks for the ''Ascen-
sion bilP'; still another, insisting on
the "Compulsive Capacity bill," and
returning without il, is told that he was
sent for nothing of the kind, but for
that on Compulsory Pilotage," where
upon he presently comes back to say
that there isn't any bill on '''pulsive
politics" The same youngster asked
the Document Clerks for the ''bll for
the Suppression of Supreme Litera-
ture." A little g compulsive capacity
would have been good for this urchin,
were it to be obtained as easily as was
thought by that gentleman whose
daughter lacked capacity, as her teach
er said. "Get it, madam said he
"get it; she shall want for nothing that
money can buy her." To the same
class with these scatter-brained urchins
belonged the little fellow who once
brought into the Congressional Library
a note signed by one of the most pow
erful ''Sons of Thunder in the Senate.
and which we begged the Librarians
pardon for reading as it lay moment
on the desk beside us: civilian H.
| Turner wants "The Headless Horse
man; or, The Scalp-Hunter. l ask
that he may have it under the rules of
the Library" -f NV .,.. .l
But to Offset such idle fellows as the
reader of 1.-The Headless Horseman''-
who ce rtainly could do no better than
hunt for ''scalp," and a head with it.
too-there are other pages who make it
their business to understand their
duties thoroughly, and two or three
who even go so far as to read for them
selves every bill that is introduced, to
| follow its fortunes, to be able to tell the
person that asks just where it is in its
progress to passage or defeat, and who
can always be relied on by any member
who has been absent or out of the way
to let him know exactly what has been
done and said in the mean time, and
how the vote stands on this question or
the other. 1t would be no wonder if
boys of this sort should be INDUCED;
and there is little danger of spelling
such good material. These boys are
learning the business of legislating, and
if they wish, will, in their turn, come
back some day to make the laws.
But careless or faithful, their bright
faces and light ways are a pleasant
sight to see in all the throng of busting.
noisy men; and, as one looks at them
slipping about on their countless
errands, one feels as if the boys them
selves bore some small mart in the work
of governing the country.-Harriet
Prescott Spoford, IN Harper's Young
People.