The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-03-12
In the National House OF Representa-.
tiyes.

FROM the galleries of the House of
Representative popular government
appears to consist of o confused mass of
desks and desultory men-the desks lit
tered with books and papers, and the
men continually walking about in every
direction; of a vast amount of private
correspondence, a relay of page-boys
obeying Turkish magni6cence of
clapped hands from this and that mem
Der to do his errands; and monotonous
droning by the clerks, together with a
minimum Of oratory. All this against a
dignifed background of cigar-smoke in
the Hobbies, and of coat-rooms and bar
ber-shops, where congressman lounge
and joke, or confer on coming measures.
1t is also apparent, from the amount of
work done with the pen-knife, that the
House is determined to have order as to
its finger-nafls, whatever may be the
fate of public business in this respect.
You hear some half audible speaking,
but the general walking, talking and
rustling suggests how Demosthenes, if he
had enjoyed the privilege of a seat in this
body, might have dispensed with the aid
of the sea.
Then division takes place, and men,
bers pour in from the Hobbies, the res
taurant, the ommittee-rooms, to pass
like drove of sheep between two teliers.
The efforts of inexperienced or unim-
portant members to get attention are
pathetic. One is perpetually swaggcxing
about, but never speaks; another gets
up and murmurs, but being ignored 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 an
swers it, to save the Speakers time,
and Chadband, after swaying uncertain
ly on his toes for an instant, subsidies 50
abruptly that he can't at once recover
the use of his limbs sufficiently to steal
away tow@d cloak-room. Yet at al
most any moment, except in the ''morn-
ing-hour ~ and on "private bill day."
an exciting and mastery discussion may
begin which promptly fills the chairs
and enchains every listener. The gen.
eral demeanor of the House, too, is more
business-like, excepting for the amount
of preoccupation, 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 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, however wide asunder their
abodes may be, and it occurs to one that
if the Representatives of different Sec
tons were to get hopelessly mixed up
and changed about some day, it would
produce no incongruity so far as their
outward appearance is concerned. To
imagine these comfortable gentlemen
arrayed, in their frock-coats of identical
make. on opposite sides in a civil war,
or as the lawgivers of separate confed-
eracies, would be grotesque, if the reali-
ty few years ago had not been 50
tragic. A few distinctions of East and
South and West may perhaps be traced
in the physiognomies, but individual pc
culiarities assert themselves far more
strongly. The man of the people, with
his Indifferent neck-tie and A" 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, wear
ing look of long resignation to the col
lection 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
these, and other types besides, may be
sharply Disseminated without regard to
State or geographical lines. 1t ha:
grown to be the fashion to say that Con
gress accomplishes nothing except tt
disturb trade, but il that is SO, it is no
due to idleness. Accomplishing nothing
was never before SO laborious task
House members are the busiest people
in the country, with their eau
cuses, their incessant COMMITTEES
meetings, their speeches and prepar
alton, their dense correspondence witt
constituents, and interviews with visit
ors. The House, too, turns out vas
amount of work, its committees bein:
efficient agencies for transacting bust
ness. Every day you find in the Docu
ment Room fresh armful of newly
printed bills, many of which are trash
to be sure, but harmless. The real an(
great defect of the popular branch is it.
fatal capacity for distorting, manning
or destroying good measures matured il
committee, by unforeseen amendment
carried in general debate. A few laud
able enactments, however, always sur
vive this general massacre of infant bills
and we must remember that the amend
ments often represent a wholesom
watchfulness against special class o
private Legislation. Whatever the evil
of Congress, finally, they are faithful
reflections of the avarice, ambition, o
low sense of honor in the communitie
there represented; and the people d
not do wisely to sneer at their own eS
posed deformity, without trying to rem
edy it by cultivating morals more assid
uously in business and in political opir
ion.--Geo. p. Lathrop, IN Harper's Mas
0zi'se.
A Princely DISQUALIFICATION Of til