Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1882-02-25
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From u regular correspondent.
WASHINGTON, FEB. "a. 1881.


Favorable action has been taken
in the Senate on the Apportionment
Bill, as it passed the House, and
there is no doubt that it will become
a law and that The next Congress will
have 1926 members in the lower House.
The Senate has regarded the subject
as one to be left entirely to the judg-
ment of the House, as it affects that
body alone. The principal objec-
tions urged against the measure as
it stands is that it increases a body
already too large and unwieldy ; that
instead there should have been a de-
crease. But this view commanded a
small support on the inside, and
there is every reason to expect that
the same reasons which Influenced
the present Congress will have their
weight with succeeding ones and
that we shall see tie House increas-
ed in numbers every ten years. The
strongest inducement to this is the
desire of States and State delega-
tions to acquire additional influence
in Congress, and the desire of mem
hers TO secure a reelection. Nine
Congressmen out of ten wish to be
returned, and regard with special
favor an increase of representation
from their States because that wi
deps the field and tends to lessen the
number of their immediate rivals for
the position. One reason advanced
in favor of a large membership was
based upon the theory that large leg
~islative bodies are less liable to cor
ruption than small ones, and, that,
therefore, logically, the more numer-
Gus the body, the safer it is from this
evil influence, because the most en-
ergetic lobbyist will hardly under
take the task of bribing a majority OF
several hundred. This theory may
not have had much weight, but it
commanded a few votes. The pend
ing bill adds thirty-two members to
the House, and it will require some
extension of the hall to properly &C
commodate them, unless this neces-
sity shall lead to the adoption of the
plan of dispensing with the desks
altogether, which has been urged on
different occasions. This plan con-
templated the location of desks in
the Staturry hall, where members
could do their writing, and of con-
ining the hall of the House proper
to legislative duties exclusively. In
the English House of Commons the
members sit upon plain benches and
have no desks.
Guiteau has settled down quietly,
and is almost forgotten. His only
pugnacious act of any Importance
for the past five days is the migrate
full abuse of Mr.. Scoville. He says
Mr.. Scoville threw his case away,
&c, and wants to dismiss him from
the case. The bill of exceptions has
not yet been filed, but it is thought
will be this week.
Lent has come, and the gay season
ia ended for a time. The round of
dinners, parties; receptions, and
other festivities generally comes to a
halt on Ash Wednesday, and what
e of social entertainment we have
during the season of fasting is of a
more suppressed character. The
hard-worked society hacks have earn
ed a well-deserved rest, and the in
dustriously gay rest from their Ia
bors. For this class of people, Lent
is a blessed institution. 1t is a stop
gap in the perpetual expenditure OF
money and a chance to wear out old
clothes. 1t becomes fashionable to
90 to church, and church going is
comparatively cheap. The ancient
Lenten regulations were something
to appall the modern Sybarite. Then
something like a forty days fast was
practiced, exclusive of the Sundays,
when gormandizing was allowed, and
a list of the indigestable comestibles
recommended to the faithful of for
mer times is enough to create dys'
pepsia even by rejecting on them at
a distance of FIVE hundred years
But men and women had stronger
digestions then than they have now
W. NJ