Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-05-21
"THE HOUSE,"
As Viewed from the Galleries.

From Harpers Magazine
From the galleries of the House of
Representatives popular government ap-
pears to consist Of a 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 vast amount of private
correspondence, relay of page boys
obeying q Turkish magnifcence of
clapped hands from this and that men,
Der to do his errands, and a monotonous
droning by the clerks, together with a
minimum of oratory. All this against a
dignifed background Of cigar smoke in
the lobbies, and of coat-rooms and bar
Der shops, where Congressman lounge
and joke, or confer on coming measures.
It is also apparent, from the amount of
work done with the penknife, 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-audible speaking,
but general walking, talking and rust
ling suggest how Demosthenes, if he had
enjoyed the privilege of seat in this
body, might have dispensed with the
aid of the sea.
Then division takes place, and mem
bers pour in from the Hobbies, the res
taurant, the committee-ruoms, to pass
like drove Of sheep between two tel
lers. The efforts of inexperienced or
unimportant members to get attention
are pathetic. One is perpetually swag-
gering about, but never speaks another
gets up and murmurs, but, being ig-
nored by all parties, sits down, with
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 Chadband, after
swaying uncertainty on his toes for an
instant, subsidies SO abruptly that he
can't at once recover the use Of his limbs
sufficiently to steal away toward cloak
room. Yet at almost any moment. ex-
cept In the morning hour" and on
"priyate-bill day." an exciting and mas
terly discussion may begin, 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 preoccupa-
ton, 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 the same day, it
would produce no incongruity so far as
their outward appearance is concerned.
To imagine these comfortable gentle
men arrayed, in their frock-coats of
identical make, on opposite sides in a
civil war, or as the lawgivers 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 physiognomies, but
individual peculiarities assert them
| selves far more strongly. The man of
the people, with his Indifferent necktie
and "wen-met manner the SNUG,
well-to-do lawyer; the "elegant speak
err; the richest members, with heads
partially bald and faces scanned with fine
wrinkles, wearing look Of long resigna-
ton to the collection of dividends or
the plethoric, rosy-faced man who gains
his point by private champagne rather
than public speech; the quiet gentle
man of refined manners and the CORY
antagonist all these, and other types
beside, may be sharply Disseminated
without regard to State or geographical
lines. It has grown to be the fashion to
say that Congress accomplshes nothing
except to disturb trade, but if that is so,
it is not due to idleness. Accomplish
ing nothing was never before SO labori-
GUS a task. House members are the
busiest people in the country, with their
cauouses, their incessant committee
meetings, their speeches and prepare
lon, their dense correspondence with
constituents, and interviews with visit