The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-02-24
WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, D. O., Feb. 81, 1888.
EFrom our Regular Correspondent

1t is scarcely worth While TO speak OF
what congress is doing for the tariff ques-
ton still occupies almost the entire time
of both houses, and at the present stage
the situation to-day may be widely
ment a general feeling that possibly
the senate bill may be passed before the
end, if the iron interests have been placated
as reported. 1t is also confidently asserted
that bill reducing the wlliskey tax to
fifty cents will be put through at the last
moment. 1t is whispered that also one of
these fine days the Southern Pacific rail
way consolidation scheme is going to be
slid through congress. Next to the mil
lions of acres of public land this would
enable the combination to gobble the meat
in that leg islative cocoanut is in section A,
which provides, that the right to fix, from
time to time, as the public interest may
require, the rates for carrying passengers
and freights on the consolidated road
is hereby reserved to Congress.
That clause takes it out of the
power of the half dozen or more
states through which the consolidated
roads will run to NEEDLE with the rates,
and concentrates the power in congress.
The Pacific railway combination has
heretofore fouad it comparatively easy
matter to defeat hostile legislation in con
gress and it had rather take chances
there than to buy up state legislatures.
These state commissioners are giving the
i
in the near future you will see them com
ing to congress for protection. Then it will
be worth the while of thrifty man to be
congressman.
This tariff thing is becoming uncomfortable
The senators and representatives, for all
they talk so knowingly on the floor of
congress, when outside acknowledge that
they know next TO nothing about it. They
can do nothing but fly down to the bu-
reau of statistics, and the driven and over
worked clerks say that if there is an extra
session of congress and the tariff cOntin |
ues to be the subject of debate there will |
be nothing left for them but to behead the |
chief of the bureau, set fire to the building |
and burn all the statistics and themselves |
perish in the flames. Every Monday |
morning the six days go-as-you-please |
tai king match begins. 1t is bad enough |
in the house, where debate can be choked |
off but when it encounters the frigid at |
mosphere of the senate, where senatorial |
courtesy obliges them TO listen to fourteen |
volumes of talk from every man there /
without any resource but a motion to ad |
journ, It is enough to make Senator Hoar |
use bad words The fights in the house |
enIiven things little, and Mr. Haskells |
and Mr. Tewnsend's wordy war was an
oasis of excitement in desert of dullness;
but in these times there ISM anybody left |
in the senate hardly that can irritate oppo |
sition. and there will be fewer still after |
the 4th of March. For however well the |
milliOnaires ma imagine they look in |
their senatorial chairs, they really look |
like just what they are-ylugarly rich and |
severely commonplace. The galleries have |
been well filed the whole session. There |
are two reserved galleries in the senate |
known as democratic and republican |
galleries, where ladies of the same poit |
ical faiths congregate. The presence of |
the gentler sex is informally recognized, as
it were, at the capitol. Two pretty rooms
are set apart for them in the north wing, /
wherein the foot of man has never yet pro
fanely entered. They open directly into
the gallery and command one of the finest |
views from the capital. They are very
quaint and pretty, the windows being |
deeply recessed and really square port /
holes high up from the floor. Comfortable
lounges and chairs are spread around and |
one may even take nap between times. |
The restaurant in the basement has also |
a room where ladies unattended may get /
lunch.
Senator David Davis approaching mar
riage has been the subject of dispute
among his most intimate friends. A num-
Der of them have denied the possibility OF !
such marriage with such emphasis as to /
give their denials an air of authority. a
denial tele graphed from Illinois the other
day came from the senator's principal bust
ness partner. Naturally these denials from
people holding such intimate rela
tions with the senator have had an
effect. The real truth of the mat
ter is the judge is naturally very reti-
cent about his private affairs. He has not
yet notified any one outside of his family
of his approaching marriage. The fact,
however, of the marriage is now unques-
toned Judge Davis will go to North
Carolina Immediately after adjournment
ami marry Miss A. e. Burr, who lives
near Fayetteville, in that state. The wed
ding will be private one. After the wed
ding the newly -married pair will go to
California for several weeks visit The
operate cyclone has struck Washington
this week. One can hear Patti MARBLE 81
a MARBLE, The seats are 81 for arm chains,
Ok for first gallery and Something less fo, |