Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-01-03
uL.CONsrRUCTED BUILDING.
General A greement that the Architect
is Humbug.
SENATE.

SENA Gs
The assembling of the Solons of the
state of Minnesota took place yesterday IN
accordance with the constitution, and the
organization of the two bodies was effected
in very quiet and orderly manner, both
branches of the Legislature being so over
whelmingly one-sided that the opposition
did not trouble themselves to even make
nominations for the offices. So complete
" had this feeling of perfect rest and
peace taken possession of the nominees OF
the caucus, that even the worthy nominee
for chaplain returned thanks to God in his
morning prayer for his Office, before the
election had taken place. His faith was
we'll founded, however, for all the noml-
nees were unanimously elected, the vote
standing from forty three to forty-six for
each candidate, there being about three
senators who could not conscientiously
vote for candidates they knew nothing
about, and were excused. which circum-
stance accounts for the difference of
votes.
As is usual during the early days of the
session but little was done. The governor
and the house of representatives were ia
formed of the organization of the senate;
it was decided to canvass the votes for
Judges of the district and supreme courts
to-day at II o'clock and to listen to the
governors message at 2:30 o'clock on
Thursday.
The sergeant alarms was instructed to
purchase a few articles of convenience for
the senate and also to stop that draft
which threatens to blow the remaining hair
from senatorial heads and to make them
sneeze and blow their noses till they blow
their heads off.
There seems to be but one opinion of
the new capitol, and that opinion is that 1t
is failure-that it is totally unfit for the
uses for which it was intended. Its exterior
is far from being graceful, and beyond
few complaints made of it's being a dis
fgurement to the city no one would have
anything to say. But when one
gets inside that costly structure
the utter incompetency of the supervising
architect and his sublime ignorance of the
needs of the legislative bodies and the
state officers becomes instantly noticeable.
The chief object of the architect seems to
have been to build tower, and he has
succeeded in erecting hideous deformity,
land there is an ugly rumor afoat that its
walls were cracked before the finishing
plaster was put on). This tower is said to
be 235 feet high from its foundation walls
in the basement to the top of the figure
that is to adorn the dome. 1t is braced up |
by four light shafts, each of which ID
twenty feet in diameter, making with the
tower a space OF, eighty feet square, from |
basement to roof, that cannot be utilized |
for business purposes. In order to get all |
this space the officers rooms and legisla- |
tive halls have been reduced to size |
totally inadequate to the requirements of
the occupants. Take, for instance, the |
senate chamber. By cramping and crowd |
ing the senator's desks and chairs as |
much as possible they can all man
age to get inside the chamber, |
but the officers, except the president of the
senate and the secretary and his assistant,
had to be fred out into one Of the commit
tee rooms. The reporters of the daily pa
pers occupy small table in one corner of
the chamber, from which they can see
about two-thirds of the senators, for which
they all unite in sentiments of gratitude to
Lit. Gov Gilman and Secretary johnson.
A gallery surrounds the entire room, but
the barricade erected to prevent it's occu-
pants from falling over into the chamber is
SO high that when one sits in chair they
can only see the tops of the heads of the
farthest row of senators. The mechanical
and finishing work of the capitol is of a
high order and reflects great credit upon
the skillful artisans who performed it, but
when we come to consider the brain work
of the architect-well there was no brains .
to speak of.