The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1883-12-15
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From ourReEular Correspondent.


WASHINGTON, Dec. 10, 1888.
The house had lots of fun over the
lottery for seats, which gave relief to
the overworked legislative minds, and
amused the galleries. The scheme of
the drawing was that marbles corre-
spending In number to the number Of
representatives were put into q box and
drawn therefrom nj by one by a blind.
folded page. The desks formerly occu-
pied by Messrs. Kelley, of Pennsylva-
mia, and Robinson, of New York, were
adorned with hats, in hopes that their
prior rights would be respected. Eigh-
tY-one was the first number drawn, and
as the name Duncan was called the for
tunate member from Pennsylvania
turned to Mr.. Randall and asked him
which seat he preferred. Mr.. Duncan
then took that seat to ecure it for his
colleague, and when Mr.. Randall's
number was drawn he surrendered it to
him and selected another seat for him
self. This same courtesy was extended
Mr.. Randall by Gen. Joe Wheeler, at
the beginning OF the forty-seventh con
gress. Mr.. Cox was among the lucky
ones. He secured second choice and
was greeted with applause as he select
ed a scat in the third row in front of
the speakers desk. The red headed
party from the Lone Star state was also
lucky and selected a seat on the repub-
lican side of the main aisle. Mr.. KEEL
ley's hat was respected, but not so Mr..
Robinson's, land he was compelled to
seek a resting place in the last row of
seats, but he had for companions in
misery, Mr.. Springer, of Illinois, and
MI. Keifer, Of Ohio.
There is no dearths of new bills,
however. They are being literally
dumped upon the clerks desk by con-
science stricken members. And it is the
same way over in the senate. Senator
Edmunds alone has outlined a whole
national platform in the bills he has
introduced. No less than seven amend
ments to the constitution have already
been proposed in the senate, covering
the protection of the citizen in his po-
litical rights, the broadening of the
suffrage to foreign born citizens and to
women, the regulation of the liquor
traffic, and the extension of the veto
power to the items Of appropriation
bills. The printing of this tidal wave
of measures makes a fearful raid on the
government printing office, and swells
the congressional record to remarkable
proportions. Over four hundred bills
have been introduced In two days of
this session. In the forty-seventh
congress nearly eleven thousand of
these bills and resolutions were intro
duced, all of which, except a few hun
dred, persisted. History will no doubt
repeat itself in the new congress. For
a long series of years the total number
of bills has steadily risen, while the
ratio of bills has declined.
One of the features of the week was
Senator Morril's able speech on the
coinage of the country. He advocated
the ~stoppage Of silver coinage, and
made fun Of the beautiful works of art
we carry around in our pockets. He
said the United States ought TO have
as artistic coins IS any other country,
and intimated that the present coins,
from an artistic point of view, were
not worth working for or placing in a
bric-a-brac cabinet.
1t is a matter of common remark
that there are more young men in con-
gress than even before. In the house
there are fifty members under 40 years
of age. The youngest member is Mr..
Post, of Pennsylvania, who is now 81.
T~helyoungest senator is Mr.. Kenna, of