Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-02-04
KEIFER AND THE PRESS
Hecollections of the Ex-speaker-Hov
He Has Suffered at the Hands of the
Prase ~

nc mas Sunered at the Hands of the
Press.
The exhibition made by ex-speaker
Aelier in the House on Tuesday last, saws
the Washington correspondent of the New
/ 1ork Times, was sorry one. The dull
brutality of the man was unrelieved by
one single spark of gentlemanly refine
ment. Every action and every word
showed that his fibre was coarse. The
letter to Gen. Boynton, which he caused
TO be read at the Clerks desk, was repIete
win vulgarity, and betrayed the fact that
ietter-Writing was not his forte. The
Engllsh was quite as vulgar as the gene
raj tone Of the letter. The speech he
haue was entirely in keeping with the
tone OF the letter to Boynton-coarse. vi
Imperative and unrelieyed by a flash nj
wit or play of humor.
remember the first session of Congress
IN which keifer served. He made himself
conspicuous on the very opening day.
His appearance does not belle the charac-
ter OF the man. He is broad-shOullered.
square-Dullt fellow, ungainly in appear
ance ana without grace in his movements.
HIS Iace IS almost entirely covered with
coarse beard, which he wears untrImmed.
lnere is stolid, brutal expression about
the eyes, and the brow is low and the eve
brows beetling. MY recollection is that
during the first Congress in which Keifer
served he never suffered an occasion of
any kind to pass without getting on his
Ieet and addressing the chair. If there
was no opportunity to make a sDeech
he would cOntriYe to ask a question
either OF the chair or of the member who
held the floor. 1t was rare indeed
that there was any point to his inquiry.
lie evidently believed that day was i'll
spent which did not give an opportunity
10 get Refers name into the Record a
dozen times. Another popularity of the
man was his evident belief that he was a
great lawyer. No legal topic, or any
other which had the remotest connection
with legal subject, could come before
the House without Keifer airing his sup
posed legal knowledge. There was an air
OF solemnity about him which became in
a short time positively ludicrous. He
never Dobbed up from his seat, but rose
up maJestlcally. He always looked round
at the galleries as much as to say: 'Iook
at me- Hear me for my cause. and keep
silent that you may hear" Very soon he
was unanimously voted an ass and q bore
by the press gallery.
1t is evident that Keifer has suffered
dre2dfully by the awful castigation he has
received at the hands OF the '1press gangv
He is not blessed with an eXquisitelv SEN
sltlve nature. He has not much more
sensitlveness than mule, but by the pro-
cess OF attrition the press has worn away
the pachydermatOus hide in which his
gross nature is wrapped. The raw has
been reached and the poor fellows suffer-
ing is awful. l verify believe it has I'M
settled Whatever of reason he NAV have
had. For more than year he has been
running amuck with the entire press of
the country. Ihave, when a farmers boy.
seen a ram butt black stump for a quar-
ter of an hour, but | never saw one
keep up the foolishness twenty min
utes. once saw poor drunken fellow
try his list on the head of a majestic wood
en- Indian IN front of a tobacco store but
he was satisfied with one effort. | have a
vivid recollection of a youthful escapade
Of my own. 1t happened about 50 Years
ago, and yet 1t is as fresh IN my memory
as II 1t occurred yesterday. | was plaV-
ing in the garden, and in trying to capture
honey-bee got stung. l watched the
sharp-tailed insect fly home to the hive
and vowed vengeance on the whole famI-
ly. Selling stick l ran to the bee-gum
and stirred up the rascals. was put to
bed by and by. A good deal of saleratus
was wasted on me. didn't see much for
several days, but l finally got nv ewes
Open-but it was long time before l con
sidered myself gOOd-looking.
kelter overdid the attempted bribery
story. To use a vernacular with which
he is familiar, sit won't wash - BOvntou
is not vulgar man. He is intellectual.
II he were to attempt to bribe Keifer he
wouldn't 60 about it in the brutaIlv vuI-
gar way Keller saws he did. If Keller had
been trying to bribe BOynton he would
undoubtedly have approached him lust as
ne says Boynton came to him-with a bold
vulgar attempt to buy. 1t is not possible
that keifer's story will stand the test of a
rigid crOss-eXaminatiOn. The whole fabric
will tumble about him and bury him i'm
the ruins.
There is growing disposition ON the
part OF members of the House to keep cor
respondents at the greatest possible dis
tance from them. 1t didn't use to be the
case when L frequented the capitol.
There was always more or less exclusive
ness at the Senate end. Once or twice an
attempt was made to shut cOrrespondents
out from the marble room and the Sena-
tors lobby, but it didn't work. i under
stand that under the new rules of the Sem
ate even eX-SenatOrs and eX-GOyernOrs of
States are not admitted to the Senate
Chamber, or even to the marble room.
But Will bet big apple that any good
looking female can invade the sacred pre-
clncts of the marble room if
she desires very much to have a
private tete-a-tete with a Senator.
SOiu uAdAly dppIOF6 OI one OF the new
rules OF the Senate-the one which cuts
correspondents off who were nominallv
the private secretaries of Senators.
1t was much abused privilege.
why the House should become so
dreadfully exclusive puzzles me. /
never approved of the indiscriminate adj
mission to the floor which prevailed sew
eral years ago. But there was no possi-
bic objection to the admission of cores
pondents to the lobby in the rear of the
Speakers chair. 1t was a great conven
lence to the members, as well as to the
correspondents. Now, if a member has
to see reporter, and of course all of
them want to, he has to come out into the
public corridors and stand about among
the common herd, which must be very
trying to gentlemen of such exclusive.
ness. Perhaps the members of the press
are to blame for this sort of thing. Ii NAV
be that fellow-feeling induces Congress
men to resent the attacks which have
been made on KeifeT and one or two other
members of the House. Injustice is
doubtless occasionally done to members.
but it is far from being frequent and very
rarely is intentional. Free intercourse
with members would tend to lessen rather
than increase such occurrences. The
great majority of the daily gatherers of
news are gentlemen, and have as high
sense OF their responsibility as the average
member of COnprasS