St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-04-20
sraTEsaIEN.s WIVES.
Hoic They Watch Their Lords From the
CdDitoI Galleries.

Capitol Galleries.
Washington Letter to Courier-Journal.
1t was in order to limit the space which
loafers of q most Objectionable character
used daily to fill in the House gallery several
years ago that the House Of Representatives
decided to set apart certain portions of the
gallery to be reserved for those who had
cards of admission thereto, given them by
the members. One gallery is exclusively
for the families of Representatives or those
whom they and their wives regard as such.
One Representative said, at the time it
was decided to reserve this gallery, that it
was done so the members could know e1-
ectly in which part of the gallery their wives
were likely TO be, so they would know which
way to dodge if they wished to avoid their
gaze. When Lent comes, as they have
more leisure from social duties, ladies of the
families of members of both houses of Con-
gress have more time to spend in the gal
leries of the House or Senate, and wives are
often interested spectators of scenes upon
the floor of either chamber. Some of them
become much absorbed in watching the fate
of the bills in which their husbands tax e
special interest, and their faces show their
chagrin or triumph in the course of the de-
bate, One of them, whose husband had
been suffering severely with bronchitis when
he was forced to go to the House to look af-
ter bill of great importance in his district,
used to go there daily few weeks ago while
there was prospect for the bill coming up,
and carried with her box of quinine pills,
and regularly sent from her seat in the
''members' gallery an affectonate note and
a dose of the medicine to her husband on
the floor of the House when the time arrived
for him to take it. Thus she stroye to brace
him up for the contest in the same spirit as
Spartan wives equipped their husbands for
battle. The day his bill was voted down she
had waited for several hours with satchel
containing the pill-box in hand, and as soon
as the vote was announced, which was
against her husband, she rose Indignantly,
packed up the medicine and went home with
lessened faith in its bracing efforts.
The wives, of course, do not fail to watch
from the gallery the demeanor of their res
pective husbands in their seats below, espec-
tally when cards are brought in to the latter.
One lady viii say to another: ''There goes
a card to your husband; wonder if it is lady
or gentleman wants to see how long he stays
and then Wen know whether it was man
or woman. There he comes in again, so it
must have been a man who was waiting for
him; he'd have stayed longer if it had been
a woman, certainly"
While some of the incidents in this gallery
are highly amusing, others are often very
annoying For instance, lately, a loving
20 -bp 1icto inf Itr 70
bands speech, heard a lady behind, who was
that Smith speaking again, now? 1t seems to
me he is always talking, and yet never has
anything to say.''
An all-night session of the United States
House of Representatives, especially when it
is occasioned by a discussion which requires
either political party to master its full
strength, and causes "call of the House,
to be ordered, and the Sergeant-at-Arms to
be instructed to bring in absentees, always
has some ludicrous features outside the hall
as well as some productive of annoyance to
the families of members of the house as
much as to themselves. During such might
session, not long ago. the wife of one of the
colored Representatives was left alone in the
gallery until late hour, hll other
of that gallery having left in the
early part of the night. She could not 90
home alone, and her husband, who was on
the floor of the house was locked in, so he
could not leave to take her home. 1t is the
custom as soon as call of the house is or
dered to lock all doors of exit or entrance
to the legislative hall, not only to prevent
those members who are within from going
away without permission of the house, but
also to prevent those absent without leave
getting in except in the custody of the Ser
geant-at-Arms, who has been ordered to ar
rest them and bring them to make their ex-
cuses at the bar of the house. It was not
until the colored Representative could sue
coed in obtaining the formal leave of the
house to go home with his wife land he
promised to return as soon as he had done)
that he could join her in the gallery and ac-
company her to their residence.
Anglomdnio at Washington.