The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1885-03-19
CONGRESS,
fcn Pictures of the House in Session
The Etiquette of the American
Parliament.

The national house of representa-
tives! How few people in the United
States have seen it, writes n corre-
spondent to the Cleveland Leader, and
how different is their idea of it from the
reality. 1t is now 3 o'clock in the after
noon. The house is in the midst of
its daily session, and din like that of
boller-factOry surrounds me as | sit
IN the press gallery and write as. nearly
as l can photograph of the scenes be-
Tore me. 1t is an immense room, this
house chamber. 1t is the largest leo
islativc hall in the world.
Its floor covers nearly one-fifth of
an acre. and its height from floor to
roof is thirty-six feet. 1t looks the
smaller for the hundreds that are in it.
1t is composed of a great central pit
about fifteen feet deep, with deep GAL
lerics rising from its top and going up
ward by five graduated lines of benches
until the fifth row strikes the buff and
green paper of the outer wall. Those
galleries will seat 1900 people, and the
seats within them look down upon tbe
bear garden of the arena in the same
way as does those from which the
spectators watch Spanish bull-fght,
The walls of this pit are paneled in
pink and velvety lowered buff. and
around each panel is a gilt frame fine
enough to blind a Raphael or 4 Van
dyck. In two of these panels are pict-
lures OF historic scenes by Bierstadt,
and on either side of the speakers
desk are pictures of Washington by
Vanderlyn and of Lafayette by Ary
Schefler.
In this wall, opening out of the con-
grcssional pit, are arched door-holes
all Ornamented with carving and gold.
Some of these lead TO cloak rooms,
others to the barber shops of the capi-
tol. one to the house library, and six
to the outside corridors, where the
lobbyists and other bores have to wait
until their friends come out to see
them.
Sitting in the press gallery you can
look into the cloak rooms and barber
shops. Judge Reagan, of Texas. is in
the barber's chair at this moment, and
his swarthy face shines out at me from
the midst of white lather There are
crowd of congressman in the cloak
rooms. and among them 1 see Tom
Ochiltree's red face wreathed in smoke,
and Judge Poland's royal counteuance
convulsed with laughter. The 325
Overcoats and hats OF the little great
men who are performing below me
hang in those cloak rooms. So.ne of
them are very seedy-looking, indeed,
and not one out of ten would be worth
stealing. The doors leading out of the
house into the corridors are double. |
This is to keep the outs out and the
ins IN. Each is also guarded by two |
doorkeeperS, ahle-bodied men who
hold their chairs down in those we'll
warmed halls for S1,2 per annum.
Each of the gallery doors also has a
doorkeeper, though there is little ne
cessity for it, and the officers of the |
house, one thinks from their numbers,
are more numerous than the men, |
bers
But to return to the bear pit. The |
press gallery is the central one at the |
back. 1t is shut off from the other gal |
leries by wire lattice work. and is |
devoted to correspondents solely. Fif- !
teen feet below these galleries is the
floor of the house. 1t is 115 feet long
by 67 feet wide. If you could take the
seats out you would see that it is made /
up of six half-moons of rostrums. rum
ming about space as wide as the front /
OF an ordinary city house, on which the
speaker and clerks desks are locat-
ed. and rising by a gradation of four
inches, until lit reaches the last half |
ring of rostrums, where q fiat floor
goes back from this to the walls.
In the center of this half moon, at !
the front of the hall, is the speakers /
desk. This is a series of three white |
marble desks rising one above the 9TH
er. The first, about three feet high, is
for the stenographers of congress-. who
get $1,000 yearly. The tops of their
desks are covered with navy-blue baize, |
and they have mahogany drawers in
which to keep their writing materials.
Back of them are the reading clerks
of the house, snobbish young men with
metallic voices, and above them on a
higher rostrum of white marble cut in
and out like an elaborately-carved pull
pit sits the speaker. This to-day is
MIR. Carlisle, a dark-faced. rough-fea-
tured man, with no whiskers, who con-
tinually chews tobacco as he sits on
his spine and presides over the house.
His chair Is 4 swingi g walnut one.
He has an ivory hammer or mallet in
his hand, and this he Uses with energy
to keep the noisy crowd below him in
order.
Beside the speakers desk, on pc
testal of Vermont marble, stands the
mace. or insignia of the speaker 5 royal
ty. 1t is 4 bundle of lictor's rods
bound with silver cords, mounted ON a
silver globe and crowned with an
eagle.
The members of the house sit on six
half-moons of seats. rising and growing
larger as they go backward, in front of
the speaker. These seats are ranged
on little ranges of rostums, and the
aR nas Of fhnSo r0StrIlIfac NTH |