The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1886-04-07

ssoW New Members Cemaport i'm the
Halls of IegisIation.

ssew New Members Ce.aport i'm the
Halls of Legislation.
The new member is very interesting
study. He comes here from the county
town OF some remote region He has been
the leading lawyer, manufacturer or head
man of something or other for the last fit.
teen years. Congress has been the goal
toward which he has hbored ever since be
made enough to pay his office rent
He looks forward with nervousness to the
lay when he Is to Sand up and be sworn in.
When at last the great day comes and he
hnds himself one of squad marched III
and sworn in by the Clerk in rapid mono
loSue, ratified OFF something like this
neutrality-suspicious.
nd-constitution-of-the and so forth
and-soforth, /" he is annoyed at the flip.
pancy he sees around him. He retires to
his saat. He has been sworn in before
this as member of the State Legis.
iature, and it WAS much more imposing
ceremony than this. H. knows that a new
member is not expected to be ON his feet
very often, and 50 determines to give him.
salt a week to understand the working Of
the House. After that his forced inaction
will not be diverted with something to learn
At the end Of month he is in hopeless
muddle How is i. that some members can
always catch the Speakers eye and some
never can! What do members mean by
setting apart certain day for the consider.
alton OF particular bill, and when it comes
ip the member in charge of it founders
desperately, is completely demonlized by
the searching questions asked from the other
side, has to call on some other man who is
not present and can't be found to explain
the provisions of the bill, sees half dozer
men unite in a deliberate endeavor to talk
1t to death, aud finally vote STAYED off or
taken when the friends of the bill are scat
tered here, there, everywhere-of n truth
he has got into Chinese puzzle of legisla-
ton. Then the noise and confusion and
clapping of hands troubles him--he wonders
how il will be when he rises and begins
thus g Mr.. Speaker, aware of the modesty
IN Offering his opinion which new men,
Der, etc, etc. At last that day arrives.
He rises in his seat, dressed in his best
broadcloth suit, with his roll of manuscript
in his hand. He hears the siren sound
The member from Erie Creek has the
ioor." He expects to be badgered with
questions from the other side, assailed with
Jokes that he can't understand, teased in
every way, the floor nproarious, the CALLER
les restless. Quite the contrary Not a
member propounds question He is graft
ied -fattered by the strange stiffness.
Presently he looks around. The House is
iot third full. One by one the members
have stolen quietly out. The galleries have
silently emptied Themselves 1t seems to
him that there are but two persons in the
whole of that vnst hall the Speaker, grave,
calm and attentive, and himself, awkward,
stammeiing, i'll at ease. All This is worse
han the worst he had dreamed. Presently
he stumbles, trips up, loses his place and
;hen his head-brealSs down completely and
asks leave to print, which the Speaker
grants with suspicious alaerity. He sits
down determined to make bonfire of those
other two speeches of his put away so care
fully at home before the day is DONE
He has also expected his wife to be over
whelmed with cards. He has provided
himself with a brand new evening suit to
wear TO the dinners to which he is not i'll
vited, as it Afterwards Turns out. He goes
to the Presidents, to the stated levees, and
few other places, but on the whole he
finds his evenings qIIieter than they were Mt
home, except for the visits Of importunate
constituents, who want the earth and the
fullness thereof, and go home and abuse
him because he can't get them all $2,50G
places in the State Department. He stands
this for two years. Sometimes he has
enough of it, and sometimes, bad rs it is,
he can't get enough of it. And again some
times-but very nrely-he sees that il he
stays long enough he will become one OF
those men who can always catch the
Speakers eye-who, when they rise u
speak, the members will come trooping
back out of the cloak room and the restau-
rant-who can force measure to a vote
and are stronger than the laughing, sneer
ing, bowling mob before them. Then he
stays on and on until he wearies of IL al
and yet can't do without it-until he wants
to go TO the Senate and his State won't send
him, and he gets in huff and retires from
public life, and the day his younger and
fresher rival gets the nomination feels as il
he would give half his life to be back in his
old seat in the House Of Representatives..