Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1886-06-15
IN ALL-NIGHT SESSION.

Once during every Congress there is an
all-night session, which is double ripper
"a roarer, SO to speak. This is on the last
night of the last session, between the morn
ing of the Sd of March and noon on the 4th
of March, when that Congress expires by
law. The House sits continuously for about
twenty-five hours. 1t is usually called at
II o'clock on the morning of March 8 and
lasts all day and all night until noon of the
next day About fifteen minutes before
noon, when the House is wild with excite
ment, haste, and anxiety, and business is
being rushed like lightning express on q
down-grade, one OF the door-keepers comes
in and walks up to the big clock directly
over the main entrance, that faces the
speakers chair. The speaker deliberately
turns away his head for five minutes while
the door -keerer turns the clock back as far
as ho dare Then Gehenna breaks loose.
Meanwhile, the Senate, at the other end
of the capitol, has even laid aside its dig
nifty and guiclzened its solemn march to a
lively trot; the President of the United
States, who, according to custom, has ar.
rived at the capitol about midnight, has
worked continuously all through the long
night hours at the big table in the Presi-
dents room signing bills brought to him by
painting messengers. The speaker of the
House has probably not left the chair for
more than fifteen minutes at time during
the twenty.four hours. At those times he
has gone into the nearest cloak room to
snatch something TO eat; he most likely has
not thought of sleep, and during all the pan
demonium hos been saving himself for that
last terrible hour or 90 when the fate of
measures involving millions Of money, in
volving lives and characters-hare got to
be decided.
An Englishman once, seeing a pension
bill appropriating s100,000,0O0, rushed
through in this way, exclaimed: "Great
God What a countryn' AS the hands of
comes indescribable. The galleries arc full
and obstrepercus; sometimes the order is
given to clear them Immediately. Early in
the evening there was much chatf and hilar
ity on the floor; now there is nothing
but anxiety, and always some bad blood.
The speaker, if he be "a speaker like Mr..
Carlisle or Mr.. Randall, ats unploved amid
the uproar, holding the gavel in one hand
aud his watch IN the other Cries resound,
interrupted every moment By stentorian
voice shouting "a message from the Senate
Of The United States ~ Instead Of the for
NAL bow customary on entering the presence
Of the house the messenger merely ducks his
head to the speaker and comes lunging down
the aisle.on dead run. Men are on their
feet, gesticulating, shouting "Mr. Speaker,
I ask for but one moment" "For Gods
sake let me introduce this bill ~ Members
will understand that l am not to be driven
from the floor Of this house," "Vote
Vote"
Suddenly in the midst of this wildness
come two sharp raps of the speakers gavel.
Every sound is instantly hushed-those two
raps are like the crack of doom-no use
shouting or appealing now. The speakers
voice is heard delivering his valedictory-
usually short. In ten minutes all is over.
That Congress is dead to live no more. The
speaker is no longer speaker. The repre-
seutatives and senators, haggard and worn,
throw themselves on the sofas to sleep or
else into carriages to be driven home. The
president and the ex-speaker come out of
the capitol into the broad light of monday,
looking as if they had been on weeks Ca
rouse There is nothing more like it until
that day two years. Washington Cor. Chi.
cago Nears.