Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-05-05

Roscoe Conkling was at Washington very
frequently of late years in his law practice.
He had many cases before the supreme court
and quite a number before the departments.
us got big fees and his services were invaIu-
able. A year or ago he was arguing a
case in the supreme court, and he was as
usual dressed as though he had just come out
Of a bandbox Though the day was muddy
his boots shone like jet and. to his great
ANNOYANCE, several lawyers with dirty shoes
rot near enough to him to soil them He
moved his chair this way and that, but
could not save his boots, aud finally. looking
down at his feathers with sigh. b. said:
1T is no use 1t is the same with a mau's
shoes as it is with other things, and rs for
me. | have reached the time of life when |
want to get somewhere where | won't be
stepped on" This story is so good that it
will bear re-telling. There is a pathos be-
tween the lines, and | know of no career
which seems SO full of hidden sorrow as that
Of Roscoe Conkling. 1t is II question whether
he was not sick and tired of public life when
he left it, and whether he did not leave it in.
tending to remain out. His friends say that
he did, and as for Conkling himself, he was
too proud a man co either affirm or deny the
statement.
In his speeches in the senate he was the
most courtly, as well us the most sarcastic
senator congress has known for years, and
his repartees will go down in history. One
of the best of them relates to a debate in
which Allan G. Thurman, of Ohio, was
speaking, and in which a constitutional ques-
ton was being argued. Conkling inter
rupted Thurman again and again by asking
questions, and Thurman, who was testy at
times, at last said to Conkling:
docs the senator from New York expect
me to respond every time he turns to meF'
when speak of the law" answered Sen
stor Conkling, with lordly bow and -four
ish of his hand toward Thurman, 81 turn to-
ward the senator from Ohio as a Mussulman
turns toward Mecca | turn to him as do
to the common law Of England-the worlds
most copious fountain of human jurispru-
denceP
And what did Thurman sayi
Nothing. He grunted and went on.
One hundred building permits have been
taken out during the past week, and Wash
ington is again on the boom. Senator Rea-
gan is going to build a new house. Senator
Sawyer uc" bou,c oDSShhci N<dl
Isle has bought a residence on K street, and
d number of the lesser lights of congressional
life are preparing to settle in Washington.
The suburban craze has again begun, and
the opening of the new bridge across the Po
tomac has thrown a new village called Ros-
lyn on the market During March permits
were taken out to build POI new houses, and
those of the present month have been even
L l..
ground IN 4 short tiIno Tor $50, coo house Ut
the head of Sixteenth street, just opposite
joaquin Miller's log cabin, and William Wal.
ter Phelps has built a block of houses near
the Capitol B.n Buffers big blue stone
Sl50,0O residence on the other side OF the
Capitol soffe-ed to the government for S2'j.
600, and the appraisers appointed by the
treasury to look into the matter have ap
praised it even higher than this The gov
ernment now pays about $1,000 a year for
the use of about one-third of this house, and
sooner or later it will have to buy it AS to
Ben Butler. | don't know whether necessity
prompts him to sell it or not but | do know
that it had on II not long ago $4,000 mort
gage, and when man is pressed 800 900 is
hard to raise
The new library building has not yet got
ten beyond the foundation, and it is about
three acres of a hole in the ground, rather
than anything else Its architect, Mr. Smith
meyer, tells me that the building will be
pushed rapidly from now on, but that this
library is like Rome, in that it can't be built
in a day 1t requires several years for the
construction OF the building in order that it
be settled properly, and yon can't put up
structure which costs millions on the Alladin
palace plan
In the meantime an immense amount of
tariff gas is being generated in the house of
representatives. The Findlay gas wells arc
nothing compared to the natural gas of our
congressman. Some good speeches are mixed
up with plenty of bad ones. and three-fourths
Of the members Of the present house have
given in their names to Speaker Carlisle to
await their turn at the tariff A number of
speeches will never be delivered, but the
members will merely ask .'leavs to print.
Some Of the speeches will be delivered off
hand, and the whole of them viii nndoubt-
edly fill as many printed pages as Webster's
Unabridged Dictionary, and. taking them as
a whole, they will be quite as interesting
reading. THOMAS j. ToDD.