The Washington critic., 1888-01-03
TOPICS OF THE DAY.
Members Of Congress Always Prompt
to Collect Their Mileage.
HOW THE PAGES MAKE MONEY.
The cAttorney-G Gencral's Distastc for
Book Agents.

Says the Chicago Herald: Tele-
phone stock is selling at about 800. II
js supposed to earn 30 per cent. and
pays 15 per cent. dividends. Mostof
this--just enough to maintain the con-
.trol, at all eyents--is held down in
Boston by the Alexander Graham
Bell crowd. The inventor probably
I, holds the most. Next comes Mr.
Forbes, the father-in-law Of President
: Perkins, of the Burlington Railroad.
/ Son-in-law Perkins has some. So
have Gardiner G.. Hubbard and
Theodore M. Vail. OF the
I $1000,0 900 of stock about $400, 900 with
5 q market value of nearly 81 900, 600, is
owned by Chicago millionaires. In
deed the telephone, which is giving
such offense, has had something TO
do with making or helping to make
few millionaires here. George
NJ. Pullman, J. w. Doane,
John De Koven, A. ii. Sprague, b. II.
Campbell John Crerar, John b.
Drake, j. Russell Sage, Henry Field,
the heirs of Anson Stager John d.
Cation and Norman Williams are the
Chicago stockholders. Henry Field
is, perhaps, the largest individual
stockholder. Judge Cation and his
son-in-law, Norman Williams, are
probably the next. The daughters of
General Stager must have a good inter-
est. There was time, less than ten
years ago, when this stock was almost
kicking about. The present corpora
ton isthe result of the coalition of
hetwo old rivals-the Edison and the
Bell One had very good receiver
and the other a very good sender.
Y They fought each other for few
yeare and neither made any money.
The Bell got the most subscribers and
Ind alittle the best of the struggle out
here. AT some points it was Just the
other way. They pooled finally, then
raised the price of their service and
partly cut downtheir expenses. Then
they gotvery rich.
Nv
For1 1years, says the New York
Trt6une'sWashipgton correspondent,
it has been the privilege of the pages
in the Capitol to- make quite q lot of
pocket money each session in collect
ing autographs. The pages of the
Senate, for instance, will collect the
signatures of all the Senators in an
album, turn the book over to some
youngster in the House, who gets the
Congressmen's names, then to,one of
the pages in the Supreme Court for
the autographs of the Justices, and
fnsllyitothe riding pages of the Sen
ate, who are constantly going between
the Capitol, the White House, and
the several departments and bureaus
of,the Government. The latter get
the names Of the President, the Cab
met and the other prominent officials.
For such collection the boy who
starts the book has received
4 whatever he could get out of
his customer, trusting to bis
own sharpness and the latter's
generosity. When he gets his money
and $40 is the usual price-he settles
with the other pages who have as
sisted him, on such terms as they were
willing to make. The ordinary terms
of settlement have been So to the con-
tractor, s2to the House page, so to the
boy who gets the President and
Cabinet, ands$1 to the youth in the
Supreme Court. But the example of
the trades unions has reached the
Capitol, and an equal division of
profits is now demanded by the boys.
/ took an album which had been sent
me by friend in the West to one Of
the Senate pages the other day, and
asked him to get the autographs of
the statesmen for me as he had done
before. had formerly paid him $40
for such Il job, but he informed me
l,nt ho1 ,,.s,a,,;1n1
and had advanced the price to
in the House kicked because
the Senate boys were making
more money than they, and had
struck; so it became necessary to or
ganize and have u stated card of rates.
"Donityou see,p he said, "people who
want autographs somehow always
come to the Senate first. We have got
$5 for getting the names Of seventy
six Senators, and have given the kids
in the House only 50 for getting 325
names. When they happened to
catch on to job they got the S. of
course, and gave us 50 for the SEN
ators' autographs; but for every one
book they get we get dozen, and
they kicked about it. So we had to
agree to pay them as much rs we got
ourselves. They won't touch book
less than So. There was kid in the
House who cut under them, and got
some names not long ago for So, but
when the other boys found it out they
got hold of the book and tore out the
leaves. They boycotted him, don't
you seeP'
wv
The Washington correspondent of
the Minneapolis Tribune tells what it
costs to bury vice-president Few
people have any idea of the expense
attending the burial of vice-presi-
dent, and fewer still are aware that
the Government foots the bill. The
total cost to the Government of the
funeral of Nice-President Hendricks
in round figures, was $500. II cost
$500 for casket, SO for washing and
shaving the body, 500 for embalm-
ing; decorating and use of funeral car,
with horses, $3.50; three men for seven
days attendance $2l0; for sixteen
white silk sashes, SIP; twenty pairs
white silk gloves, $50; hotel bill,
carriages, and porterage at Indian
apolis, 1850; for draping Senate cham
bcr, S234; for carriages, hacks, etc,
for funeral, 1913; for three bands of
music,1 $294; for flowers, S23l; for
badges, 5000; for saddle blankets
rosettes, sashes and arm grapes, 500;
for parlors at hotel for Cabinet Off
GERS, 500; for services of city band,
S64; for hauling cannons, caissons,
Gatling guns, draping the same, etc,