The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1888-12-14

startling. The noiseless and concrete paved
streets, shaded by tall trees still displaying
their autumnal tints, became infused with
rapid, rushing life For time the national
capital was quite Chicagoish. The spot where
Pennsylvania avenue runs into the superb
Soldiers and Sailors monument, and the
granite promenade to the vast, shining white
Capitol itself, were crowed with hundreds,
thousands of magnifcently dressed people
the men displaying tall hats and any amount
of shirt front, the women with sealskins and
Worth bonnets.
In fact, Pennsylvania avenue as far back
rs the treasury and the White House is
ja,nnied with fashionable people, all strolling
in the same direction. Whittier and where
fore?
To the Capi.oll To the reopening of con-
gress!
Of course! 1t is made a holiday, gala
gay i'll Washington. The people OF the
national capital attend an opening Of con-
gress i'll much tho same spirit, excepting the
element Of blood, in which the Romans
flocked to the trays of the circus, or in which
the Spanish and Mexicans to this day re-
ligiously atte,., the bull fights For, truly,
it is a remarkable show. Who would care
to go to the theatre to see Florence play the
can wall. into the Capitol and see many Bard
well Slotes in real life? Not to insinuate
tha. our congressman of nowadays have any
OF tho worse attributes Of that fictitious cum
ming statesman. By no means. But there
are many who bear a laughabe resemblance
to HIM.
Congress has convened. The gavel has
fallen sharply on the speakers desk, the
prayer has been impressively recited by the
aged chaplain, the roll has been called, the
speaker declares regular business to be i'll
order-and the grind commences Not that
any work is done ON the first day, or the
second, or the third. Who could look up
statistics on the durability of government
mules when Tom Reed, massive and good
natured, is telling OH inimitably grotesque
yarn, as only Tom Reed can, to the up
roarious group surrounding him? Or what
member has any use on earth for the river
and Larbor bill when Sunset Cox, as young
now as he was thirty years ago, is telling OF
All experience he had with some guides in
Constantinople when he was Turkish minis
teri Not one. They don't even make q
pretense, as they afterwards do, of being inn
mersed head over heels i'll business. Some OF
them walk aimlessly around, their hands
plunged deep in their pockets, thinking about
nothing at ALL They aro too tull OF sup
pressed excitement to think. They shake
hands with each other, unconsciously, four
or five times. They work eff on their suffer-
ing colleagues, each and every one OF them,
the joke they have been rehearsing all
summer.
But the old heads, the members who have
sat in congress for quarter of century Or
more. are not in the least excited. They have
seen too much of it. To them it IS quito
trite, commonplace. They have seen presl-
dent after president sworn i'll in that very
Capitol building; they have seen the ivory
eavcl welded by many dignified speaker
dead-not few Of them; they have heard
bursts of rare eloquence from men long since
forgotten; they have seen young congress-
men. newly elected, full of bright hopes and
high endeavors, succumb to the almost ire
sistible temptations of q legislator fascinat-
! ING life in Washington, and become total,
| irrec]aimable wrecks; is it any wonder th:t
these men look with amusement upon the en-
thusiasm of a man who has only been IN con-
| press for one session, or with indifference
mon the surroundings that have wrougnt
in Younger men fiery excitement tna1 Will
| take months to efface? Hardly.
i n fpir 1rnn\ kelleV Is