Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-14
COUNTING THE VOTE.
A Large and Gay Audience Watches
the Proceedings, Which Are
ENLlVENED BY FUNNY MISTAKES.
Harrison and Morton Are Declared to be
Legally Elected.
EIGHTH CABINET OFFICER CONFIRMED.
A Little Difficulty Expected Between Two House
Committees

Lhc 'oIo Vi tne ElecIOral COlleg6 WAS
formally recorded in joint session of Con-
gress yesterday. Harrison and Morton were
declared duly elected, and there is now no
excuse for deferring the payment of election
bets. The nomination of Norman j. Col
man as Secretary of Agriculture was con-
frmed. There is a little difference between
two committees and the reference of bill.
Quay has recovered his old-time health and
spirits in Florida, and will soon return to
Washington.
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPATCH.1
WASHINGTON, February 13.-Such an
audience as israrely seen, except on funeral,
inaugural and similar occasions, assembled
in the House of Representatives to-day to
hear the count of the vote of the Electoral
College for President and Vice President
1t was decidedly uninteresting perform
ance, but it requires little to attract crowd
to the Capitol, and it was not surprising
that long before the assembling of the
House hundreds were unable to gain admis-
sion to the galleries. After the assembling
of the House the crowd on the floor grew
very promiscuous.
EVERYTHING WENT.
Wives and families Of members, acquaint-
ances, politicians, lobbyists had IN some
mysterious means gained sdmission to the
floor, filling the seats and crowding the
spaces back of them, ladies even standing
on the backs of sofas and clinging to the
gas fixtures of the wall, none of which e1-
alted positions were interfered with by the
officers of the House. 1t was kind of free
and easy, go-as-you-please arrangement all
round. There was almost an entire lack of
order and decorum in the early part of the
proceedings.
Senators Manderson and Harris were the
tellers on the part of the Senate, and Repre-
sentatives Ermentrout and Baker, of Penn
sylvania and New York, on the part of the
House. Ermentrout contributed cause for
the outburst of laughter while reading the
vote of Florida, by starting to say the vote
for Vice President was cast for Levi P. Nor
ton. The possibility of such mistakes
seemed after that to throw the tellers into a
sort of a panic, and there was perfect epi-
demic of blunders, which reached climax
in Senator Harris giving the vote of In
diana to Grover Cleveland.
sASSING A SENATOR.
There was great roar of laughter at this,
which brought forth stern rebuke from
President Ingalls,, and for the rest of the
time there was better order, but the tellers
continued to be decidedly nervous, and to
SO indistinctly that Senator Ed
munds understood Senator Harris to read
only 20 votes instead of 30 for Penn
sylvania, and corrected him in
such a manner as to lead to a sharp |
retort from Harris, who forgot for the mo-
ment that he was a mere clerk and not a |
Senator of the United States. The spectacle |
of clerk "sassing" Senator was so gro
tesque that there was another ripple of |
laughter, in spite of the ringing of the gavel |
of President Ingalls,. Of course, there was
no objection to the counting of any of the
votes, and the utter tediousness of the count
was relieved only by the blunders of the
tellers.
Of all the prominent Democratic ladies
closely associated with the inner social cir
Gle of the administration, Mrs. Carlisle was
the only one present. The Presidents gal
lery had several occupants, but they were
all obscure, and Mrs. Cleveland did not
make her appearance, though she often sits
in that gallery on occasions of more than or
dinary interest 1t was not her day.