St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-03-25
But They CAN'T talk
How the So1ons Of Dignity
DiSpOpt Themselves Dur
ing Work.
Orators Are Scarce, and Cab
Not a Striking Prop
ePty.
Each Senator Has a Hobby
Which He Rides Quite
Freely.
A Member Who Never Speaks,
A Member Who Never Speaks,
But Votes With Great
Alacrity.

time, for, if there is one thing charac
teristic of the present senate, it is that
the members can lay no great claim to
oratorical ability. The speaking power
of the assembly is below par. The lack
OF oratory enables the senate to trans
act, III the same space of time, double
the amount of work that can be done i'm
the house, where the members are pos
sessed with an alarming amount of CAB :
! and if it were necessary to make rec
| ord, some of the representatives are
capable of talking the Mississippi dry.
| A session OF the senate! Very few
people adequately grasp the work COW
cred by this statement, and for their
edification an ordinary, everyday SEES
sion is portrayed.
Punctuality is a strong point with
Lieut.. Gov. Rice. The senate has been
in session fifty-eight days, and at each
morning session the president has
passed the portals of the chamber at
9:55 O'Clock. Unusually the session,
opens at 10 o'clock, but occasionally it is
1915, owing to the letharglc manner in
which many of the senators get down
to business. 1t is noteworthy fact
that quorum is difficult to obtain the
morning following banquet. This
blbulous information will be of advan-
tage to the Prohibition party when they
next set out to frame high license
law. When President Rice aScendS the
roStrum he takes an anxious, inquiring
took around the chamber, until his eye
lights upon Chaplain Lathrop, and
when the gavel drops members
slowly drop into their seats. and
when the chaplain whoops out
his eternal lord, look down upon u.s."
half the senators rise, while the others
bury their faces in their hands. The
chaplain's prayers have one great fea-
ture-they are Shorthand within two
minutes from the time the gavel fell
Secretary Cutter is twanging away at
the journal. He reads three sentences,
stops, and casts knowing look at Sen
ator Peter Nelson. That is sufficient,
and quickly the further reading of the
journal is dispensed with.
Senators have meanwhile become EN-,
crossed in either their correspondence
or the daily papers, and, by the major
portion, but little heed is paid to the
Introduction of resolutions and bills.
Senator Pope will occasionally create
attention with some Doodle story, and
there may be little breeze over the re-
appointment OF some dismissed official,
but it is merely the exception and not
luC NO OlIc OuJ lllG pays
any attention to the bills introduced,
and when the committee reports come
up the secretary'S voice is almost
drowned in the babel of chattering
which takes place. There is always
some person lobbying on the floor, or
some constituent visiting ''our senator"
1t is an edifying sight to witness the
SolicitOuS care and attention paid to such
visitors. A chair is Immediately forth
coming at the side of the senator, who
at once starts spirited conversation
and points out the ''liOnS" of the cham
Der. Senator Keller comes in for large
share of attentlOn-in fact, from an ora
tOrical point of view, he is the only
member of the senate who attracts any
attention. This is an enviabie nOtorietY.
and of which the gentleman from
StearnS is no doubt Justly proud
The introduction of bills is not of long
duration. The senate is essentially
conservative, and the number of bills
introduced is kept within legitimate
limits. Over one thousand have been
introduced in the house, and but
half that number in the senate. 1t is
usually II O'Clock when the second
reading of bills is commenced. No at
tentlOn whatever is paid to this part of
the proceedings, and many of the law
makers seek relaxation from smoke
in the cloak room or a breath of the eX-
hlleratlng atmosphere of the postal de-
partment. The calendar is reached.
and President Rice calls a senator
to the chair. the lieutenant gov,
ernOr at once repairs to the
committee rooms and adds to the volume
of smoke. Members take to their seats
with the calendar, and proper attention
is paid to the final passage of bills. I'm
a In &c nf
it is passed without discussion, and on
some occasions fifteen bills have been
passed in as many minutes. 1t is not
until general orders loom up and the
senate resolves itself into the committee
of the whole that there is Semblance
of life in the assembly. 1t is cold day
when there is no diScusSion--certainly
Senator Keller will have something to
say. He generally takes the chamber
by storm. and has been known to half
deplete the house of its members. Such
is the penalty paid fer notoriety!
1t is during the committee stage that
members love to air their fads; Sena-
tor Day will speak about trusting the
people, and the necessity of electing
railroad commissioners; Senator Hay
den will invoke aid for the passage of
his veterinary bill, and the removal Of
wind from the stomach; Senator Mar-
Gus johnson will debate on the advan-
tages to be accrued from the drainage
of the Kandiyohi capitol lands; Senator
Ives will strongly denounce pool selling
and bills introduced as a subterfuge;
Senator Scheffer will speak on the enOr-
nifty of drunkenness; Senator Daniels
will urge the great advantage of
'corkus;" Senator Ward will define
drunkenness. and say man can be
drunk, very drunk. and gloriously
drunk" Senator Whiteman will dem
OnStrate the great growth of st. Louis
county, and Senator Pope will show
the connection between the patent law
reports and the Duluth & Winnipeg
land bill.
These are few of the peculiarities
of senators which always come to the
front in the committee stage. But there
are many members who never speak.
Senator Anderson has never been
known to address the senate, but he is
always ready to vote. Senators Gibson,
Welch, Burkhart, Sampson, Holmes.
Nelson and Shields are also silent mem
bers. Senator Keller speaks more times
than any other senator. He is closely
followed by Senator Ward, who, last
Tuesday, alone addressed the senate
thirty times. Senators Goodrich, Ives
and Eaton command most power i'll
the chamber, and their utterances
contain more real argument than those
of the other senators combined. Senator
Edwards is great on parliamentary tao
ties. Three young legislators of great
promise are Senator Day, Senator
Bowen and Senator Child. The two
latter are among the small band of
Democratic members. Senator Schef-
fer always commands attention, and
can get almost anything he desires.
When the senate rises from the COM
mittee stage, President Rice once more
assumes the chair and irnmadiafalu tho