The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-02-15
Correspondence Of the Press.

Ingalls,, Dawes and Hoar. when they
looked up and beheld this senator,
with his two elbows resting on the
vice presidents desk, his head YEARLY
reposing in his hands like lazy
schoolboy when the teachers back is
turned. Senator Dawes leaned over and
whispered to Edmunds. and st. Jerome
scowled and twiddled his fingers under
his nose, as he always does when inn
mensely pleased or considerably worried.
No doubt the senator was tired, for
senator was making speech on well
known bill-the same speech which he
had already delivered three or four times
in the senate chamber. Once the anxious
sticklers for senatorial dignity thought
the presiding officer was going to sleep.
He did close his eyes and once he nod
ded, as much as a man can nod when his
fowls are resting firmly in his hands.
If this senator had gone to sleep Ed
munds, Hoar and Ingalls, would have
been angry enough to move his expul-
sion from the senate. They would have
deemed the body disgraced beyond re-
demption except by some summary and
desperate proceedings
This particular senator is always tired.
He is probably the only man in congress
who is never seen walking down Penn
sylvania avenue from the capital He
always rides. Ingalls, says there should
be some sort of q tramway in the Capitol
for the accommodation of men like him
who occasionally want to go over to the
house. This senator is the man who is
accused of purposely spreading the re-
port three or four years ago that he and
| President Cleveland had quarreled, in
order to save himself from being
troubled by officeseekerss He rarely
| makes a speech. The last one he made,
| am told, he dictated to his stenog-
| rapher while lying in bed, as DR.. John
| son used to dictate to his amanuensis,
Mr.. Hector.
If he is the LATEST he is not the only
lazy 9in the senate. What do you
zvu,w the great senators are doing be-
tween the hours OF - ~ ,r,. md o'clock-tht
hours in which the majority OF ... zen,
will receive neither cards nor notes from
impairment people who would disturb
them? Devising great plans for the vel
fare of the country? Preparing eloquent
rooms and 81 o. p5Ispasl MdG 81 9Iem aSs 1I
them takings AZ pesI 6lpsls ueea !sAegg Jy6
chairs, lounges, divans, BARRIERS, servants,
and such lazy lot of senatorsl They
recline, lean, sit upon their spines, rumi-
nate, converse and smoke. The stories
that are told, the jests that are passed
round, the mots that are repeated DER
and DER in that apartment, literally fur
nished with all modern comforts. Ii
those walls had ears and tongues they
could tale unfold but they have
neither And the servitors, fortunately
for themselves and their masters, are as
discreet as they are obsequious.
One day last week observers from the
galleries would easily see that something
unusual was going on in the cloak rooms
of the senate ON the Democratic side.
There was a running in and out from
both sides of the chamber. Grave sena-
tors who entered glum as oysters emerged
smiling like premiere danseuses. Loud
laughter occasionally came rolling out
the open door. Within half hour nearly
every member of the senate had spent a
moment or two in the retiring room. This
was mystery which reused nv curl
osity, and l determined to investigate.
My efforts were rewarded with success;
and, dear reader, what do you think It
was? Something dignifed, important,
statesmanlike? Not much. One of the
senators, whom l shall not name out of
respect for his gray hairs, had Just re-
ceived from friend in New York a vile
paper, purporting to be letter from a
solicitors firm in London, informing the
addressee that he had fallen heir to an
estate in England, and just as the inter
est was fully reused the reader turned the
page, only to come upon wretched pic
ture. Human nature is pretty much the
same in the senatorial cloak rooms as ont
of it.
These lazy senators who will not re-
ceive cards or notes before 2 o'clock are
aristocrats, and impertinent aristocrats
at that, and am for sweeping them out.
can't conceive what they are sent to
congress and paid S13 day for and given
private secretaries and committee clerks |
and no end of luxuries at the govern
ment expense, unless it is to serve their |
constituents and others having business
with government officials. Seeing callers |
would certainly be better employment |
OF time than lounging in the cloak rooms |
listening to tales which the society for |
promotion OF social purity would not he |
likely to indorse. When o'clock comes
most OF these high and mighty senators
slip down their private starways, which
no outsiders feet are permitted to pro-
fane, to their private lunch rooms in the /
senate restaurant, to which no man not
a senator is admitted unless at a senator's
invitation. Soon afterward, as a rule.
the senate goes into that fudgy and ridic-
ulous condition known as executive ses-
sion, and when the bell strikes three
Tunes all doors must be closed and every
man jack OF an American citizen must
make tracks. Even in committee rooms
the same un-American and offensive ex-
prevails Messengers are
'tatloned at the doors to keep off in
and many of these messengers
seem 10 think they own the Capitol. At
The door of the room of the committee
On privileges and elections the other day
asked the guard at the door if the
committee was in session No. Then
could go in to see a senator whom |
knew to be there. No.
And why not, pray?"
lone of the senators is inside. dictat-
ng, and he does not want to be dis
urbed."
but do not want to see that senator.
VIII not speak to him, and will not
iisturD him. Surely the committee room
large enough for three or four of us"
No matter. The senator is debating.
ma he does not want to be annoyed"
And the understrapper, who probably
'ohtrois Il few votes i'll some ward in a
lose legislative district, actually locked
he door in my face
All TINS Is cover for laziness, and
azlneSs in public servants, particularly
when combined with unnecessary exclu-
lveness, is intolerable. In one respect
he senators are more decent in their