Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-10-09


| American breasts have heaved with in
dignstion in days gone by at the dia-
tribes which have been launched against
our country, our people and their ways
the Dickenses. Trollopes, Capt. Halls,
Matthew Arnolds and other Englishmen
and English women who have visited our
shores and returned to HoldHiugla
TO pay the expenses of their trip, as old
Mr.. Weller suggested that Mr.. Pick wick
should pay his by writing book elbow
| ing up the 'Merikins. - But let any of
us who feel agrieved because We think
that we have thus been slandered, attend
| the deliberations of that learned body
Familiarity known century ago to our
| friends across The water as "the con-
| gress established by Mr.. Washington and
his rebels, and we must at once come
| to the conclusion that if the United
| States and its people are to be judged by
| their highest legislative assembly, no
| words OF detraction or condemnation
that the English or any other nation eau
write will be sufficiently severe.
There is good and true story told of
an old Pennsylvania German who was
| elected to the national house of repre-
| seDtatives, and who said on returning
home from his first congressional session,
"Pevore l vend do CONGRESS l bought
| dem goncressmeu vellers vos all Solo
mons, pud ven 1 cod dere, l vount dat
dey vos all yusd so pig vools as l vas. "
| never appreciated the true inwardness of
this story so well as l do now, after
weeks faithful attendance upon the ses-
sions of both branches of "the con-
gress.
The turf has been green above the
grave of that most genial of comedians,
John T. Raymond, for more than four
years, but doubtless there are many
theater-goers who still remember his
clever impersonatlon of Col. Sellers in
1.-The Gilded Age'' One of the fun
NEST passages in that play was whare
some one, desiring to compliment the
colonel in the highest terms said to him,
'Wby, Colonel, you ought to be sent to
congress. But the colonel, instead of
being gratiied, is cut to the heart by
what he regarded as a most unprovoked
insult, and replies in q most aggrieved
tone, Now, what have ever done to
you-what have ever done-that you
should make such an insulting remark as
that to me?h To understand the
coluel's feelings In this matter 1t is only
necessary TO attend one days session of
THE CONGRESS,
Before I ever ventured into the pre-
cincts of the senate or the house, l pre-
sumed that those bodies were composed
of gentlemen, who were the leaders in
natural intelligence, culture, good
breeding, sterling common sense, in
tegrity and high personal character
among the people of the various sections
they represented, and that their SUI
periority in these respects would be man.
ifested in the dignity and grandeur of
their personal presence. l presumed
that their deliberations were character
lied by dignity, the utmost courtesy and
forbearance toward each other, and
above all by an intense, unselfish, sim
gle hearted purpose to pass laws which
should secure to the country the wisest,
best and most economical administration
of Its government.
Such was my ideal. Oh, how differ
ent did find the reality! In the senate
l found few very commonplace, prosy
old fellows, most of whom seemed I'M
able or unwilling to speak half a dozen
words of English dramatically, and
who apparently took delight in setting
Webster and Lindley Murray at de-
fiance. Probably this was of no conse-
quence, as Mr.. Toots would say, for
when one spoke the others all took
refuge in the cloak and committee
rooms and left him to talk on to vacant
chairs and one senator filling the posi-
ton which the vice. president of the
United States draws $4,000 a year from
frs hnt
from which he has now been absent
several months, dividing his time be-
tween his private business in New York
and seeking pleasure at fashionable re-
sorts.
On the occasion of my first visit to the
senate, however, there was one senator,
George by name, and representing the
state of Mississippi, who did not follow
his associates into the cloak room when
one of their number began to prose. He
Remained at his desk and placing upon
II, in full view of the ladies in the gall
lery, one OF his feet, he removed from
it O number ten shoe, and upon the sole
of the latter deliberately sharpened an
old fas hioned .barlow'' knife, mean
while critically regarding some large
protuberances upon his toes, whose out
line was plainly visible through his
wooden sock. He thus made it apparent
to the meanest comprehension that he
was about to pare his corns. He had
already begun the removal of his stock
ing for that purpose when Senator Gray
of Delaware, peeping in from the cloak
room to ascertain if be could get a
chance to prose in his turn, observed
him and heard the litter which was
passing among the ladies above. He
succeeded in persuading Senator George
to allow his stocking to remain on his
pedal extremity and to cover it with his
shoe, and thus the United States senate
was saved from being turned into
A CHIRoPoDIsT g OFFICE
for that day at least. But if glance at
the senate is not calcuted to inspire one
with reverence for his country and its in
situations, what must be the effect of a
visit to the house? Though senators may
wander in aud out at their own sweet
will and entirely desert the chamber
when q speech Is being made; though
they may pare their corns on their desk,
and awake the echoes of the rotunda
with their snoring, they at least preserve
some semblance of order. They never
laugh and talk so loudly that 1t is I'M
possible to hear the voice of the senator