Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1890-08-08

The editor of the Punxsutawney Spirit
took a trip to Washington lately and
.'noscd around" a little, and writes as
follows
One thing that strikes the tyro as
peculiar when he looks dow from the
gallery upon the assembled wisdom In the
Lower House Of Congress is the fact that,
a. rule, no one pays any attention to
man who is making speech. Last Mon
day afternoon we sat in the gallery while
Mr.. Stone, of Missouri, was addressing the
House He paced up and down the aisle
like Gagged hyena, and stormed and
thundered and pounded his desk as though
he thought the whole universe was being
electrified by his words But not n man
was listening. The Members were busy
talking. writing letters or reading, and
paid not the slightest attention to his
remarks. IL was ludicrous. We could
not help thinking what grand place that
would be for a modest man to practice
oratory. He would not need to feel the
least embarrassment for be could rest per-
fectly sure that the Members were not
listening, and the people IN the galleries
could not hear If they wanted to- We
once knew man who used to go off into
the lonely forest and make speeches to the
trees and the reverberating hills, in, order
to get his hand in. But the man who does
that is not safe Some stray hunter may
happen along, secrete himself behind a
tree, and listen But the novitiate who
is making speech in Congress would have
nothing of that kind to fear He is secure
in the profnndity of absolute obscurity. of
course there are occasions when any man
will be listened to, and there are men
whose words are always heard. But the
. occasions are not many and the men few
In the Senate on Wednesday afternoon
we could count but seventeen Senators in
their seats while Mr.. Daniel, of Virginia,
was making a rousing speech on the silver
question The only Senator who appeared
to be listening was John Sherman. and
Daniels remarks were directed principally
to him, SO that in common decency he was
bound to listen. Daniel is square
shouldered man, of medium height, with
fine cut features and long black hair. He
looks not unlike the pictures we see Of
Daniel in the lions den, and may be
lineal descendant of the great Hebrew
prophet for aught we know. He is some
thing of an orator, too But in a body
where some one is speaking all the time it
takes Demosthenes to catch and hold the
attention Of his colleagues
But, after ALL oratory counts for very
little in Congress The hard workers, VINO
post themselves thoroughly on the business
in hand and can talk up measure in COM
mittee, where most of the legislation is
shaped, are the best men. And the Men,
Der who is faithful and conscientious, who
looks well to the interests of his constitu-
ents, and is courteous and obhging, is of
more use than the ostentatious spouter of
spread eagle speeches. He is also more
respected by his associates. The Senate
is not developing any more Daniel Web
sters for the simple reason that workers
and debaters are more in demand than
orators, and long speeches take up the
time of Congress without enlightening it,
The truth is that most Congressman pay
more heed to the editorials which appear
in the leading newspapers on the questions
under consideration there than they do to
the remarks of their brother Members.
This is proven by the fact that many of
their speeches are largely made up of
newspaper quotations.