The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-02-09

and in this condition the bill reached the
President and was signed. Fortunately,
there was time before the close of the ses-
son 70 insert provision in another of the
Appropriation bills opening the hospitals
again.
Probably the longest bill ever engrossed
by the clerks on the Senate side of the CAPT
tol, was the tariff bill, as amended aud
passed by the Senate in the last congress.
The original bill. as it came from the
hcuse. was 81 priniel pages long The
S'nate 'endmelt filed 1872 printed pages
anu made about 10000 words Much of it
was copied fore the bill was put on its
maj passage, Sd IL was soon ready to ha
sent back to the house. The interstg
CONNIE. c. law was com posed of about 5, 600
worts. The original bill for the admission
OF North Dakota into the union was about
4OOO words long, but as finally pass ID
tame lded so as TO admit the four new
sates) II contained about 5000 words. The
shortest bill passed by the last congress con-
tanned sixteen words. | was a bill con-
shutting Fort Angelns port of try.
A few more bills of this length would be
wec med warmly by the engrossing clerk,
Mr.. Newell, aud his assistants. Unfor-
tunately, the tendency in framing bills is
! not u brevity, no is the tendency to lessen
the number of bills introduced. In the
whole Of the Forty-third. con gress there
were fewer bills introduced in the Senate
than We're introduced in the three weeks
session preceding the recent Christmas holt
days In the Forty-third ngreSs the
Senate passed 80 bills and joint resolu-
tons, of which 223 were passed by the
House and went to tho President. In the
Forty-tourJh congress 355 Senate bills
passed the Sen to; in tie FortY-fifth, AL ;
in the Fory-six h, 492; in the + rty-
seventh, OBS; in ths Forty-eighth, 553; in
the For y-alnth, go, aud in the Fiftieth,
,l27 OF the o. 230 went TO the President
thaving been passed by both houses) in the
F0rty-fourth; 227 in the F9rty-filth, 1876 in
the Forty-siXth, 27l in the Forty I
242 in the Forly-eigth, 400 in the Forty
ninth and 667 in the Flftieth, or last con-
gress. The Forty-ninth aud Ffteth con-
gres es were famous for vetoes OF the
420 Senate measures sent to the Presidentil
e f rty-ninth, "a were vetoed and rs out
of 6i7 in the Flf,ieth.
Tne official record of each bill that pa 7sed
the last Senate is contained in three large
volumes that are piled on one a 1other by
Mr.. Newelrs desk These are the manu-
scripts Us they were sent to the House, with
the signature of the President and the secre-
tary of the Senate. On the back of each is
record of the course il took after it lett
the Senate's hands. The parchment copies
of the bills which pass both Houses and re-
ceive the Presidents signature are kept in
the state depart neat There are the orig
inals of all the laws which have ever been
enac ed by the congress of the United
States. The earlier copies are somewhat
dull, but still easily legible. The parch-
ment on which they are enrolled is sheep
skin, which has been scrapei with cuttle-
bone to remove the grease on the surface, so
that the skin will take Che ink The ink now
used is a mixture of an English with a do
A..
pertinent to be the most durable
O'BRIEN-BAIN.