The Portland daily press., 1890-03-08
SEEN AND HEARD IN THE CAPITOL.
Speaker Reeds Impartial Enforce
ment OF the House Rules.
A Good story Told by Mr.. Carlisle
Of a Kentucky Member.
How Portland Yachtsmen May Yet
join Uncle Sans Navy.
Especial to the Press

L
vi1dicated in a great battle. but as well in
those matters of detail in the government Of
the House, where nearly every Speaker has
broken down. The calamities of break
| down In these small matters are not of course
national. unless indirectly. They are never
theless matters Of no small moment. The
| privileges of the floor, for instance. have in
| years past been terribly abused, to the great
detriment Of public business. This year the
| Speaker has drawn the line taut. although a
good many prominent men were tripped
when he did it. The rule of the aoer is,
The persons hereinafter named, and none other
| shall be admitted to the hall OF the House or
| vice-President Of the United States and their
private secretaries, Judges of the supreme Court
taDts in election cases during the pendency of
their eases in the House, the Secretary and Ser
geantat-Arms OF the Senate, Heads OF Depart
ments. Foreign Minister'S Governors Of States,
the Architect of the CAPITOL the Librarian of Con-
gress and his assistant in charge of the Law
Library, such persons as have, by name received
the thanks Of Congress :ex-members of the House
of Representatives who are not interested in any
gress, % and clerks Of co Committees, shen business
from their committee IS under consideration; and
Il snail 9e IN order fr the p to entertain IT
seLt from the chair the request OF any member for
unanimous consent.
The first person to ride up on high horse
was an ex-cabinet officer. The door-keeper
stopped him. He Indignantly appealed to
the Speaker, saying that he always had been
admitted to the floor on the strength of his
former position. The Speaker told him that
he was sorry, but as ex-cabinet ministers
were not on the list he could not let him in.
Next came a governor of territory, who
had always been let in because the rule said
governors of states. The Speaker denied
him because the rule did not recognize the
territories. In every case the rule has been
adhered to strictly, no matter who was hit.
The result has been gratifying so far as the
order of the floor has been concerned. AL
ways dis0rderly, the House of Representa-
tives is made doubly so by the presence of
any large number of outsiders. The ex-
members, who are entitled to the privileges
of the floor under the rules, are a serious
nuisance from the point of view Of the Off
Ger who is to keep order. The day the site
for the worlds fair was chosen there were
about fifty eX-members on the floor, and each
one Of them, being visitor, had to talk and
argue or laugh nearly all the time. The re-
suit was session so disorderly that it was
absolutely impossible to keep it quiet enough
for the call of the votes to be heard. An
other privilege which the Speaker guards
without favor is that of the reserved gale.
ries. There is gallery reserved for the
diplomatic corps. On the day the worlds
fair was voted on there was great rush for
places, and one very prominent man found,
on coming to the House that there was no
place for his wife, He went to the Speaker
with the urgent request that she be given
pass to the dipiomatic gallery
us she diplomat?" asked the Speaker
"No, she is my wife," answered the MEM
81 am sorry that the rules do not mention
your wife, for should like to accommodate
you but they do not, and cannot break the
rule for one unless want to be overrun."
And so it went on all the forenoon.
Ex-Speaker Carlisle has good story which
he tells when the pressure for new public
buildings gets to be heavy upon Congress.
1t was when Keifer was Speaker and one of
Mr. Carlisle's colleagues from Kentucky had
a public building bill which he felt must
| CT me up and be passed. The people at hcme
had been threatening the unhappy congress-
| against him at the next election if he did not
| get them the public building for the town of
| c.. But the bill was in a bad place on
the calendar, and the unhappy Kentnckian
L
House. At last, in despair. he arose and
| shouted:
"Mr. Speaker; I arise to question of the
Estate it," said the Speaker.
| 1t is question affecting the seat of men,
Der in the next Congress, and therefore of
the highest privilege. 1t is the bill to appro-
pirate sum OF money for the erection Of
public building at c., in Kentucky"
The House had been in a roar about five
1 minutne hpfora Kalfpr disenvarpd inst w
the question of privilege consisted in.
Those members of certain Portland
| church, who were so hopeful a few weeks
| ago of obtaining the services Of an eloquent
Canadian pastor, may be interested to know
that the Treasury Department has just in
| formed the vestrymen Of Christ Church at
Lewisburg. Pa, that they cannot bring
clergyman from Canada as it would be Yio-
latioD of the alien contract labor law.
Among the visitors at the Capitol the 9TH
er day was Claus Spreckles, sugar king of
the Sandwich Islands and sugar lord in the
United States. Although one Of the richest
dealers in one of the most necessary COM
modities, Mr.. Spreckles is very plain and
unassumiDg man who might be taken for
comfortable farmer from one Of the Dutch
counties of Pennsylvania. He has round,
jolly face and hearty laugh, which is just
now somewhat impaired in volume by its
owners anxiety lest the committee on ways
and means may do something foolish about
the tariff on sugar. When the sugar king
wants to get about town, he does not indulge
In the expensive luxury of hack, herdic
or Washington hanson, but takes his can
vas valise in his hand and journeys along in
the most independant way open to an Amer
lean citizen. In his travels about town the
White House grounds, which led some who
| saw him and his valise emerging from the
executive gateway to spread abroad the IA
BILE that the sugar king always puts up with
the President whenever he comes to town.
When Taulbee was shot on the steps of
the Capitol last Friday the whole Kentucky
delegation, headed by Mr.. Carlisle went to
his help in Mr.. Milliken's committee room,
to which the wounded man was carried.
What their feelings were at this humiliation
of their state, not in her own mountains but
In the most public place in America, none of
them said. They undoubtedly felt the humili-
alton, although Kentucky has before this
shown her attachment for her peculiar m 1de
of settling private grudges in way almost
as signal There was for some years recent
ly a Kentucky member of the House of
Representatives who had shot three men
when he entered Congress. and who shot an
other during bis term. This man still lives,
lucky. There is probably. however, no
reason why he could not live in Kentucky If
he should wish to. One of these affairs In
which he was engaged. was over domestic
trial in which he had the greatest provoca-
ton that man can have for taking the law
into his own hands. The other cases were
of the ordinary Kentucky kind. He was a
lawyer and had several brothers who were
lawyers also; and 1t is related, though it may
be only story. that in court one day as the
jury pronounced verdict not to their liking,
they rose in their seats and drawing their
pistols opened fire on the jury, while the
terrified judge slipped out Of his seat and
fled from the court room by back door.
One of the Lenten occupations of society
here has been the agitation of the introduc-
tlon Of the Order of Deaconesses into the
Protestant church in America. Miss Ban
, croft Is giving parlOr talks upon the subject
at the homes of prominent ladies in Wash
ington society. The other day she talked
before company at the home of the wife of
Senator Blair. Mrs. Harrison, wife of the
President, and about rs other Washington
ladies were present. Several ladies were
also present from other cities, including