The Portland daily press., 1890-07-24
THE PRESS.
THURSDAY MORNING, JULY "a.
Pages at the National Capitol.

OF the house and senate. They are a
half hundred precocious, quick witted,
self confident chaps, ranging in years
from twelve to twenty-five A majority
OF them live away from home, and, en-
Joying pretty good incomes for boys,
their habits are not always of the best.
Pages as rule initiate the men whom
they serve in chewing tobacco, smoking
cigars and cigarettes, playing the races
and drinking beer. All the world has
heard of the pages who came back to
congress as members or senators-Gor-
man of Maryland, Townshend of Hi
nois, "Bill" Scott of Pennsylvania and
others. The world has concluded, there
fore, that the pages path leads invari-
ably to fame or fortune. Unfortunately
this assumption is not warranted by the
facts.
A majority of the pages, particularly
those of the house, turn out badly. Mr..
David S. Barry, who rose from page
hood to be the accomplished Washing
ton correspondent of The New York
Sun, tells me that q number of his old
associates are in Jail, one or two in
inebriate asylums, and only few have
ever amounted to anything in the world.
zone of the brightest boys of my day."
saws Mr.. Barry, "and the one of whom
most was expected, l saw the other day
driving carriage, clad in a green coat
with big gilt buttons and yellow top
boots"
The trouble with pages appears to be too
much knowledge at an early age. What
they do not know at fifteen they think
they know, and the result of this sort of
precocity is often bumptiousness and
disaster. Happily there are many ex-
ceptions to this rule, as to all others.
Some Of the pages now in the service of
congress attend night school regularly,
save their money and are preparing to
make names for themselves. One of the
most promising young lawyers in town
rode horse for several years between
the Capitol and the departments.
Senate pages generally turn out better
than house pages because they are taken
care of by their employers. The rule in
the senate is to stake care of page who
shows himself worthy and capable. In
the senate pages are discharged on reach
ing the age of sixteen, and they are then
given places in the folding or document
rooms and are afterward made door
messengers and promoted from time to
time. Many of the employees of the SEN
ate started out as pages, conspicuous
example of this class being old Capt.
Bassett, the white haired patriarch who
sits at the left of the presiding officer.
He was appointed page through the
influence of Daniel Webster.
Old man Bassett and his boys make
very pretty scene about the dais on
which sits the vice president. A striking
contrast is formed by the captains ven
cradle features and patriarchal beard in
such close proximity to the youthful
faces of the pages When there are few
senators in their seats and the proceed
ings are dull and drowsy the old
man lets his head fall on his breast. He
appears to be asleep. The boys lounge
lazily. But pretty soon Senator Ed
munds or Senator Sherman claps his hand
or snaps his fingers. and it is discovered
that if Capt. Bassett has been sleeping
it was with one eye open. He
jumps up nervously, cracks his old fingers
loudly to rouse the drowsy boys, waves his
long arms, and away scamper two or three
little fellows as fast as their nimble legs
can carry them. Sometimes disaster fol-
lows this sudden display of energy. Two
boys heedlessly rush together in the cen
ter aisle, collide and go sprawling upon
the floor. On such occasions it is inter-
esting to watch the faces of the digni-
fed, elderly senators. They have witness
ed the collision and its results, but they
try to look as if they had seen nothing.
The pages of the senate show Won
derful variety Of sizes and stages of ma
turity, considering that their ages are
supposed to range between twelve and
sixteen. Some Of the little shavers ap-
pear to be no more than eight or
ten, while some of the larger ones
have faces which indicate that they
are shavers indeed. 1t is here to be
noted that the age of boy is as I'M
certain as that of woman or horse.
Much depends upon stature. This Mr..
Barry of whom have spoken was ap-
pointed page to succeed one Ringgold,
who was transferred to the document
room ION account of over age" Later
on Barry and Ringgold became acquaint-
ed, and made the startling discovery
that the former was year and ten
months his predecessors senior. But
Barry was short and Ringgold was tall.
In the house there are thirty-fve boys.
One is a riding page one attends to the
telephone in the members lobby, one is
assigned to the press gallery and two
carry cards to and from the ladies' re-
ception room. This leaves thirty boys
for service ON the floor, and as there are
dozen members to each boy they are
kept pretty busy. Ordinarily the pages
are required to reach the house at 10 in
the morning. They must tidy up each
members desk, file upon it copy of
The Congressional Record and get every
thing in readiness for the days business.
Some of the large boys have twenty
members on their list, while the small
chaps have only three or four. Every
boy wants as many members as he
can get, for it is one of the tradi-
tons of the house that at the end
of session each member must give
his page S. or $40. In addition to their
salaries of $3.50 day the pages of both
house and senate pick up many extra
dollars. Besides running all ovN the
Capitol they are often asked to carry
notes for members to the residence part
of the town, and nearly all of these en-
rands are fruitful of tips Sometimes
these missions are of delicate nature,
and then the rewards are made proper
tionate. If the pages of the Capitol were
to tell all they know what commotion
there would be in the big building and
out Of it!
The pages have many other ways OF
making money They are sent out to
buy cigars, chewing tobacco, gum drops,
bottles of whisky and many other con-
Fgressional necessities and luxuries, and
they often 'keep the change" Occa-
slonally they do an important piece of
work for some lobbyist, and get fat fee
therefor. One page l know has made
$500 during the past six months watch
ing and reporting on certain tariff mat
tiers. Pages get up subscriptions for
the purchase of popular speeches, have
the printing done at private offices
cheaper than the government printing
office rates and pocket the difference.
These bright boys absorb parliament
airy law Often they hold sessions of
their own after the real statesmen have
gone home, with Johnny Jones for
speaker and Billy Smith for sergeant-at-
ar1lac Il or.