The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-07-27

In the record OF the present session OF Congress
the removal from the Capitol of the pie woman,
the curiosity woman. the apple and cigar stands
the news stands, and the huckstries generally
must take prominent place. Nothing in the
way of a shop.keepiug business now remains in
the Capitol building but the two restaurants, one
in the House and the otherin the Senate wing of
the building. The apple and pie stand is no more.
Clara Morris's collection of photographs and GU
riosties no longer stands in the niche where for
wears and years the tourist has been able to pur-
chase for few cents some curious and instruc-
tive souvenir of the Capitol. The whole brood of
souatters has been evicted by order of Speaker
Reed. TheSpeaker under the rules OF the House
has absolute authority over temporal affairs at
the House end of the Capitol. He can give rec
ognltion or refuse recognition to member on
the floor, he could close the galleries against the
newspaper correspondents aud the public IL he
took ii into his head to doso and he has perfect
right to say whether there shall be one place or
dozen places or no place at all in the House
wing of the Capitol where one can buy cigar
or piece of pie
The huckstries, which, after having sQuatted
some of them from the time of Henry Clay, in
hooks and corners of the corridors, have been
wiped out of existence by Speaker Reed, might
have been considered from many standpoints.
They might, for instance, have been considered
as useful or useless, as ornamental or not orna-
mental. And on these points opinions differed
very widely. Some people looked upon these
stalls as so many eyesores in what ought to have
been a fair, open, dignided, and unencumbered
perspective. while others really thought that
they impaired pleasant Quaintness and variety
TO the scene. Then while some regarded them as
useful and convenient others looked upon them
as common nuisances and had no patience with
them. But even those who were hostile to them
in their days OF prosperity have no il-feeling
tk,off 1o1- hos
Indeed. think that IL plebiscite of the Con-
gressmen and the frequenters of the Capitol
were taken to-day the huckstries would be re-
stored by q vote of four to one. With the buck
stries, as with many other more or less trouble
some but familiar acquaintances, we don't know
how we love them till we lose them. The res
toration of the squatters would be hailed at the
House end Of the Capitol to-day as the welcome
return of old friends.
Clara Morris. the eccentric old French woman,
who, tradition says, came over from Paris with
Henry Clay in the early part of the century and
started to do business in the Capitol building as
a vendor of curiosities under his especial au-
spices, might indulge her eccentricities by rush
ing out from behind her stall and hugging old
time Congressman as they passed along the cor
ridors, the backwood member might lounge
about the apple stand eating his apple with
jack-knife and scattering the parings all over the
them and slip, but all would be forgiven il the
sQuatters would only return and fill up the
ton; and there is no doubt they would very soon
return if Speaker Reed would let them, for Clara
Morris and her colleagues are haunting the cor
rdors day after day as departed spirits are said
TO haunt by night the places of their former
abode. They can hardly realize yet that they
have been removed. The disagreeable incident
is like dream to them, and they certainly hope
to wake up some morning and find themselves
doing business again at the old stand.
And such Il return to the old condition is not
at all impossible. Many Congressman mourn the
removal of the stalls and the departure of the
stall keepers as personal grievance, and they
look upon Speaker Reeds work in manner as
act of vandalism. OF all the sQuatters in for
mer times the telegraph offices alone remain.
The numerous stenographers and typewriters
who used to swarm in the hooks and corners of
the corridors where they were very convenient
to the Congressmen, who gave them all the work
they could attend to, are seen no more now, and
they are greatly missed by the members who
had learned to dispose in that way of correspon-
dence which they could not possibly conduct
with their own hands,
Another privilege that members of the House
have been summarily deprived Of is the dearly
cherished privilege of smoking on the floor. 1t
is true that there has always been rule against
Sun okiDg on the floor, but the rule WAS never en-.
forced except on the very rare occasion when an
oyer-fastidious disgruntled member would
rise in his place and formally call the Speakers
attention 10 the improperly. Now, however
the rule is rigidly enforced all the time under an
order which Speaker Reed has given TO the Door.
keeper of the House. On the walls of the cham.
ber are conspicuously posted cards, which read
as follows: