The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-03-22
SEEN AND HEARD AT THE CAPITOL
Chances For Maine lStenographers
to Work for Their Country.
A Vote by TeIIers and Why Mr.. Rea-
gan Once Did Not Vote.
Senator Sherman's "reminiscences
of william Pitt Fe ssenden.
Especial to the Pressl

WASHINGTON, March 2l.-The Civil Ser
vice Commission is preparing for an exam
ination to be held on the first of April for
applicants for positions in the classified c1s-
tom houses in Baltimore, Philadelphia. New
York. Boston, Portland, Me-, Chicago. New
Orleans, San Francisco, Detroit. Port
Huron, and Burlington, VT Persons desir-
ing to take the examination should send to
the Civil Service Commission at Washington
at once for proper information as to condi-
tions of examination. The United States
Civil Service Commission also has need of
male applicants for services in the depart
ment at Washington, who, in addition to
ordinary clerical attainments, possesses a
kno owledge of stenography and typewriting.
The present needs of the service will in
crease the chances of those earliest examin-
ed Nearly all of those who have passed
successful examinations in both subjects
have been appointed. The entrance grades
are usually $500, $1,000 and $1,000. The ex-
animation in stenography consists of exer-
cises and dictation, and at least S5 words a
minute must be written accurately. In type
writing speed of at least % words minute
is required. Applicants whose legal resi-
dence is in the District of Columbia cannot
be examined, so an opportunity is offered to
those in more distant places.
One of the sights most curious to visitor
in the House of Representatives is a vote by
tellers on question of great interest. Dur
ing the debate there may not be forty men,
bers in sight scattered in the seats of the
great hall, and as the two tellers take their
place in the little area in front of the Speak
er's desk the line that passes between them
Is at first thin. But In moment the little
area about the tellers is swarming with
members of both political parties. "Whence
have they Gomez" is the question of the
spectator. They have come from all parts
OF the building, summoned by system of
signals. Near the seat of the assistant door
keer is little lever connected with electric
bells in all parts of the building, in the cor
ridors, committee rooms, down in the res
taurant, in the coat rooms and lobbies A
member must be very far off not to hear
these bells ringing out the signals that the
yeas and nays are to be taken, that there is
to be vote by tellers, etc. AS soon as the
member hears the bell he gets up and goes,
with the result that on vote on question
OF interest there is presently great swarm
of members on the floor. Sometimes men,
Der does not get around in time. Senator
Reagan OF Texas, when he was member of
the House, was very anxious to vote on an
Important question, in the debate upon
which he had been very conspicuous. But
when the bell rang for the vote he was in a
bath tub down in the bath room In the base
ment, and failed to get into raiment proper
for appearance on the floor of the House be-
fore the vote was over.
The discussion upon the Blair bill, which
has just closed in the Senate. has taken a
wide range, and first and last has brought
up about all the great questions at issue over
the black man. Senator John Sherman, who
is one of the few men in the Senate who
served conspicuously in Congress in the days
of the war and through reconstruction, made
in the course of debate with Senators
Eustis of Louisiana and George of
statement of his own
the Fifteenth amendment and if his feelings
with regard to it at the present time. Mr..
Sherman was chairman of a committee OF
the Senate to frame a reconstructive measure
out of the various bills pending in 1866 and
1867 At that time it was not contemplated
to arm the negro with suffrage. 1t was not
even proposed except by one or two senators
and Senator Sherman declares that it was
ing when the first act of reconstruction was
passed. But in the next two years the
Southern legislatures began to pass unjust
laws that left in the North the belief that the
people who had waged war against the. Un-
ion intended to overthrow the results of the
war. Then the Fifteenth amendment began
to be thought of. ut was not" said Senator
Sherman, until the people of the North felt
that there was no way whatever left to pro-
tect the acknowledged rights of the colored
mn nf fhs nnfh nrf 70 xuitk
suffrage, that we approached it; and we did
so with great difficulty and with much delay.
Two years and more elapsed after the first
act was passed before Congress was brought
to vote upon the Fifteenth. amendment.
when we came to the conclusion
that there was no remedy left except to arm
the negroes with suffrage, it was adopted in
the form of a constitutional amendment and
voted for by such men as Fessenden
and Trumbull and Doolittle and Mr.. Cox,
who has recently died, lately a member from
New York, then member, from Ohio. It
was adopted by them as the last resort"
OF the wisdom of that amendment Mr..
Sherman Acknowledges himself in doubt.
Sometimes l have thought" said he, sin
view Of all the events which transpired at
that time, that perhaps it would have been
better not to have adopted that amendment,
because the rights conferred by the fifteenth
amendment to the Constitution have been
nullified and uprooted. Those rights do
not now exist wherever the franchise is
valuable to those people for whom it was
meant. No man can question, in view even
Of the admissions made on this floor, that
practically the result of the fifteenth amend
ment is to give to the Southern States in
creased representation in the Honse of Rep
resentatives, to give them increased power
in the Electoral College" But Mr.. Sherman
in his old age is ready still to face the ad-
vanced stage of the problem which in his
youth he faced with Fessenden and Trum-
bull and their colleagues.