Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1890-04-25
THE LEGS" OF CONGRESS.
BOYS WHO ACT AS MESsENGERS
FOR THE STATESMAN.
Their Pay and Peruuisitcs-Gettip ing
Autographs and Subsoript ions for
Spccchcs-Thcir After Life


Tue pages Of the Senate aud House are
sort of undcrstudy to the statesmen.
Each has some Senator or member wSom
he ntlmircs and initiates, aud it is not be-
yond the range Of hi, ambition that he
may some day occupy 4 sea, i'll Congress
himself. They havca sort of fellow feel
ing for Senator German and other states
men who have risen from scat on the
steps by the Vice. Presidents desk to Il
chair i'll the Legislative body. All the
pages are statesmen in their way and are
up in politics. Their fate is dependent
upon the welfare of their members, and
they rise and fall with their party. In Il
Republican Senate the boys are all Re-
and go rs tho majoritics shift, The
Senate pages have more secure tenure
and hold themselves to be of little more
Importance than the boys who wait ON the
Representatives. But the latter profess
contempt FOR u class of young individuals
who don't take the cliauccs of politics ut
every election, and pride themselves upon
their own close alliance to their party's
vicissitudes. They look upon the knee
brccched attaches OF the Senate as old
fogies without knowledge of political
wire pulling. They are themselves an
fait on all matters political.
They are tho ''lcgs" of the Congress.
men, but they have heads of their own
that are crowded with schemes to their
full capacity. They arc not usually well
UP in book learning, but arc well up on
affairs OF state. They enter public life
at the nature age of ten Or eleven years
upon u salary of $3.50 day and such
pcrqrisitcs as fall into their hands, and,
if their political fortunes arc good, re-
main in tho service until they are no
longer boys. Then they 80 out into the
world to become politicians, drummcrs,
railroad Presidents, or congressman, or
else take downward turn. They usually
enter tho field of politics. rs they are fa-
miliar with all its branches. They are
fully equipped for the position of Senator
or Representative, but deficient in almost
all other useful knowledge.
The average pago OF fourteen or fifteen
years old counts in his wardrobe IL beaver
hat, pair of knee brccchcs, cigar case,
q Lord Chumlcy overcoal and horn.
handled cane. Many OF these have
brilliant career during their tender years,
and havo gone through all cxcesscs of
mature manhood boforc they are old
enough to vote ut any we'll regulated clcc-
ton.
On the House side there are thirty
pages, fifteen who sit on the right of the
Speaker to wait on the Democrats and
fifteen on the other side to respond to the
Republicans. They are under command
of two chief pngcs, who lnvc been pro-
noted from the ranks, and onc-armcd
Captain, who is chief in command
The chief page on the Senate side is
almost rs old rs the Senate itself and is
custodian Of the snuff box and nll the an
i9uitics and "reminiscences of that body;
while the pages who nrc under command
Of Captain BasSott are usually very small
boys
When Senator claps his hands half
dozen small boys rush out from different
directions, coming to collision in the cen
ter isle, and the one who sustains the
shock and picks himself up the quickest
holds the secret conference with the Sem
itor, and then with pompous air starts
off on a private mission-to the docu-
ncnt room for bill or TO the library for
a book.
1t takes almost as much political in
ducnce to be II Senate page in Congress
as to get foreign mission. The usual
sgc is from ten to fifteen, and very few
rcmain after they are eighteen.
Some of them after outgrowing their
positions have dono very well in the
world, but very many have acquired dis
sipatcd habits which have ended their
career disastrously at an carly age, Familiar
conspicuous examples of success are those
Of Senator Gormnn, ex-lteprescntatiyc
Scott, Of Erie, and the late Representative
Towscnd, of Illinois, who became cmin-
ent in public life. Others have been
quite rs successful in business or pro-
fcssional life, though not rs well known.
Pages usually make considerable money
and make it easily, and they spend it
with freedom. Besides their salaries
they turn good many honest dollars
Rich and liberal members often pay them
large sums for small services. In the
House each page has to file the records
for ten members. This is part Of the
duty for which they are paid by the
Dut ChCh ~ biit cHli
of the session usually gives the page who
tends to his file from SIS to $40. Some
of the rich Representatives. aud Senators
nre in the habit of making presents of
money to the pages at Christmas time and
at the end of the session.
The autograph business used to be
very profitable. Every morning the
pages would go around from member to
member as they reached the hall and
solicit their signatures in big autograph
books A book containing all the names
was worth from $5 to SO to the pages
who had it. They found ready sale
for these books as fast as they could fill
them and it did not take long to get all
tho signatures. Ono of tho regular
duties Of member was to sign his name
about thirty times each morning.