The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-01-18
TALK OF THE WEEK.

He was evidently stranger in the city. He
was middle-aged and spare, and some kind hand
had put new velvet collar deeply black on his
OLD brown overcoat. AS he ascended the broad
footway to the Capitol he was plainly deeply
impressed with the magnifcence of the build
ing. "Well," he said TO a gentleman who was
walking along in the same direction, and who
noticed the slight Southern twang to his accent,
"that is Just as splendid as l expected" !" and he
nodded his head admiringly in the direction of
the Capitol Building ''I reckon none of those
great buildings in Europe we read about in the
travel books aren't any finer than that" The
gentleman to whom he spoke said no, he didn't
think they were. He had travelled in Europe,
he said, and did not think any of the famous
buildings of London, Paris, Berlin, or Vienna
were fner than the Capitol "Talking about
Berlin" said the stranger, with fresh access
of restrained enthusiasm, "those German doc
tors are wonderful fellows Pm doctor my
self, and Ive been reading good deal about
this Koacher's liniment to cure consumption,
and think it's wonderful discovery-.wonder-
full"
A bright Massachusetts girl came to Wash
ington recently to see what sort of a field il was
for live newspaper man of her sex. She
stopped at an uptown hotel and next morning
started out to look up the only acquaintance she
had in the city. She was gone all day, and when
she returned in the eveRing the clerk told her
young woman had been there three times in her
absence and was very anxious to see her. The
caller had left written card, presumably bear
ing her name, but the writing possessed the
characteristics of genius to such an extent that
the newspaper girl gave up the attempt of de-
ciphering it in despair. She couldn't imagine
who the caller was, as she had no female ac-
quaintances in Washington and she is as yet
quite unknown to fame. After dinner her only
acquaintance in the city, newspaper man,
called at the hotel, and she showed him the card
the visitor had left. He could not make out
the name on 1t, either, and the young newspaper
girl was greatly puzzled to know who the per-
son was who seemed SO anxious to see her. At
O'Clock the young woman went to the theatre
and when she returned to her hotel found that
the mysterious caller had called again This
time the clerk found out who she was. Like
the Massachusetts girl, she was newspaper
woman, and left word she would like to have
the former call at the Office of local journal
the next day, if convenient and be interviewed.
This puzzled the young woman from Massachu-
setts more than ever. But the next day she
called at the Office of the local journal, and as
soon as she made herself known one of four
young women in the room rushed to her with an
exclamation of pleasure "Oh, I'm so glad you
calied,' the young woman said. 81 want you
to tell me how you do that wonderful dance
where you hold the tambourine over your head
and kick it,, The Massachusetts girl was thun-
derstruck. AS soon as she recovered from her
surprise she asked whom she was taken for.
Then she learned that the Washington newspa-
per woman had somehow mixed her up with
female member of the 'sParlor Match''
company, who does some very eccentric dane
ing and high kicking. When the true state of
the case was made clear all around there were
profuse apologies, followed by peals of laughter.
X Il 4
A good story is told about the Capitol of the
easy way in which an eX-member of the House
recently earned handsome fee. The ex-mem-
Der in question now devotes himself mostly TO
guiding Alright the votes of sitting members on
bills in which he is in one way or another inter-
ested Not long ago the representatives of
national association of Government employees,
who want Congress to do something for their
relief, came to Washington to urge the passage
of bill in their interest. The bill is good
one, and the Government employees in question
deserve that something should be done for them.
But the best bills require intelligent pushing to
get them through Congress nowadays, and the
representatives of the Government employees
association seem to have quickly discovered
That they would need some one to plead ,heir
case before the committee which had their bill
In charge. The ex-member in question ran
across them and somehow convinced them that
ne was the man they wanted. So they engaged
him to appear before the committee, and on the
proper day he did so. At the appointed mo-
ment he appeared in the committeeman, drew
from his pocket half sheet of letter paper, on
which he had scribbled his plea for the en-
ployees bill, and read to the following effect:
"Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the commit
oCC, hnoW GudI you KNOW UDaU uQlS is EOOQ
bill. These clerks are very deserving class of
men, and this bill ought to pass. l am conf
dent that the honorable gentlemen of your COM
mlttee will give it due consideration, and do
what you can to help these men out. So hoping
that your honorable committee will take favor
able action on the bill as soon as possible will
not take up any more of the time of the COM
mittee, but leave the matter in your hands,"
so saying the exmember bowed politely to the
committee, put back the half sheet of letter
paper in his pocket, picked up his hat, and
walked out His speech occupied less than
half minute in delivery, and altogether his
work in behalf of the bill did not take more
than five minutes of his time. The ex-member's
fee for this feat in lobbying was one thousand
dollars.
The greatest feat of reporting that has ever
been performed by the official reporters of Con-
gress was that of preparing the Senate report
for the Record Wednesday night. The chief
reporter is sick and but two men were available
to do the work. The Senate was in session for
fourteen hours, all of which time was spent
in an active discussion of the Silver bill. 1t was
after IL O'Clock at night when they adjourned
and during the session they had talked over one
hundred and twenty thousand words. Two
stenographers took the report, and by debating
their notes into monographs for typewriters to
transerlbe they had all the copy ready for the
| printers by o'clock in the morning, and the
Record was on the desks of the Senators when
! Congress convened on Thursday.
x X II
There has been a revival of talk about an ex-
ira session at the Capitol the last few days.
| The backward state of the appropriation bills