The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-01-25
BACKS OF SENATORS.
Resting in Red Leather Cush.
ions i'm the House of Lords.
A REAR VIEW OF Statesmen
Vests Fighting Back and Sawyer's
L. Sullivan OF the Upper House.

WASHINGTON Cry, Jan. Is.-[Special
Correspondence.l- II write this letter in
one of the public galleries of the United
States Senate. have left the press gag
lery which faces the chamber and have
come here to get a rear view of our states
men. want to note them as the stranger
does, and | sit here surrounded by colored
citizens who have crawled in to get out of
the cold, by tourists who are doing Wash
ington City in thirty-six hours, and by
bridal couples who whisper sweet moth
ings 10 each other, while Senator Sherman
makes one OF his great speeches. An old,
gray-haired, black-faced uncle slumbers
peacefully by my side with his iron spec
tacles resting on the tip of his nose which
emits an audible snore as write, and back
OF me hear a green country girl ask
ing the guide to show her Senator
Tom Reed and saying that she don't be-
lleve that Vice President Morton wears. a
wig as the papers have reported. Below
me is the big bear pit known as the Senate
chamber, and | count eighty-odd hacks
with queer shaped heads tied to the tops
OF them resting in all attitudes imagin-
able III mahogany arm-chairs with red
cushions behind little mahogany desks.
These arc the backs of our great United
states senators. They are owned by these
eighty men who have six year contracts
WIN tbt SVNtNiliiitHb dJ fD,UuD year,
payable monthly. They receive nearly
500 week or about SIS a day wear in and
year out, and to all outward appearances
they get the money chiefly for resting
those backs against those red leather
cushions for about twelve months out of
the two years which make mp the life
of congress. There one of them drops
q pencil on the floor and page boy in
knickerbockrs runs and picks it M for fear
he should bend that 5000 back Here a
private secretary furnished by the govern
ment at 81 day takes down the directions
of one of the senator's for fear he should
get the students stoop in those s.. 600
shoulders by bending over the desk, and
there third senator, in order to rest the
easier, has thrown himself back against
the red leather cushions and has propped
his feet on the chair beside him and seems
to be going into doze.
1t Is a soft snap.
i don't know anything better than the
position of a United States senator. and
here from the rear ii seems softer than
ever. See how the great men amuse them
selves Cullom of Illinois is playing with
string. Reagan of Texas is poking the
end of his spectacles into his ears and
Payne of Ohio is chewing a wooden tooth
pick TO digest the bread and milk which
has formed his frugal lunch. see two
round, tat backs below me and / hear the
clink of silver as bend over the rail and
look down. George Vest and Philetus
Sawyer are sitting and chatting together.
and their big heads almost bump each
other as they whisper under their breaths.
Sawyer has two silver dollars in his hand
and he passes these in a fondhng way.
as though he loved them, from one
paw to the other. He is urging Vest to
sign petition which lies before him and
by this he will be enabled to pass a pension
bill for one of his constituents out of the
regular order. Sawyer is like Joey RAG
stock, Tough, but devilish sly" He gets
through more pension bills than any other
man in the Senate, and this is the way he
operates. He is one of the successful men
OF the. Senate, and those silver dollars
which be clinks are only two out of the
four million which he is said to be worth,
and which he has made out of that big,
round bald head which is pasted down into
those big broad shoulders below me.
The back is good index of character.
There is positive force in that back of
Sawyer's. Every one of its fat bumps is
indicative of push and perseverance, and
the broad shoulders, the firmly set head
and the great powerful arms are emblem
attic of the success of its owner. Senator
Vest has the back of fighter and here
from the gallery it looks like the back of a
bully. Vest reminds one of the bad man
from Bitter creek. His shoulders are
thrust forward and his neck pokes his
great head, with its frowning eyes, out
from them, and you look to see the chip
on his shoulders which his manner asks
you to knock off If you dare. And still
Vest is good fellow. He has been great
man for years. He was a member of the
Confederate congress, and he ranks here as
one OF the strong men OH the Democratic
side of the chamber He has n strong
back, but not a diplomatic one. aud he
holds his own by sheer force of intellect
and will.
Take that back of Eyarts. 1t is stopped
with the study of many years. The frame
inside its broadcloth coat has lost its up
rightness from the burning of gallons OF
midnight oil, and Eyarts is one of the hest
read men in public life. He has mighty
head fastened by thin neck TO those
STOPPING shoulders, and when he begins to
speak you think his words must be coiled
up inside his frame like a watch-spring,
for he pulls them out, adiectives, nouns
and verbs, until you are dizzy in trying to
keep track of them, and he will reel off 400
of them before he makes period. asked
him one day as to those 400-word sen.
fences, and he replied:
MY boy. ] have been more than a gem
Grafton in public life, and have occupied
number Of positions of trust and it seems
to me that when man has gone through
the different periods of public life that I
have and has had to do with such interests
and such trusts as | have, and the only
thing that can be said against him Is that
he uses sentences 400 words long, it does
not seem to me that the criticism is such
an one as should keep him awake o.
nights. Besides" he went on, ''alf the
great orators of antiquity used long sem
fences. Demosthenes recled out pages of
words without stop. Cicero used long
sentences and in fact it is a question as to
whether the proper oratorical sentence
should not be long one"
Senator Hoar has good, fat, old, con-
sentative back. 1t is prosperous and we'll
rounded and its owner seems to have that
contented spirit which is better than great
riches. Senator Cullom has as many
angles in his back as Hoar has curves. He
thinks his hack looks like that of Abe
Lincoln's, but as he stands erect inside of
his desk, he makes me think of the frame
which the farmer puts up in his corn-field
when the crows are plenty, and his coat
seems to hang from his shoulders.
Another angular back is that of Senator
bones were hung on wires and he throws
his stomach to the front instead
of his chest, as he stands up
right He has not the fat paunch
of Senator Sawyer and his belly has ten
wrinkles To that Of Reagan's one. His
shoulders stoop slightly and he has the
fighting back Of Senator Vest. He is one
of the brayest men in the Senate and one
Of the most able. He is a man Of ideas
and when he has gotten out Of the baby
hood Of senatorships he viii make himself
felt. ingalls, has an angular back. He is
| tail and thin, and the newsboy who called
him skeleton dressed up was not very far
wrong. The top of his frame is the most
/ ri Of and frf,ru tho he an