Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-25
SEEN FROM THE REAR.
Frank Carpenter Takes a Peep at the
Senate From a Gallery.
A CHARACTER STUDY In BACKS.
Wolcott the Sullivan Of the Chamber, and
Chandler the Pigmy.
How SENATOR GEORGES CLOTHES FIT

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE D1srArcH.1
WASHINGTON, Jan. pa write this let
ter in one of the public galleries of the
United States Senate. I have left the press
gallery, which faces the Chamber, and have
come here to get a rear view OF our states
men. 1 want to note them as the stranger
does, and 1 sit here surrounded by colored
citizens who have crawled in to get out of
the cold. by tourists who are doing WASH
ington in 36 hours. and by bridal couples
who whisper sweet nothings to 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 spectacles resting on the tip OF his nose,
which emits an audible snore as I write,
and back of me hear green country girl
asking the guide to show her Senator Tom
Reed, and saying that she don't believe that
Vice President Morton wears wig as the
papers have reported. Below me is the big
Bear Pit, known as the Senate Chamb Der, and
I count S0-odd backs, with Queer-shaped
heads tied to the tops of them, resting III all
attitudes imaginable in mahogany arm
chairs with red cushions. behind little
mahogany desks.
The Backs of the Statesmen.
These are the backs of our great United
States Senators. They are owned by these
so men, who have six-year contracts with
the Government at S., 600 year, payable
monthly. They receive nearly S100 week,
or about SIS day year in and year out, and
to all outward appearances they get the
| money chiefly tor resting those backs against
rad lat fnr nhOnt
| months out of the two years which make
up the life of a Congress. There. one
of them drops pencil on the floor,
and page boy in knickerbockers runs and
| picks it up for fear he should bend that
| $4,000 back. Here, private secretary,
furnished by the Government at Sc day,
takes down the directions of one of the
Senators, ior fear he should get the students
stoop in those $1,000 shoulders by bending
| over the. oesk, and there, third Senator, in
order to rest the easier, has thrown himself
back against the red-leather cushions ana
| has propped his feet on the chair beside
him, and seems to BE- going into doze.
1t is 4 soft snap.
don't know ANYTHING better than the
position of a United States Senator. and
here from the rear it seems softer than ever
How They Amuse Themselves.
Be
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 wooden toothpick to digest the
/ bread and milk which has formed his frugal
lunch. see two round, fat 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 chat
ting 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 fondling
way,as though he loved them, from one paw
to the other.
He is urging Vest to sign a petition
which lies before him, and by this he will be
enabled to pass pension bill for one of his
constituents out of the regular order. Saw
yer is like joey Bagstock, tough, but
develish sly" He gets through more pen
sion 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 he clinks are only
two out of the 1000, 900 which ne 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.
Backs and Character.
| There is a positive force in that back of
Sawyer's. Every one of its fat bumps is iu-
| dicative of push and perseverance, and the
broad shoulders, the firmly set head and the
| great, powerful arms are emblematic OF the
| success OF its owner. Senator Vest has the
| back of fighter, and here from the gallery
it looks like the back of bully. Vest re-
| minds 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 shoulder which his
manner asks you to knock off il you dare
Aud still Vest is a good fellow. He has
been great man for years. lie was a men,
ber of the Confederate Congress and he
| ranks here as one OF the strong men on the
/ Democratic side of the Chamber. He has a
| strong back, but not a diplomatic one, and
| he holds his own by sheer force of intellect
and will. Take that back of Evarts. 1t is
stopped with tine study of many years. The
frame inside its broadcloth coat has lost its
| uprightness from the burning of gallons of
| midnight oil. and Evarts is one of the best
read men in public life.
Evarts' Long Sentences.
He has mighty head, fastened by thin
| neck to those STOPPING shoulders, and when
he begins to speak you think his words
| must Oe cOlleQ up INSIDE MS frame like q
watch spring, for he pulls them out. ad-
jectives, 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. I asked him one day as to these
| 400-words sentences, aud he replied:
MY boy, 1 have been more than gener-
alton in public life and have occupied q
number OF positions of trust, and it seems to
me that when q man has gone through the
different periods of public life that have
and has had to do with such interests and
such trusts as 1 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 not keep him awake o'nights. Be-
Sides" he went on, call the great orators OF
antiquity used long sentences. Demos
themes reeled out pages of words without a
stop. Cicero used long sentences, and in
fact, it is question as TO whether the proper
oratorical sentence should not be a long
one."
The Back of Prosperity.
Senator Hoar has good, fat, old, con.
servative back. 1t is prosperous and we'll.
rounded and its owner seems to have that
contented spirit which is better
than great riches Senator Cul-
lon has as many angles in his back as Hoar
has curves. He thinks his back looks like