The Portland daily press., 1892-04-16

employers. Invariably the correspond
emit Of party paper is broader than his
paper, and would make his news and his
writings SAVIOR less of political bias if he
thought his managing editor would
stand it. 1t is a remarkable fact that a
great majority of the men who come to
Washington to serve as correspondents
for newspapers become absolute indie
pendents in politics. They give up the
allegiance which they once owned to
this party or that, and become mere
| students and analysts.
Naturally, they are keen, suspicious,
cynical, critical lot, these men who sit
in the galleries and make or unmake
statesmen with mere twists of the wrist.
There is SO much hypocrisy among the
professional statesmen, so much posing
and insincerity, so much protestation
and rhetoric for the benefit of s'the dis
trict'' at home, that the scribes soon lose
patience with that sort of thing and
learn to judge the men on the floor be-
low at their true value. do not mean
to say that all statesmen are insincere,
nothing but actors, striving for popular
lty. But many of them are, and state
without fear Of contradiction that ma
Jority of them are moral towards inrthe
face of public opinion. Day after day
we see men voting on questions present
ed for their consideration, acting not
upon their judgment or their conviction
OF what is right, but with sole reference
to what the popular opinion is in their
districts. 1t is almost pitiful to see
man of sense and experience, of good
judgment and wide knowledge, sitting
here a mere slave to the caprice or no.
tions of his constituents.
Take the silver bill which have men
toned, for example. | personally know
of at least twenty men who voted on
that bill, some for it and some against
it, who would havereversed their votes
had they dared to express their honest
convictions. Of course their excuse is
that they are representatives and not
free agents; that it is their duty to act
as majority of their constituents would
have them and not to express their own
beliefs. They argue that the house of
representatives was created and organ
lied with this in view; that it was in
tended to be a reflex of the opinions and
desires of the people rather than place
for men to exercise their Judgment
This view of the duty of a congressman
is held, think, by majority Of the
members of the house, and this is one of
the many reasons why should infinite
ly prefer seat in the press gallery to
one on the floor. A Republican may
represent Democratic newspaper, or
Democrat Republican paper, with
much less sacrifice of self respect and
wrenching Of his conscience than is re-
quired to represent congressional dis
trict in the house.
Once in awhile some statesman be-
comes offended at the whole corps of cor
respondents and starts out to ''get even"
with the press gallery. A number of
bold men have tried this little thing,
and they have always failed. In con-
test between statesmen and scribes the
latter invariably stand together, and in
variably get the best of their adversary.
Colonel Sterett, of Texas, the best story
teller in the press gallery, has his unique
way of describing the fate of the states
man who starts out to get ahead of the
correspondents.
"When | see plain, ordinary senator
or representative go on the rampage try
ing to do up the press gallery" says
Colonel Sterett, 81 am reminded of the
manner in which a friend of mine in
Texas whipped John l.. Sullivan. His
name was Marks-Al Marks, cot
ton screwer in Galveston-one of the
strongest men and gamest fighters in
Texas. Sullivan came down there on a
tour and offered $500 to any man who
would stand in front of him with gloves
three rounds. Marks accepted the chal-
lenge. After the contest, two weeks
after it, interviewed Marks, and this
is the way he told his story: sAs walked
up to the stage people cheered me, and
/ felt pretty proud. was going to put
my hands up against the great Sullivan.
I felt sure could whip him. But when
got into the ring and John l.. stood in
front of me he appeared to be heap
bigger than he had looked from my seat.
But the people cheered me and l deter
mined to astonish him right from the
jump. So after we had shaken hands /
let him have a good one right in the
jaw. Sullivan looked at me in a sur
prised sort of way, and I saw that had
his heart broken. Said to myself, this
man has met his match at last, and he
knows it. He is afraid of me. So
gave him some more hard knocks. John
l.. looked at me almost appealingly.
He tried to stop my blows, but he
was slow and clumsy. Said I to
myself: sharks, you are a made
man. You'll whip this fellow easy.
He is so slow with his paws that
you can batter him all to pieces"
But l made up my mind I wouldn't
knock him out till near the end of the
third round-I didn't want to rob the
people Of their sport. At the end of the
round asked Sullivan how he was get
ting along, and he looked kind O. scared
and said only tolerable. In the second
round I pays him several more hard ones