The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-06

/ fot autographs aud sometimes they do a
little speculatiuC SON their own account
/ Very Few of the senator's arc disaereea-
! bic about giving autographs 90 The bows.
| they recognize thisas a legitimate indus
! try. The BOYS have to watch their
| chances, though, so as MOTTO takeasenator
when he Is in bad humor or very busily
engaged with public matters. Very often
during the day when the Senate is not
busy the boys go from desk to desk with
autograph albums, laying them before
senator's. In the House the pages do most
of their autograph collecting before noon.
The practice has fallen partly into disuse
of late years because il came to be some
thing of nuisance to senators and mem
bers.
The pages make quite a little money in
an election year by soliciting subscrip-
tiOns for the sale of speeches. When a
member of the House makes a particular
ly effective political speech, it is used by
some of his fellow-members as a cam
paign document Under the law it can
be printed as "a part of the congressional
Record" at cost, and then sent through
the mails under the COngressman's frank.
The pages solicit orders for these speech
es, and the member after paying for the
copies of the speech, pays $3.50 commits
sion to the page for each 900. The page
has the speeches wrapped and delivered
Sometimes the congressman gives him an
order to see that the speeches are ad-
dressed and mailed. For this he paws
something extra.
Another source of income to the bows is
the contributions made by the senators at
the end of a session to those who have
been particularly active in serving them.
None of the youngsters consider it undig-
niied to accept these tips" Senator
Stanford was warm friend of the pages
He gave them fine dinner every year,
and on the day the Senate adjourned over
for Christmas he gave a s. gold piece to
each of them.
1t is one of the duties of page to place
glass of water on the desk of one of his
Senators who may begin what promises to
be long speech. The late Senator Beck
used to have uglass of Scotch whisky on
his desk. One day the senator sent a
new boy down for "a glass of whisky
while he was making a speech, and the
boy brought back glass of rich, red
liquor whose identity was unmistakable,
Senator Beck went right on with his
speech.
Among so many well-behaved young
gentlemen there may creep in one who is
not so we'll behaved. No community is
insured against "black sheep" There
was black sheep among the Senate pages
y
cles were missed from the desks of sena-
tors, and, complaints having been made, a
watch was set. This boy was discovered
taking stamps and stationery from the
desks. He was tracked to a news stand
where he sold the stamps for one-half
their face value. The next morning he
was called into the office of Acting
Sergeant-at-Arms Reade and dis
missed from the service of the Sen
q fA
Historically. Mr.. Reade turned away
A moment there were sounds of a struggle
behind him, and, turning, he saw Alonzo
Stewart holding the boys right arm and
trying to prevent him from using a knife
which he held open in his right hand.
He would have stabbed Mr. Reade if
Stewart had not seen him open the knife.
He was disarmed and taken out of the
building. This is the one instance on
record where a Senate page has been re-
creant to his trust-which is the excuse
for telling the story at this time.