Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1893-10-18
ALLEN TALKS ALL NIGHT.
Upper House of Congress in Continuous
Session for TWenty-fO Hours.

Session tor IW0nty-t0ur Hours.
WASHINGTON, u. g., Oct. 12.-All
night long Senator Allen held the floor,
interrupted by an occasional ill-tem-
pered colloquy or a roll-call which
dragged the sleepy senators to their
posts. At A. NJ. the day broke in the
East. The first pale streal1s Of the
dawn's early light kissed the folds OF
the stars and stripes, which fly above
the Senate while that body is in session,
still at the masthead, huttering in the
blaze of light that flowed upward
through the stained glass ceiling
of the Senate chamber. The national
capital below was sleeping peacefully,
but the gray dawn found Mr.. Allen still
holding the fort in the great struggle
against unconditional repeal, as he had
been when darkness fell from the wings
of night twelve hours before. He had
broken all previous records. For
twelve hours and forty-fiye minutes he
had held the floor continuously. The
longest time q senator had previously
occupied the floor was on the occasion
of the force bill fight in 1891, when
Senator Faulkner 5remained on guard
for twelve hours. The West Virginian,
however, had a two hours breathing
spell during the absence of a quorum.
Mr.. Allen seemed almost as fresh as
when he began. His voice was still loud
and strong and the great strain seemed
not to have effected his physical or
mental vigor. The floor about him was
strewn and Uttered with paper. A few
belated spectators in the galleries dOzed.
Senator Voorhees, sat upright in his
seat, reading. Senator Mitchell was
writing industriously at his desk. Sen
ator Dubois, alert and very much
awake, occupied the sentinel tower
for the silverites, while to the
right and left of him Mr..
Caffrey, of Louisiana, and Gen.
Hawley, Of Connecticut, were fast
asleep in their chairs. In the rear of
the chamber, Senators Quay, Higgins,
Lindsey and Lodge were stretched out
on the lounges. Suddenly Mr.. Turpie,
of Indiana, came into the chamber and
sought to make the point of order that
Mr. Alien was transgressing the rules
of the Senate in reading newspaper
extract which reflected on the House Of
Representatives This aroused some Of
his slumbering colleagues, but Mr..
Blackburn, who was in tie chair,
promptly ovelruled the point of order.
The senators sank back again to repOSe
and Mr.. Allen proceeded
AT $50 A. NJ. Mr. Wolcott rounded up
the Senate again, forty-elght senators
answering to their names. BY this
time the day had blotted out the garish
yellow light that Illuminated the cham
Der; Nice-president Stevenson had re-
turned to the chair refreshed by his
long rest; the senators read the morn
ing papers, chatted with a fair degree
Of 4 Il l,, II
once more thoroughly awake The
flowers on the desk of Senator Martin,
of Kansas, who was to follow Mr.. Allen,
remained where they had been placed
twelve hours before, dropping, it is
true, but adding tone of freshness to
the re animated chamber. A lady who
had sat throughout the night in the gall
lery was reinforced by four others who
came in at daybreak.
The silver men were not as severe on
their opponents as it was thought they
would be, for it was believed and ex
pected that the silver men would insist
that the advocates of repeal should con-
tinuously maintain quorum within the
Senate chamber. This they did not do
as after every roll-call the quorum i'm
mediately disappeared and often an
hour elapsed before the demand for
the presence Of a senator in the cham
Der was made Thus they were en-
abled to catch considerable sleep during
the night
An effort was made between and 7
o'clock to reach an agreement to take a
recess from that hour until 10 o. clock.
The proposition was made to the silver
men who took it under advisement and
finally decided to reject it. They said
that as the repeal senators had forced
the continuous session, they would be
obliged to suffer the consequences, and
the silver men would not aid in any
effort to take recess or adjourn until
some settlement Of the question had
been reached. Senator Aliens power
of endurance was absolutely amazing
His wonderful staying qualities made
everyone who had watched him 90 on
for hour after hour, tireless and I'M
daunted, admire his abilities and his
indomitable energy. About 7 o'clock
Mr.. Palmer interrupted him while
speaking Of the poverty and distress of
the people, to remark rather sneeringly
that the Nebraskan seemed able to give
only words; he wanted to give them &C
tual relief. Mr.. Allen turned savagely
upon Mr.. Palmer and declared that he
had given to the poor of his means
given until he had kept himself poor
and he did not want to be chided on that
score. The alteration that ensued led
Mr.. Palmer at one point to say that he
would give 500 to some charity, where
upon Mr.. Allen declared that although
Mr. Palmer was four times as wealthy as
he, he (Allen) would give like
amount.
Senator Voorhees, moved TO lay the
PETER amendment to the repeal bill on
70
30; hayes, 12-not quorum, many
of the silver senators refrain
ing from voting The pice-vres-
ident called the attention Of
the Senate to the fact that Senator
Dubois had not voted and called for an
explanation, which was given. He
asked to be excused. The roll was
called on the motion to excuse Mr.. Du'
bois from voting and the vote stood:
Yeas, 81; nays, %. A vote on the PEI
fer amendment was again taken and
was announced as ayes 80, nays IL.
The Senate was cleared of it's tangle
and Mr.. Martin began his speech.