Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-03-16


 of all the Pilgrims and Columbus. But the painting which attracts the largest crowd | and holds it longest is the surrender of | Lord Cornwallis, wherein Washington and | O'Hara, British, French and Continentals,
 are all of an intense brick color, as we'll | they might be after an autumnal campaign | in that section of Virginia.
 | A Vain Search For Epithets. Unless he has guide to direct him the visitor overlooks the famous bronze doors and many other minor objects, but fingers | in the monument room and about the | f1uted colums of the capitol The structure
 as a whole is indeed calculated to excite | feelings of pride and patriotism. It is
 agreed, believe, by travellers that it Is the | finest building of it's class in the world. | There are many palaces, cathedrals, etc, 1 much finer, of course, but as a building especially for the use of a legislative body | it has no equal, and most of the legislative
 halls of other nations are far inferior. | By comparison with the hall of the house
 that of the British house of commons is
 really ridiculous. The visitor, however, l wastes no time in such reflections, but | when the first weariness of sightseeing
 comes over him he hunts for 'his mem- 1 ber,' meaning the representative from his district, and is shown a seat in the gal | lery where his member, if business is not l pressing, kindly points out to him the mo-
 liabilities upon the floor. He has read, of | course, the furious invectives which enliven the debates on the tariff and pensions. He | knows how such epithets as rebel, " "rob- | Der baron" and 'plutocrat" are hurled ] backward and forward, and how the mem- | bers sometimes appear to be on the point | of coming to blows. In his minds eye, l therefore, he sees the two parties sitting l sullenly apart and glaring upon each other with scarcely concealed rage. And yet in ! these dull times, when the tariff act and | pension appropriation bill, the Hawaiian | business and the silver bill are out of the
 way, this is what he really sees-at any
 rate, this is what did see only the other | day:
 | Political Amenities.
 | It was the warmest day of the season so l far-warm as the average early May day in New York-and the man who held the floor l had one of those peculiar singsong voices of | which had not heard fine specimen since | the days when I attended the old country l church. A very few of the members were | writing, many more were dozing in their | chairs and much larger number were in the cloakroomS, from which issued the | flavor of good cigars and occasionally a l sound of scarcely restrained laughter. The 1 Hon. J. c. Black lay back in his chair, with l his feet up in such a way that, as seen from | the reporters gallery, they almost entirely concealed the rest of him.
 Tom Reed and "Silver Dollar Bland
 were sitting together talking and giggling | like two schoolboys, while ill front of the | speakers desk Patterson of Tennessee and Burrows of Michigan engaged in a confab | until they drew nearer and nearer, put their | arms over each others shoulders and | breathed into each others ears like two young lovers in their most gushing state. | Chairman Richardson leaned back in his | chair and looked as If he wanted to sleep. l Clerks and officials looked like lazy school
 boys on a sunny afternoon. and even the l nimble pages seemed overcome with listless- l ness.
 l On such day as this it is noticeable that
 the members are frequently paired off on
 political lines, Republican and Democrat | occupying adjacent seats and indulging in the amenities of politics. There are, how | ever, a few men ill every congress who nev- | CT relax in this way, never forget that they 1 are partisans, and even on these dull days l they keep to their own side with military
 precision. And they are not the men who use the most violent invective in debate by
 any manner of means.
 l When one of these droning speeches is
 ended and the dozing period is past. If something of an exciting nature comes up | it is astonishing to note the sudden change l that comes over the house. All the elee- l trical bells are set ringing to notify the l members in the committee rooms that they l are needed. They come rushing in thence
 and from the cloakrooms and lobby. Dem
 ocrats and Republicans fall apart like l chemical units when the reagent is applied. l and at once the whole house seems to bris-
 tie for political war; The uproar is really | bewiiderng. A new man in the gallery | tcb rlpsalv for hnllrS haf0rQ he l master the run of business.
 l In the Senate.
 l It is in times like these that the house Is | compared to a ward caucus, 8 bear garden, | a leave of the winds" and the like. When, weary of this sort of thing, the visitor goes over to the senate gallery, he finds con
 trast that is actually chilling In ordinary
 times he rarely sees more than 30 senators
 in their seats. There is no demonstration
 of any kind either on the floor or in the gal
 leries, and over the whole chamber there is
 an atmosphere of the peace that passeth | understanding.
 l The visitor asks first of all that the sen
 ators from his own state be pointed out for l him; then half dozen or so of the most l prominent men. The greatest curiosity. of ! course, is to see the venerable Morrill, Of l Vermont and John Sherman, the veterans 1 of the senate. MT. Morrill, now outranks all others in both houses and falls but little
 short of having equaled the longest term or | legislative service in history. He entered the house in 1855, served continuously there
 until 1867 and then entered the senate,
 where his present term will continue until
 1897. Thus he has already served 39 years 1 and will have completed 42 years with the
 end of his term. And, what is more, his 30
 years in the United States senate covered a
 far more exciting period than the 30 years l of Thomas H. Benton, and during his time nearly all the radical issues of national su' l premacy and primary human rights have
 been discussed and settled, so far as such
 things can be.
 Sherman entered the house at the same
 time with Morrill, and was transferred to
 the senate in 1861, but his service was bro ken by his term as secretary of the treasury,
 Nevertheless, as his present term ends in 1899, he will have served & years in the sen
 ate and in the house. Mir Holman en- tered the house four years later, and his | term has also been broken.
 Next to these perhaps the interest IS
 greatest in Senator Hoar. and almost ey-
 cry visitor thinks of him as much older
 thah he really Is. for he Is but 6T and eu.
 tered the house as late as ls69 He fs q
 mere boy compared with Gladstofle and Merrill and men of their ciass and may wsll look eerdard to i've more fuM serME