The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-04-09
FUNNY MEN AT WORK
Histories and Dictionaries Have
Been Ransacked
To Make Jokes About Pollard
Breckenridge Case.
IMMORTALITY NO BAR.
Congress Has Nothing to Do
With Members Morality.
IMMORTALITY NO BAR.

WASHINGTON, April o. Especial -
My district is very peculiar, - said the
Hon. Robert G. Davey of New Orleans in
the course of a lengthy talk on political
prospects, land often surprises the oldest
politicians in it. For instance, we were
beaten in 1884 and 1888, and yet I carried
the district in 1892 by some 5000 majori
ty. notified the people several weeks ago
that L would not be a candidate again,
and there arc four or five lively applicants
for the nomination That part of the dis
trict in New Orleans is Democratic, of
course, but outside the Republican major
ity was formerly 5000. The negroes be-
came SO well satisfied with the general ac-
ton of the planters that / got enough of
their votes to reduce the outside majority
to q few hundreds. But it would be non
sense for anybody to run on the platform
of the Wilson bill as it passed the house,
and they might well ask man to shoot
himself as to vote for it. The planters
would go against him unanimously and
carry all the negroes with them. In fact,
nobody could be induced to run any
such platform
''Thc planters and people outside of the
city were very anxious for me to run again,
but one term has satisfied me. 1t costs SO
much to make the canvass and SO much to
live here that 1 lose money by staying and
every year a man stays in ngress he is
less fitted for business. am not a profess
siOnal man, SO have resi- gned and entered
into a partnership, one of the conditions
being that l shall stay out of politics. But
as to the main question anybody can see
that there is at least the usual discomfort
at the end of the first year of an admins
tration, if not great deal more, and that
it will be very hard pulling this year for
Democrats. There is a very largo clement
CT voters that are always out of humor
with the party in power and every man
who begins Baid on administration is
sure to have q following. If you will look
over our political history, think you will
find that new parties always start in an
off year. OF course if the election We're
held now, the Democrats would be badly
beaten, and next fall the chances are some
what mixed for tho next house"
"And what viii be the effect of Cleve-
lands veto and his appointments"
ooh, 1 should be Glad to talk about that,
but really you must c-cuse me now /
have an important committee meeting at
this hour
Tho Tariff Debate.
The correspondents prophesied fort
night ago that the tariff debate in the sen
ate would be q slow affair, and tho senate
has so far more than fulfilled the prophe-
cy. It was quite disappointment to see
the galleries not quito filed when Mr..
Voorhees, opened the debate and it was a
surprise to find them partly emptied before
he closed, but that was only Il beginning of
the signs of indifference 1t is evident that
the discussion is laid aside or taken up
from day to day, just as the notion may
take the senators, and the pressure to have
other measures considered is so great that
it seems sometimes as if tho tariff were
about to be laid aside altogether. Senator
Morgan is extremely anxious to have Mic
aragua, the Mosquito coast and all along
shore in that region discussed, and Senator
White insists on carly consideration of the
Chinese treaty, although he went home
about the time it was madc public There
has been a very peculiar change of opinion
on this treaty. The first Pacific coast men
who spoke denounced it bitterly, declar-
ing it d surrender to the Chinese, but Sen
ator White declares that California APP
proves it, and that being the case there
VIII be very little OPPOSITION to it: Sena-
tor Morgan hopes to have it disposed of be-
fore the 1st of May, if not sooner. In the
house no great hope is held out of getting
into any business of great general interest
for some days yet, owing to the vearisone
delay with the contested election cases and
others where 1ilibUStering was practiced
Breclzinridgc's Ruin.
The ruin of Defendant Breckenridge
may be said to be complete when even his
family name and history are made the sub
ject of off color jokes. The jocose journal
lists have already set their wits at work
on the names of the two parties, and it is
really singular how readily both names
lend themselves to pun, paragraph and
pithy pcrversion. the dictionaries and his
tories of names are ransaclzed. In Web
ster's Unabridged appears this: Pollard:
l. A tree having the top cut off at some
height above the ground that it may throw
out branches. 2 A coin which has been
clipped, and hence a counterfeit. 3. The
club fish 4. A stag that has cast his
horns. 8. A mixture Of bran and meal
Pollard (verb), To lop the top of a tree"
Breckenridge is said by authority to
mean Broken house" and by another to
tiers not, as either viii do, and the sportive
remarks suggested by all these definitions
must be left to the imagination.
A Necessary InHiction.
Meanwhile all sorts of societies in Wash
ington and elsewhere are sending in all
sorts of requests that he be dealt with aft
er this manner or that On this point
Judge CulbcrsOn, chairman of the house
judiciary committees, says, az am very sure
there has been no case of member being
expelled or even censured for immortality
as such, nor do 1 how a rule could be
devised to draw the line with necessary
exactness.' > Another member of the COM
mittee says that the now famous Baconi
an, Ignatius Donnelly, once narrowly es--
capped the censurc of the house or some
thing worse by using language about u fell
low member which WOUldn' Z do to print
and was nicknamed Ignasticuss by his
colleagues. The old members do not recall
the exact language, and of course it is not
in The Congressional Record, for both
members made abject apologies, and the
whole collOquy was stricken out Only
the most decent part of it was printed in
the newspapers, and that was pretty bad
Such cases are only interesting as rem
iniscences, for all the members of the two
committees on whom it depends say that
no action will be taken by the house