The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-07-31
CONGRESS-.
To What Use Were the Fifty $1,000 Bills
Applied

PROSPERITY, N. @.
AS the papers have recently made
much mention of the attempted i'm.
proper use of money In the Senate, in
connection with tariff legislation, I
desire space to relate an incident that
occurred about fifteen years ago. I
rely wholly on memory, but will not
be far from the facts, as detailed by
the papers of that date:
Acertain steamship company desired
a subsidy from Congress with which to
establish a line between San Francisco
and some point in China, Hong Kong,
I believe. I do not recollect the sum
asked, but it was doubtless large, prob.
ably as much as $500, 900 per annum.
A bill before the House of Representa-
tives, desiring such aid, was defeated.
But the agent of the company doubt
less had reasons for believing that be
had not worked matters right, and as
a result he arranged with Riggs, a
banker at Washington, to procure for
him fifty 81, 900 bills, and about the
same time adopted measures to have
the bill reconsidered, which was done
and carried, fifty two members chang
ing their votes.
Soon after the passage Of said bill a
uuUlDSE III u40L4OCLS p1OSSAVCN
selves to the Sergeant at Arms, desir
ing to have a 81, 600 bill changed, and
I believe they were generally accom-
modated. Finally the callers became
so numerousthat the Sergeant at Arms
commenced dotting down the initials
q believe this was not done until after
several members had been accommo
Dated which was continued until he
had a list of fifteen or sixteen. Among
the initials so recorded we're D. w. ",
supposed to stand for Daniel W. VoOr-
bees, then a member of the House, but
now at the head of the Financial Com
mittee of the Senate. At all events,
Mr.. voorhees, evidently supposed that
he had been struck at, for he came out
in a very strong newspaper article n
denied most emphatically having re
received any money from the source
aforesaid, which of course squelched
the thing so far as he was concerned !;
and how any person could have been
so base as to cast a suspicion against
so distinguished an Individual as Mr.
Voorhees, is a mystery in this day Of
civilization and science
The matter got noised abroad IN the
papers, and the New York Tribune,
and probably other papers, dmanded
that the fifty two members, who had
changed their votes, should be ln7estl-
gated. An investigation was the result,
a committee from the members being
appointed, and this important matter
was disposed of by a report of just
three words, Charges not proven "
When the Sergeant at Arms was called
on for his list of initials he claimed to
have lost or misIaid it, and it was
,,b+I woI1 for his official head that
he did not produce it, for the order Of
the day is to protect, not expose
crookedness.
About this time, The Capital, news
paper published at Washington, made
q Variation in Mother Goose's Melodies
to suit the occasion, as follows:
Sing q song of perfdy
IA pocket full of tin
Two and fifty piggies
Hid away within.
But when the lid was lifted
The pigs began to sQueal
The ommitte to cut. and snume
And Uncle Sam took a deal
To be short, 1 do not believe that