The Butler weekly times., 1895-06-20
LIKE HOWLlNG DERvISHES
Illinois Legislators Wind Up the
Business of the thirty.
Ninth Assembly.
Legislative Chamber Strewn With
Broken Furniture and Beer

Sprinfeld ILL.,, June 15.-The
thirty ninth general assembly oi
Illinois is in history, and such his
tory.
Not until 1:35 this morning did
it adjourn sine die, and then in the
midst of riot and excitement. The
early hours last night were passed
by the members drinking beer,
which had been brought into the
House and committee rooms in cases
Case after case was drained and the
members felt it's influence Speaker
Meyer held the fort until the last
motion was put and carried. At IL
o'clock janitor named Scotten was
discovered by several members to
be voting their names and a dive
was made for him.
Pandemonium ensued and Speaker
Meyer ordered them put out and
the big door locked.
Reaching the corridor the mob
grew to several hundred, members,
citizens and employees, cracking each
others heads at will and without
discrimination.
Big members struggled with little
janitors and big janitors took de-
light in seeing how hard they could
hit the little Representatives. The
Senate was thrown into a tumult
and many of the Senators came over
to the House corridor and took a
hand in the shindy.
During the riot two janitors were
discovered throwing furniture, desks,
chairs, writing paper, waste baskets,
etc, out of third story window.
They were corralled and another
fight ensued. This disturbance con,
tinued for nearly y an hour.
Speaker Meyer calmly viewed the
closing hours of his menagerie. aud
had the clerk read bill after bill, and
declared it passed, or lost, as he
wished. There is no telling what
bills did pass until they are en-
crossed by the clerks. which will
take week. An attempt was made
to adjourn several times but Speaker
Meyer had the clock turned back
two hours, and would not put the
motion until midnight arrived. After
the smoke of battle had cleared, it
was found that several members and
others bore traces of their scrapring.
All order was out of the question.
The Infamous consolidation OF street
railways was passed over the Cover
nor's veto in the Senate. The train
robbing bill was defeated in the
House and the Express bill was kill
ed Others of more or less import.
aDce were passed or killed. Votes
of thanks were rendered President
Gill and Speaker Meyer. Clerk
Reeves, of the House, was given a
$500 diamond stud by the members.
The scene of the wreck this morn
ing is desolate one. The House is
strewn with all sorts of paper, books.
broken desks, demolished chairs and
ruined carpets grace the chamber
that has known so many dignifed
occasions. The Capitol yard sur.
rounding House is Uttered with
broken furniture, paper, pieces Of
clothing, hats and other chattels
The noise of the confusion last
night was heard for a mile and at.
tracted an immense throng Of citi
zens. Weston of Cook, at lbs
moved an adjournment sine die and
the Speaker, scarcely able to hold
his head up, declared it carried, and
the session was Of the past
The cost to the State OF this ses
sion will be awful. The appropria
tions alone will run into the hun
dreds of thousands of dollars, while
that stolen will exceed the amount
rightfully appropriated. New Stat'
Institutions have been established
and the sum so magnifed that i
will take over S5,O0O,OOO to keel
Illinois out of the poor house durinl
the next two years. This will, o
course, work to the disadvantage o
the Republican party, who were in
majority in both branches. Gov
Altgeld has done all he could t,
hold the extravaganza down, but th
odds were against him, and tn
matter goes on record against tn
Republicans.