The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-16
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
THE LEGISLATORS BEGINNING
 THEIR LABORS.

THEIR. LABORS.
 The Members of the Various Committees
 Announced by the Speaker r-Incidents of
 the Session Yesterday-The State Agri-
 cultural Society-New Haven Jail-Im-
 provements Badly Needed There.
 Hartford, Jan. 15.-Only one branch of the general assembly is sitting to- day the senate having adjourned until tomorrow at 1 p. m. Most of the representatives from the southern por- tion of the state came up on the train arriving at 11:SO.
 Speaker Fessenden arrived at 12:05 and ten minutes later called the house to order. It was fifteen minutes later than the hour fixed for assembling and the speaker lost no time in starting the proceedings. So far his reign has been attended with business air and snap that is commendable. This morn ing, however, the chaplain began his prayer before quite throng of the members had taken seats. The chap lain apparently attempted t6 outdo the speaker in his alacrity, but he did not succeed, for as soon as the brief prayer was ended Speaker Fessenden said it would be in order to move a recess for one hour and the house so voted upon the motion of Representative Clark of Haddam. Immediately the speaker hied away to his room to make some amendations to the list of the commit tees.
 The making up of the committees was fraught with more difficulties than usual owing to the great preponder- ance of the republican members in the house. The speaker desired to deal en- tirely fair with the small number of democrats and at the same time to meet the reasonable expectations of the republicans. Accordingly it was necessary to revise the list of commit tees to some extent and this required nearly all of the hour of the recess.
 This year the chairmanship of the committee on the school fund is re- garded as one of the most important of the appointments. This position was given to William H. Newton, cashier of the Wallingford National bank, and a warm personal friend of Governor Coffin. For several years MT. Newton resided in Middletown, where he was teller of the National bank, but upon coming to Wallingford he was elected cashier of the bank, which position he has filled for thirteen years. He has also been the warden of the borough and water commissioner He was pay q Gtn an T01O1o1 Taox xya1,x e,.+l h 1le, staff and Governor Coffin wanted to make him paymaster general on his own staff. As much as MT. Newton likes the military, he considered it his first duty to remain true to his con- stituents, as in town with a usual democratic majority of 150, he was elected a representative by 200. He has received reward in the chair manship of very important commit tee.
 One of the measures that will be brought forward later is in behalf of the Connecticut Agricultural society. The officers are already engaged in their preliminary skirmish and a bill is to be drafted to increase the annual appro- priation for the society to the amount of $5,000 This is in the interest of the annual fair which is held in Meriden The measure will meet with opposition from those who believe that the fair is not really a representative agricultural exhibition, but has largely degenerated into side shows and other exhibitions that they cannot approve. There is quite little opposition to the present manner of conducting the fair at Mer- iden, and this influence will be heard from when the matter of appropriation comes up. There is a desire in some quarters to have the place of holding the fair changed to Charter Oak park in | this city.
 The house re-assembled at 1925 | Speaker Fessenden said that in making | his selection of committees, after choos- | ing the chairman of each committee he | had taken the lists of counties as they | appeared on the roll, and disregarding | any consideration of seniority of mem | bership, or any other circumstances, | had followed the plan of making se- lections from the counties in their or der. He then read his list of commit tees.
 The reading was uninterrupted by any manifestations until the list of special committees was reached Rep resentative Gum of Milford was named as chairman of the committee on woman suffrage, and the announcement was greeted with laughter in which MT. Gum joined.
 Representative Judson of Stratford announced that Representative Bing- ham of Haddam had not been sworn in. and the oath was administered to that gentleman by the speaker
 This afternoon the committee on con- tested elections, Representative Judson of Stratford, chairman, held a prelimi- nary meeting in the case of James Penn berton, rep, of Ansonia The sitting member is D. w. Webster, dem., who was declared elected by majority of 17. MT. Pemberton claims that a pack age of from 20 to 25 of his own votes were not included in the final count, and he desires the ballot box re-opened and a new count.
 Attorneys V. Munger and w. S. Downes appeared for the petitioner, and Attorneys Holden and Mclean for the sitting member. It was stated that f here vara from 1E to O0 |