The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-03-12

congressional kecorc and the bills ant
reports on the desks of the senator.
who have been assigned to him. There
are sixteen pages and lightweight sen
ators, SO none of the pages have very
much 70 do. The morning hours art
not all working hours. There is q
gymnasium in the basement of the CAPT
tol furnished especially for their use
They exercise their arms and then
chests there every morning; their leg:
get plenty of exercise through the day
They do not walk when on duty. They
run, skip. and try to fly.
Senator Dubois, Of Idaho, upon one
occasion made ar attack on Senate,
Hpar. of Massachusetts. which was
vary unexpected. The venera bis states
man from Massachusetts was suddenly
reminded of story in an old novel,
which would ft the occasion. Calling
a little page he sent him to the cor
gressional library for the book. When
Senator Dubois sat down at the coz
clusion of his remarks, Senator Hoar
arose with the book In his hand. read
the chapter applica BILE to the occasion,
and Won applause. To the people in
the galleries that was wonderful To
the initiated it was very simple. That
little page boy ran like a streak Of
lightning to the library; he made no
mistake: he got the right volume; he
few back to the senator; the proper
page in the book was found; and Sem
ator Hoar was loaded for speech by
the time his antagonist concluded his
attack. That illustrates very well one
of the duties required of a page.
When the vice president enters the
chamber and assumes the gavel to call
the senate to order, the pages range
themselves along the steps at the side
of the vice presidents platform. When
a senator claps his hands they run to
his desk to 60 Cd whatever errands he
may have for them. The pages seldom
leave the capitol Almost all of the
outside work is done by the riding
pages. They are older, and better
capable physically of covering a wider
territory. The pages duty keeps him at
the capitol short time after the senate
tadiourns each evening. That is usual
ily about five o'clock. When there are
might sessions of congress, though, the
pages must remain all night. And very
tired and very sleepy the little fellows
are before the night is over. But they
recover quickly, and are soon ready for
all manner of pranks.
Some of the senators take warm per-
sonal interest in the pages and provide
for them in some manner when they
leave the senate. The late Senator
Stanford used to give the pages quar-
tiers, half dollars, or dollars for serving
him. He invariably gave the pages
something for waiting on him; and,
every Christmas eve, he sent new five
dollar gold piece, in an envelope, to
each one of the senate pages. Other
senators who are wealthy are liberal
with their money, so that the boys pick
up considerably more than their sal
aries. They are usually good boys, of
good families, their experiences are ed
vocational, they make the acquaintance
of great men; and there is no reason
why a senate page should fail in life
They generally turn out well and make
their mark in the world.
It Is an unfortunate fact that the
pages in the house of Representatives are
not so worthy of commentator as are
the little fellows ut the other end of
the capitol. Their circumstances are
not so desirable. They learn a great
deal of wickedness, and not infrequent-
~ follow downward course. Some of
them are obliged to carry messages to