The Portland daily press., 1895-03-23
The Speaker" "The gentleman will be

seated"
"Two in the second,n came the return
from division number two. And SO 1t
went on. Mr. Fairbanks held his
ground and read the paragraph to the
end while the vote was taken. In the
meantime, the Speaker had stated that
he would recognize Mr.. Fairbanks when
the vote WAS over. The monitors re-
turning three more than quorum as
having voted, the Speaker said: "The
Chair will now recognize the gentleman
from Bangor.
Mr.. Fairbanks said, with considerable
animation, that yesterday he had raised
this point and he had been held up to
ridicule. He had acted in good faith,
but the Speaker had the power to
duck his head under water and had told
MIN to sit down. Now he asked that the
Speaker rule upon the question as he
had promised to do.
Mr.. Lane of Augusta, had arisen to
make point of order, apparently.
The Speaker-Does the gentleman
make the point of order that there is no
business before the House?.
Mr.. Lane made the point, and a mo-
ment later, amid considerable confusion,
they'll adjourned.
Then large number of mem bers gath
cred around the Speaker and Mr.. Fair
banks, who talked the matter over. The
Speaker explained that he had not heard
Mr.. airbanks's appeal from his
decision overruling the point of order
and consequently had not put the ques-
tion to the. House. Further, Mr.. Powers
said, that while the Reed rules provided
that the presiding officer might count a
quorum. he did not understand that they
prevented his reaching the same result
by calling for a repetition of the vote.
The scene during the controversy was
a novel one in the Maine State House,
Mr.. Fairbanks steadily reading from the
rules while the monitors were returning
the vote and the Speaker was telling
him to be seated. AS Mr.. Fairba4 ks
stood during all the time the vote was
being taken, somebody was led to in
quire if he wished to be recorded oD both
sides. Mr. Fairbanks's declaration dur
ing the proceedings that he had been
squelched the day before and wanted to
be heard today, was one of the incidents.
All told. it was the liveliest forenoon of
the session, especially as this little epis-
ode followed clos on the heels of an en-
counter between Mr.. Plummer and Mr..
Keegan. When the Van Buren, man be-
gan to speak on his resolve for the con-
stitutional amendment, Mr.. Plummer
called for the question saying that the
House was tired and sick of the TRADES
against men and measures by the gen
tleman from Van Buren. To this Mr..
Keegan replied that he thought he had a
right to be heard. and after Mr.. Plum
mer had made spirited rejoiner, Mr..
Keegan retorted that that was all right,
but he had heard bosh and gush before.
tired and sick. Send for physician.
A voice-Oh, thaG's too cheap.
Then the vote was taken which led to
Mr.. FairbankS's point of order.
AT the afternoon session, they pushed
the clouds away and the sun came out
again. When the House met, the Speak
er explained his position and Mr.. Fair
banks said that the outcome was salts
factory to him. That was natural. Mr..
he had succeeded in getting it. The
Speaker spoke at some length in giving
his understanding of the rules, recognize
ing the right and duty of presiding
off Ger. hut stating that he did not think
1T was necessary to take that action in
the pending matter.
The affair had a funny sequel. Late
in the afternoon when many members
had left for home, what is know as the
soil and mustard billn came up in the
House. This is measure determining
the percentage of oils and mustard to be
used in putting up sardines and provid-
ing that one Of the employees in each fac
tory shall be an Inspector to see that the
law is obeyed. The bill had been recon-
mitted to the committee on shore fisher
les for the correction of an error in the
report. The correction was made and
the bill reported back hut Mr.. Patten
objected that the proceeding was irreg-
ular as the change had been made by
Mr.. Sawyer of Milbridge without con-
sulting the rest of the committee. Mr..
Hamilton said it was simply a technical
error, but Mr.. Patten pressed his point.
The vote while it showed minority for
the acceptance of the report also revealed
the presence of no quorum and Mr.. Pat
ten raised the point. The Speaker called
on every body present to vote TO make
n qoruum voting. This vote revealed
only sixty voting. Mr.. Patten pressed
his point ana At last it became necessa-
ry to determine the presence of a quorm.
1t was found that every body had voted,
the roll being called. This forced an
adjournment and the bill went over with
neither report accepted. Had the roll
call shown quorum present, the nex1
step would have been interesting WoulC
the names of gentlemen present and mo-
voting have been entered on the jour