Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-02-02
INCAPITOLC CORRIDORS
What Woman Sees and Hears in
the Big White Building.
In TIE EXCLUSIVE CORNERS
Women Who Wait in Vain for
the Expected Members.
THE ANSWERS TO APPEALS

Tingle, nigel, ling, b-r-r-r, sh-wish, and
up comes the elevator from the basement
| of the lower house. The car is filled with
| a merry crew, and the chanting of a lively
song greets the crowds in the floor cor
ridor, and the jolly fellows unload, one
of them slaps the chanter on the back, cry
| ing good boy" They push by the crowd
| awaiting to go up, rudely jostling very
unpretentious woman standing near. No
thought of apology entered the head Of the
nght-hearted member of the lower house;
it is barely possible that he was not cogni-
zant of his misdemeanor, If it might be so
called.
Up the car goes taking on goodly COM
pany of gay women and men. They fill the
car, and the plainlygarbed woman of the
pencil gets herself into as small compass
as her $50 avoirdupois weight will admit.
Gallery floor" and all are off board, and
as the jolly JeemS passes out the woman
slips into a side door and shakes herself
together, then glides down the gallery
steps and lands alongside the marble rail-
ing. AS she looks about over the great ma
tional kindergarten that political training
school for the upper house, from whence
several of our most prominent lords nave
stepped, a sea of seats and cloud OF
smoke greets her eyes. and somewhere IN
the great emptiness she hears a loud ana
vehement voice demonstrating some one OF
she judges that ne is speaking for his con-
Stituents, who will read 1t In the Con-
gresSional Record. The sound becomes
monotonous, and in locating it 1t is noticed
that the speaker has arms, and that he Is
bravely thrashing an imaginary foe: the
floor is strewn with bits of torn paper and
cigar Stumps, although there are generous
supplies of cuspidors and waste paper bas-
kets scattered throughout the great room;
about a dozen members are fndustriously
writing at their desks, while at least
dozen more are chatting merrily and crack
ing jokes in the corners; the sofas about
the foyers are we'll patronized; the pages
are hanging by their buttons on the cor
ners Of the empty desks, while the clerks
are sauntering about with their hands in
their pockets.
In the Gle ak Room.
Looking beyond the floor and into the
cloak room, whose door swings open, one
sees the House porter take hold of POM
pous old member. and turning him around
as he would a spit before fire, whisks
him with a full-sized broom, minus the
handle. The jaunty derby is given a turn
in the deft hands of the porter and set on
the ear of the preening or rather preened
member, and, with a professional twist
of the thumb, the porter sets him aside and
draws in another, and the trim old gentle
man from some remote district lights a
cigar and putting 1t strolls across the
floor. He passes into the corridors, which
are stationed at convenient distances, with
little piles of wood thrown against the
outside, no doubt for the purpose Of IN
forming the public the true character of
the boxes A goodly number of torn
velopes and sprinklng of shredded papers
strew the Mosaic floor, while the generous
expectorations OF the tobacco slaves dis
figure the bright coloring of the thing.
AS the lately bewhisked member meanders
adown the corridor he rolls his eyes about.
noting numerous groups of twos standing
against the marble columns. in the en-
brasures of the broad windows and against
the ends of the stairway. One Is generally
pleading very ardently, the other listening
quite indolently. Who could not tell for
what the gentle one pleaded and that he
repeated his only stock and store when
he said:
Il will do all I can for you." and. with
out lifting his hat or saying a kind good
day. he left her. And she believed as she
left the dark and lofty corridors that she
would soon step into a nice fat office, and
the little ones, half starved and lily clad,
would be we'll fed and warmly clothed
The bewhisked member as he passed on
saw a little black-gowned woman trying
to conceal the tears that somehow would
steal out through big blue eyes, and he
heard an honest man from great and far
away city say:
My sympathies are very great for you,
but l am helpless; my hands are tied"
II have two helpless little girls and con-
sumptive sister" but the gentleman from
the great and faraway city passed on, and
the little black-gowned woman went out
through the old-time reception room and
another couple glide into the vacant nook
and again the still. cold marble pillars hear
the oft-repeated tale of want and need.
Exclusively for Ladies'.
Beyond the eastern corridor and through
the jam that invariably blocks the main
door The Star writer turned into the cor
ner in Statuary Hall that Is set aside for
and ticketed Exclusively for Ladies'" and
saw a very dashing young woman sitting
in the old swivel chair, with her elbows
digging into the table, which Is placed
there for the convenience of ladies calling
upon Congressman. Usually big fat man
holds the fort with two or three neuten-
ants in the forms Of small, slim pages; but
the young woman was sending forth her
own messages; she had evidently failed to
reach" her man with her visiting cards,
and, with the determination born of des-
pair-or in this case it was properly de-
feat-she vents her chagrin by inditing her
notes to each recreant member from her
fathers state, and in order to expedite
matters sends them forth by the pert pages
of the House.
The old leather chairs and sofas that Gid
duty In the old eastern entrance of the
House are arranged in line in this lex
elusive corner and are always well filled
with the habitues of the House patronage.
The same faces are seen session in end
session out. 1t is always the same cry
1t is If it were a universal language,
sung from the dome to wing and wing
The nod of the head, the swing of the
arms the turn of the toes. each and all
accentuate, enunciate, intonate, whisper in
the shadows and yell from the Goddess of
Liberty, place, place, place." until the be-
badgered and tormented members turn
stone body ana soul.
AS the writer for The Star waited with
the young and dasbing woman she noted
how many Of the dozen women patiently
waiting there would be able "to get" their
Representatives. The place was surely I'M
der petticoat government, for not sin
gle man or boy hung about the exclusive"
corner, while the women sat and sat, Cos
siping with each other telling how they
had proceeded to secure an interview with
their members, and how they got their
places under the Harrison regime, or
the first administration of Mr.. Cleveland,
and some there were who had held posi-
lions even so far back as Gen. Hayes ad-
ministration, and lost it, although they say
they were under civil service" This is an
oft repeated tale, and it loses no interest
for the office seekers; but 1t was observed
that the shade was beginning to creep
around the plaza, and. looking upon the
thinning crowd, the sad and disappointed
women began drawing their nerve forces
TO OF bo