Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-09-05
SWEARING IN MEMBERS.

A Ceremony Which English Dealers
in SILK Hats Regard Complacently.
From the London Daily Telegraph.
By the Specification of the royal approba-
ton yesterday afternoon, the speaker OF
the house of commons was invested with
the fullest powers for guiding and direct
ing his new-and, let us hope, happy-fam-
lily. He took the oath, signed the roll and
induced more than half his pupils to fol-
low a necessary example. The big wigs
Of parliament went first-ministers and ex-
ministers and prlvy councillors; while the
rest came tumbling after in a Jack-and-
Till confusion. Our resources of civilization
have not yet managed to contrive an ac-
ceptable system for swearing in our legis-
lators. In the oiden times they came up
singly, and a week was wasted over a
mere formality. With view to expediting
the business, an arrangement was intro
drced a few years ago whereby the oath
takers were accommodated In patches OF
five. So far, so good. The trouble yester-
day was a repetition Of the trouble expe-
rienced in 1S32-who was to decide the
composition of the patches? In default OF
any ruling on the point, and the following
of a happy go-lucky ''first-come, first-serv-
ed principle Observation-Disclosures disorder
was prominent at certain stages of the
proceedings 1t is not the perfection of
dignity to see gentlemen scrambling for
snatching them from other members
hands before the osculatory seal has been
imprinted.
The immense amount of new blood" in
the present parliament made the crowd
upon the floor larger than usual, for nov
ices are anxious to be early and punctual-
excess Of devotion which few short
years at Westminster will effectually cure.
A looker-on from the gallery might have
imagined himself watching the scene in
cloak room at the termination Of public
dinner, the clerk-assistant placed in the.
middle to direct proceedings, acting the
part of bewildered attendant, uncertain
whose coat, hat and umbrella to hand out
first. The house of commons, notwith-
standing, did real work, and more than
half the members went to bed last night
or this morning, who knows?-with the
proud consciousness of having left their
footprints, so to speak, upon the sands of
time. From noon till o'clock the pressure
Of would-be SwearerS was terrible, and at
one point the speaker interviewed with an
appeal to honorable gentlemen to curb
their impetuosity, and, in effect, to ex-
ercise that kind Of patient complacency no.
ticed among theatrical patrons outside
pit door. MIR. Villers, the father" of the
house, took the oath by himself, and was
free from the hurly-burly and good-humor-
ed rallies of the freshmen.
The hating community would be well
pleased If new parliaments were Sworn
in" several times weekly. Ninety per cent
of the members wore silk hats-recentiy
purchased OHeS-diu tH6 slaughter among
these articles of dress and ornament was
terrific. 1t requires no effort of ina gina
ton to see that If a man Is obliged to
carry his chapeau in his hand, and then
finds himself the 'base" of scrimmage
he must be an exceedingly "artful card" to
preserve the integrity of the map"
Emerging from the fray with flushed
faces, members gazed sorrowfully upon
the wholesale brushing the wrong way"
which had taken place. Some of them en-
deavored to revive the normal polish before
condescending to sign the book; others hid
themselves behind the shadows Of the
speakers chair, and there labored earnestly
to restore tine pristine brightness to their
crushed and battered headgear. The outer
world will thus observe that the RESPONSE
bilities of parliament-like those of matri-
mony-commence very early,