Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-05-11
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
Bart Kennedy Hears a Debate on Bimet-
 alIiSIn.

Bart Kennedy Hears n Debate on ISimet- alIisn.
 Especial CHrrrSpondtncr.l
 LONDON, April 29-AS I entered tho strangers gallery my first impression was that of surprise at the smallncSs of the house. It struck mo as being a most puny and insignificant place in which to trans tct the affairs of a great nation. There was nothing imposing CIT striking about it. It didn't nt all fit in with my idea uf the might and power of England, and it crr- tainly gave not hint of Ter arruganrr and spirit of dominccrin:r II had a modest. mediocre and, above all, comfortable air.
 But despite its air of comfort one f,lt that it must be an intensely rrSptrtuhlc place. If the speaker had raised his voice in the leading of of hymn. I wouldn't have been hit surprised. II would have accorded we'll with thc tone of the sur. rOundingS. How geNcral fist fight could have occurred in this huuriooiS cly>ium is an awful riddle, the solving of which k beyond me.
 On the floor of tho house an old gentle man was spCaking. His whiskcrS Were very white, his face was very rcd and his head was bald. His hat. which had what appeared to be d mass of notes and refer enccs upon the top of il. lay on tho bench Qulte close 10 nm. -\CiIrlN all tnC lnCnl- berS, by the way, were wearing their hats, but this took not q little away from tho responsibility of thc whole affair You felt that it was right for them to do SO, more especially as they woro tall hats of the eplincntly proper order
 What the old gentleman was talking about 1 couldn't at first tell hcCausc of his rather peculiar delivery. He had the high toned adj da English method of prnduc- ing his voice, that method which snobbish Americans try to initiate. with littlc sue cess, however. "Er-cr-Mistaw SpCakaw -er-er." he would repeat with variations two or three times, and then he would ramhle on through long, long sentence so laden with qualifying clauses that when he got to the end of it you found that hc had said, or rather asserted. nothing. Aft CT awhile through close study and care, I found that his meaning was tO dcnouncc tho principle of himctalliSm. hut he had such a way of qualifying the assertions he would make that in reality he wasn't dc nounCing 1t at all. He was only saying nothing in a courteous way.
 The gentlemen around him. who were listening to his speech in various pastures of dignified ease would occasionally re- mark. Hear. hear" aud "Ow-ow," Now and then, however. one of them would get up and go out when the old gentleman's way of putting it began to pail too heavily. But he took no notice of this inapprcciation, but ramblcd along sc- l renely, saying nothing either in general | or part-,L-.-r upon the pr4nciplc of bimctal- Ism.
 ' no;iood that ;hc audience or rathcr l the spectators, followed what was being l said with close attention Evidently they saw much more in it than I did, or it may | ho- tA.t of | them, for Englishmen greatly respect their government and tho machinery thereof; also they kept up n running comment in n low whisper. l turned round to look at and study them They were all well dressed. In tho main they were English | men belonging to different parts of the country who had come to London to stay | but short while. Tho members of parlia- mcnt who represented tho constituencies to which they belonged had procured them | tickets of admission into the strangers | gallcry.
 After the old gentleman sat down am | other member who was also florid of face but much younger, got up, took off his hat and politely intimated to tho speaker | that the honorable member for-I forget the name of the place--didn't know quite
 as much concerning the subject he was | talking of as he might havc done. Men tally agreed With him. In general way | he sailed into the old gentleman, but he
 was so courteous and suave about it that | you felt that 1t wasn't much of sailing in after all.
 My sympathies went out to tho poor
 speaker whom reflected upon the fact that he didn't have tho privilege of getting up and going out when the eloquence of his
 brother parliamentarians became too try
 ing There he sat listening, his head and l shoulders covered with long flowing wig Upon his face was an oppression of weary its vanities as the keeper of n theater box
 effiee. Tn tho vcstibulo of the house a flno looking H dropping policeman told me that he gets salary of s5, ,oo0 a year. It
 is too little for the job, think. He should get at least double the amount. | After awhile another member got up and Ibegan to explain to the rest what an aw- fully bad thing 1t would be for the English working classes if the bimetallic standard Iwere adopted. He said some rather hard things about the way that the western states of America hnd tried to flood the Imoney market of the world with silver land he summed up depreciatively of that I6ountry in general, but he did it in such 0 polite way--the usual parliamentary way I-that couldn't take offense.
 i turned to npoliceman who was stand ling S1ose by and asked him who he was tIn an awed whisper he told mo that he was Sir Eomebody-I couldn't quite catch
 who. He talked . Erest deal Nh0ut the