Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1896-05-06
OUR BAD CONGRESS.
BIRDS EYE VIEW OF ONE DAYS
SESSION.
Sovereign In the GaIiery-whiIe the
Wheels Go Round and Legislation Is


People.
A few days ago I visited the great
American congress where politicians
spout and pages run while the country
goes TO ruin and labor starves.
Seated In the house gallery I looked
down on the motley throng below. A
hundred voices in conversational tone
mingled with smothered laughter and
the rustling of papers almests drowned
the voice OF the one who was addressing
the chair and 1 felt like I wanted to
throw water in the air and pound on
tin pan like we used to do on the farm
when wc wanted the swarming bees to
light on nearby limb.
Glancing down. on the democratic side
OF the house l caught an expression
from the few and scattered occupants
which reminded me OF the days of MY
teens when 1 was cowboy on the cattle
trails of the wild and woolly west
There when the shades of night had
settled over the plain and the prickly
pear was hid from view and the prairie
dogs had gone to sleep, the coyotes
gathered about the camp to steal what
ever their wolfish mouths might seize
II they did not find lasso, a saddle, a
bride, pair of boots or something they
could drag away and gnaw through the
night, the first rays of the morning sun
would find them sitting down, dog fash
ion, about forty rods away, with their
faces turned toward camp. showing
their serrated teeth. Every yawn,
every lap of their tongues, every mo-
ton of their heads, gave an unmistak-
able expression of longing, wishful.
craving desire for something they did
not have. 1t has been more than
twenty-five years since I looked into
the faces of band of those poor, hun
CRY, imploring wolves, waiting in ark
ious expectation of finding a dead calf
on which to satisfy their carnivorous
appetites after the herd was moved
away. But how quickly the mind re-
calls the scenes of early years that are
analogous with the scenes that come
before us in after life, That is why !
thought oe the bands of supplicating
wolves in the wilds of the great Amer
lean plains when l saw the wishful ex-
scattered members among the vacant
chairs on the democratic side Of the
house But when the great herd of hu-
manity moves out next November it
will move into green pastures and lie
down by still waters where no pluto
cratic wolf will steal the fruits of toll to
gnaw through another night of greed or
express longing desire to satisfy their
ravenOus appetites On the carcases of
Gods unfortunate children. The demo-
cratic auction block in the bull pens of
the goldbugs and bondgrabbers will be
moved away and the day of dear dollars
and cheap men will come to an end
The house was in committee of the
whole on the naval appropriation bill
when l looked down on that body and a
member from New York rose and offered
an amendment providing for the con-
struction of fifty torpedo boats at cost
of about $175,000 each, and gave as his
only reason for desiring it's passage the
opportunity it would afford to make
naval commanders. He said there
were many young and ambitious men
in the navy anxious to distinguish
themselves and gain rank and power,
and by changing command four times a
year 200 commanders could be turned
out annually by the passage of his
amendment, and if it gave us a Paul
Jones or Farragut it would be well
worth the money. Eight million dol
lars for armament of war, 200 more
commanders and the possibility of de-
veloping a Paul Jones or a Farragut,
but not dollar for industry and peace.
A member from Nebraska offered an
amendment requiring that one of the
new battlesnips provided for in the bill
should be named Nebraska" In his
speech in support of his amendment he
said Nebraska was protected, that she
had on her Missouri river front some
of the finest sandbars that ever came
from above, that Iowa and Indiana had
been protected, and that Nebraska had
no great lake, no sea, no gulf, and no
lake, sea, a gulf, or whole ocean if
they would give it to her Then every
member who heard his powerful speech
laughed and applauded and twenty or
more of the nations great congressman
c2me out of the cloak rooms and peered
over the screen frames at the rear side
of the house and then sauntered back
TO the haunts where willy politicians
ply their insidious arts. They wore
look of disappointment at their ina
bility to catch the climax in the
great and wonderful speech of the
member from Nebraska. His sand
bars were the finest that ever came
from above, and he was willing to take
whole ocean of water if congress
would give it to him and that was all
there was of it. He did not even say
whether in using the word above" he
meant Heaven or South Dakota. sup
pose he meant the latter for Nebraska
sand bars in the Missouri river washed
from that way. But 1t was the hit of
the season-a living picture in the Mid
way Plaisance, so to speak. The all
important amendment and the unan-
swerable speech, however, came to
naught when another member, whose
state did not hear announced, offered
an amendment to the amendment SUBJ
stituting for the word Nebraska" the
wordc, "Quay. Mckinley and Allison"
Then came another roar of laughter and
applause, and the oyerworlked congress-
men from the cloak room appeared Just
in time to see the name Nebraska and