The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-01-29
WITH A STATESMAN.
How Congressman Pass Their Hours
Between Sleep.
Washington Errni1ly Sar.

Washington Ereni'g SW.
The work of member OF congress,
unless he happens to be leader upon
whom responsibilities fall, is very
light this session. There is practical
ly no patronage hunting to be done,
the Republicans having the wrong sort
of an administration to deal with, and
the Democrats having got about all
they have to hope for in the way of
appointments from Mr.. Cleveland.
With the disagrecable task of office
hunting out of the way there is COM
parativcly little Of real troublesome
work that members clerk may not
relieve him of. These clerks are great
institutions, and the man who comes
to congress now for the first time can
not appreciate what hard time his
predecessor had before clerks were
allowed. The manual labor of writing
large number of letters each day and
looking up information for speeches
is now escaped.
The average member of the House
has ample time to think over his own
affairs or to study and prepare himself
for a career, or to devote to theatre
going and pleasure. lie does not have
to get to the capitol much before y
o'clock, unless he happens to have
been assigned to one of the few work
ing committees, and he does not al
ways have to 60 to the capitol at all.
The present peculiar conditions make
it so that he does not have to work
hard unless he is ambitious, and even
the most ambitious may be discour-
aged of any effort to crafty their
desire of cminencc through work.
What time the member gets up in the
morning depends upon what time he
goes to bed, and that may depend
upon many things, among others, upon
what sort of man he is. The aver
age man breakfasts about 8 o clock.
Half an hour before that his morning
mail is brought around.
1t will consist of maybe half dozen
newspapers, lot of pamphlets, tracts,
and advertisements, and from 10 to
25 letters. All the newspapers except
the local of his own home 60 into the
waste basket promptly. These are
followed by the pamphlets and adver-
tisements, and finally by some of the
letters. Most of the latters have to be
answered. Some of them require
something to be looked up at the de-
partmcnts or elsewhere and involve
work before they can be answered.
Generally the reply can be made at
once in line. Before clerks were al
lowed this letter writing involved very
trying labor for the member. Now
the stenographer is called in: Those
letters which can be answered offhand
are first disposed of. Brief replies,
most of them in the same stereotyped
form, are dictated. The clerk is then
instructed to look up what is required
by the other letters and to make reply
according to the result of his research
or inquiries. The member then reads
his home paper and looks over the
principal features of one Of the Wash
ington papers, cuts out anything about
himself, glances at the stock market
reports, reads the headlines Of the
foreign news, reads speculations con.
corning congress and politics, and
then sets out for the day. If he has
a committee meeting at the capitol all
this morning work will be shortened,
and much of it postponed until later
in the day. If the meeting is called
for 10 O clock, the usual hour, he will
manage to be on hand by 1870 OF IL.
If there is no meeting of this sort de-
manding his attention the hour of his
arrival at the capitol is regulated
largely by his fondness for being seen
in his seat, or for mingling in the
gossip of the ante-session asscmblage:
He is likely to appear on the floor Of
the House any time between ll.lo
and r.
Whatever time he has to spare be.
tween his arrival and the hour of
prayer is devoted to gossip with his
colleagues. Near the elevator, by the
basement entrance principally used,
is the House postofice. Here the
member stops on his way to the hall
of the House aud gets his second
morning mail. He may get from two
to half dozen letters. These he
usually reads during the session OF
the House. If he did not have clerk
he would have to answer them as ne
read them; but, as it now is, note
on the back will remind him of their
contents, and he puts them away until
he can get hold of his stenographer:
Some members do not have any OF
their mail delivered at their lodgings,
but get it all at the postoffice on their
arrival at the capitol, and read it dur
ing the session. Some also postpone
reading their newspapers until the
House meets.
If the member has any bills he has
been asked to introduce or which be
has had his stenographer prepare for
him, he hands them to one of the
clerks at the desk or puts them in the
receptacle designated for bills at some
time during the day If he has bill
or resolution he wants unanimous con-
sent to have considered during the
morning hour he cndeavors to see the
speaker before the house meets, to
arrange for recognition. and if he does
not succeed in this he takes his place
in the scmi-circular space in front of
the speakers desk Immediately after
PRAYER and, with bill held in the air,
awaits the speakers recognition, mean
while making frantic efforts to catch
that evasive orb, the speakers eye.
When the recognition has been ar
ranged beforehand, he has but to
stand in his place on the floor and ad-
dress the speaker. During the session,
after the morning hour, the member
seldom pays any attention to the regu-
lar proceedings unless they personally
interest him.
His time is then demanded between
| reading letters or newspapers, looking
| over the Record, discussing some
| question or exchanging gossip and
| stories with some of his colleagues, at
his seat in the cloak room or in the
speakers lobby; receiving visitors in
the lobbics, going to lunch and max
| ing an occasional visit to the other