Birmingham state herald., 1896-06-12
UNMARKED BY INCIDENT
Except tb v amer in Which Speaker Reed
 Thanked by Resolution.
'EPR, . iTATVES ROSE TO VOTE
Tn J,W late Killed Time Until the Set Hour. v gre Was No Occasion to Turn Back the Hands of the Clock-The
 President Was Busy.

Washington, June 1.-The first session of the Fifty-fourth congress gently and quietly Led and, almost without incident, gided into history today at o'clock, the shortest long" session of congress, with
 two exceptions, In the history of the gov- ernment There was a marked difference
 between the close today and that of the
 Fifty-frst congress, the last previous req
 publican congress. Then bitter conflict
 ragged between Speaker Reed and the mi-
 nority, and no one of the latter was found to introduce the usual resolution of
 thanks to the presiding officer. Today
 MT. Turner, the second democratic mem- Der of the committee on ways and means, acting for the minority in the absence of Ex-Speaker Crisp, offered a resolutlon thanking Speaker Reed for the ability. faithfulness and strict impartialty with
 which he had discharged the duties of his difficult position, and, at the suggestion of MT. Doekery and other democrats,
 there was a rising vote, that the express
 sion of heartiness back of the resolution
 mght thereby be emphasized. In his closing remarks Speaker Reed offered his
 grateful recognition for the honor, say
 ing: "The thanks of the house of repre- sentatives is always a high honor, but iS
 especially so at the end of a session where
 the speaker has been forced 10 say mo-
 more times, perhaps, than in the history
 of any other congress-"
 In the course of the session number of private pension and relief bills were
 passed, and Representative Pitney, re-
 publican, of New Jersey; Blue, republi-
 can, of Kansas, and Cookery, democratJ
 of Missouri were appointed members on
 the part of the house of the commission tq
 sit during the summer and investigate
 the charities of the District of Columbia. The Senate.
 If the first session of the Fifty-fourtft congress has been 6 do-nothing sessions as had been predicted, the closing day of the senate furnished fitting culmina. ton to the session. It was a day of ips active drifting, a laborious effort to kill time by doing nothing until o'clock. when, according to the concurrent resol lution agreed to yesterday, the two
 houses were to adjourn.
 The senate was called to order at Il o'clock, when the District of Columbia appropriation bill was received and fm- mediately signed by the vice president, thus disposing of the last of the general appropriation bills so far as the legisla~ tive branch was concerned.
 bill was passed granting pension to the widow of Gen. William H. Gibson oL Ohio.
 The senate then dawdled until 1:20 o'clock, the only business transacted be- ing the appointment of a committee to wait on the, president and inform him that congress was ready to adjourn and the appointment of another committee provided for in the District of Columbia appropriation bill, to investigate the charitable and reformatory institutions in Washington. At 1:20 @ recess was ta-
 ken until o'clock, when the usual reso- lutions of thanks to the vice president and president pro tenn. were offered by Messrs. Allison, republican, of Iowa, and Harris, democrat, of Tennessee, respect ively, and unanimously agreed to. The galleries were almost deserted during the early hours of the session, but knots of spectators continued to come in slowly until the hour of adjournment, so that when that hour arrived and the vice president delivered his valedictory he had a good sized audience in the gal- leries, a large number of whom were la dies even though there were but twenty five senators present at that interesting moment.
 As the vice president uttered the last words and the gavel fell for the last time there was 0 faint outburst of ap- plause, after which the senators gather ed in knots in the aisles and before the vice presidents desk bidding each other goodbye Then the senators on the floor and the visitors in the galleries melted away and the chamber that has been the scene of many stirring incidents was left to the pages and attendants un- til the first Monday in December.