The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1896-09-12
AMONG RUBBISH.
A Congressional Directory Issued
in the Year 1898.
4 Contains Information That Ia OF Great
Interest In q Country Where HaIs
= Century Has Changed
avery Condition.
Especial washington Lertcr.l

LDNCClAA W olAA AlAA AIlAlAsl
The congressional directory Of the
Fifty-fourth congress contains a liss OF
$50 members of the house of repre-
sentatives and SO senator's, making a
total of AS members of both houses Of
congress. The directory gives the auto
Biographies OF the statesmen, and also
their addresses while resident of the
national capital.
How many years congressional di-
T~ectories have been authorized and
printed is difficult now to ascertain.
1t has recently been made apparent,
however, that a congressional directory
was published so years ago, and it is
presumed hat it vas by private enter
prise and not by congressional author
ity. When the total membership of
the senate was only so and there were
less than 200 members of the house OF
representatives, the directory was q
small pamphlet. It has gradually grown
into a volume Of 300 pages.
The early directories did not give BIZ
o%graphies of the congressman, but sim
ply noted their congressional districts,
and the states which had honored them.
The directories of the present day give
condensed histories of the lives of the
statesmen, including the majorities re-
ceived by them at the last elections.
Brief biographies are also given Of the
president, vice president and members
of the cabinet. There is also a list of
members admitted to the press gall
l%eries, and an alphabetical list of the
ambassadors, ministers, consul generals
and consuls sent by this country to
foreign nations. Several pages are de-
voted to the ambassadors and other
representatives of foreign governments
at this capital, with their addresses in
this city. Every public man and every
newspaper nan in Washington has a
copy of the latest congressional direct
DRY on his desk, or within easy reach.
The directory of so years ago was
altogether different, although the
meager information contained between
its covers is of interest at this time.
Therefore it is valuable, and the story
of its discovery, with extracts from its
pages will prove to be more entertain
ing to some readers than an exciting
novel.
While picking over a pile of debris
from the cellar of the historic Van Ness
mansion a colored urchin found a small
volume, yellowed by age, which he reck.
lessly thrust into his bag with a varied
assortment of junk. The book was dis
posed of to a B street dealer in old
bones, iron, rags and what not, and
from him the soiled little volume was
obtained by a. scribe.
The unique title page of the book
read as follows:
Congressional directory of the third
session of the Twenty-ffth congress Of
the United States of America. Decem-
Der, 1888.
Washington: Printed by ]. Elliot,
Jr., on Pennsylvania avenue. Price, rs
cents"
The title page is printed in queer
antique and German text letters.
The volume leads off with the state of
Maine, which was represented at that
time by Senators John Ruggles and
Reneul Williams, together with eight
representatives. AS the boarding houses
and hostelries in Washington were not
numbered in 1888, the directory states
that John Ruggles resided at 'Mrs.
Limrap's, the Pennsylvania avenue"
while his colleague, Hon. RenueI Will
liams, vas a guest ut Mrs. Kennedy's,
Four-and-a-half street."
New Hampshire follows, and the name
of Franklin Pierce appears as one of
its senators. His residence is also given
as Mrs. Kennedy's, Four-and-a-half
street" which was in those days a IA
nous capital resort.
Below New Hampshire comes Massa-
chusetts. with Daniel Webster and