The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1897-03-06
From The State CanifoI.

JEFFERSON CITY, March |, 1897.
To the Editor of the Intelligenccr,
Well! We commence another week
and another month in Legislative labor.
Only about sixteen days of the seventy
days session remain and there is much
to dispose of in that time. The senate
Is we'll mp with its work but the house
has a long calander ahead. They
determined, IN Saturday, to hold three
night sessions in each week, which will
increase the capacity for getting
through in the prescribed time. The
senate, after working through the jour-
nal, on Saturday, resolved itself into a
fun making assembly and some humor-
Gus bills were introduced by your sem
ator. One provides for filming widows
and maidens for rejecting eligible offers
of matrimony. 1t however has the
saving clause that RENTS the fine on
her relenting, etc. The other bills
have n vein of satire as well as humor
in them. One seeks to have a board,
with salaries, to look after aged and
feeble sheep, furnish oat meal, etc., at
the expense of the owner, which is not
to be bought in either Kansas City or
St. Louis stock yards. In this, like
many other bills, there is n job. Here
it is the scat meal" or purchasing
authority. Another bill provides for
e-XtermInatIng chintz bugs, authorizes
appointment of a estate chIntZ bug
MARSHALL" authorizes purchases of
liquid, poisonous substances, etc. Both
are ostensibly in the interest of the
farmer but really are to provide places
for political friends. Some will see the
humor, others here see the s'irony''
and make the application.
We have a house bill that passed
that body, which in effect, establishes
an ''island government" wherever
there is three hundred acres surrounded
by water and inhabited by three citi-
zens. They shall have stock prohib-
tied from running at large on said
island. Now this bill Is aimed to pro-
tect some squatters on an island some
where in the Missouri river. 1t will
probably be in some township and
county where there is no stock law, so
that three men would have ga law INTO
themselves" while their stock could
crop and roam on the when
the water is low Outsiders dare not
come oil such island. 1t would practi-
cally establish a territorial government
on every island occupied by three peo-
pie, but If the population decreases one
or the water ceases to surround the
island, the law ceases to be operative.
Such is legislative experience and the
small things that are dragged into the
lawmaking body for personal or private
purposes. We have some persistent
lobbyists here and among them a dele
CATION of female suffragists. They
impOrtune members of both houses on
all occasions, and to say no to a woman
sometimes taxes ones nerve to the
utmost. One of them said 10 the SEN
ator who represents your district
''Woman suffrage is coming sure and
you'd better get in the band wagon"
He said: Never in Missouri. She
told him she would come out and be a
candidate against him IN the seven
teenth district and asked what would
be the consequences? He replied
fusion. Then she gave him over s'to
hardness of heart and unbelief."
The house is wrestling with the bill
to provide a school law for st. Louis,
and the question seems involved,
whether the city is or is not capable of
self government. 1t is probable what
is known as the Fidelic association bill
will pass the house, but it will not, IN
that shape, pass the senate. There are
some features in the Lancaster bill that
will probably be grated on the fedora
ton bill in the senate. These cities
are giving executive and legislative
more TODD than the bal
of the state all put together. Our
time for writing is about up and we
must close. Yours, ETC.,
LAFAYETTE.