The Portland daily press., 1897-03-06
ESPECIAL TO THE PREss.l

Washington, March 5.-The last hours
of the closing session of the House OF
Representatives are at all times period
of hurry, hard work and excitement. But
when this period is also in conjunction
withathe Inauguration of President, the
scenes are such as are never to lie fo1-
gotten. This House itself, with nearly
all its 800 members present. with many
ex mem bers and menibers-slect on the
floor, is in some respects like great
town meeting. The utmost efforts of the
Speaker are barely sufficient to enable
the public business to go on and the con-
slant calls for order, and the pounding Of
the gavel on the tough hard wood top OF
the Speakers desk is not the least OBJ
trusive feature of the occasion.
Add to this the fact that the large gal
leries which extend on all four sides of
the hall Of the House are crowded with
hundreds of visitors; and that the hall
ways and corridors about the House are
SO crowded that Ii. Is. difficult to pass;
and one may have some idea of what the.
last hours of session Of the House on an
1uhu8uraLlOD year ere Ike
Both House and Senate work under
high pressure. at such time; and the
pressure has been especially high this
time. On Wednesday noon, March 8, with
only twenty four hours Of life left for the
Fifty fourth Congress. there remained
seven great appropriation bills yet in.
completed, the Sundry civil, naval, Dis
trict of Columbia, Notifications, post
office, general deficiency and Indian.
Some of these bills have nearly 200 pages,
and the mere work of enrolling them by
printing on parchment, is large task
But there were far worse complications.
In the Senate the bills had been loaded
down with all sorts of amendments, for
public works desired by individual Sena-
tors tor their states. for the payment OF
claims, for the adjustment of important
questions relating to the public lands.
For some time the Senate has been the
victim OF growing inconuinence in the
matter of appropriations. 1t has be-
come almost an unwr itten law that any
honorable Senator shall have whatever
he wants; and SO they pile on the amend
ments. The Senate amendments TO the
general deficiency pill actually occupied
mors pages than the whole bill occupied
as it left the House. These amendments
were largely in the nature of claims.
OF course there is always certain
proportion of the membership of the
Houss who favor these amendments; but
in general the majority of the HOUSE
stand By their leaders and fight against
Senatorial extravaganza. But there has
to ne fight on nearly every item, and
Tuesday night MIR. Cannon, chairman OF
the appropriations committee, was ON
the floor almost constantly, from p. m
of Tuesday to p. m. Wednesday,
lighting down Senate amendments to the
sundry civil bill! That was in addition
to hard day.: work since early morn
ing i'll conferences and on the floor Of the
House. The mere physical strength re-
quired for such work, to say nothing OF
the strain upon nerve, temper and brain,
is enormous and furthermore the tolls of
Tuesday night did not end here. All day
Wednesday, nearly all night and during
CD6 lOfSuUUu UNC dsAU Ad0 w
be except up. Such are the closing hours
of all sessions; but they were harder
than usual this year.
At about a. M. on Wednesday morn
ing "Uncle Joe fell among thieves" as
it was exprsssively described. The tolls
of the day had wearied so many of the
disinterested members that they had
gradually stolen of home or betaken
themselves to sleep on sofas and In
chairs in cloak rooms, lobbies and COM
mittee rooms. This let Uncle j oe beset
the members who had axes to grind.
and for the last hour the chairman of ap.
preparations was turned down right
along.
The Speaker has very arduous task
during the last hours. Sometimes he is
forced to be on duty days and nights
together, with only occasional snatohes
of sleep. The preserving of order, the de-
spatoh of the business, all depend upon
his nerve, clear headedneas and strength.
But it must not be inferred that all
people work hard at these times. nH The
young and sportiye mem hers, and many