The San Francisco call., 1897-01-29
Ed SMITH GIVES
FUNNY TESTIMONY
Peculiar Ideas of a Noted
Politician On Tempo
rary Organization.
Would Stuff the Roll Until All
Applicants Were Made
Salts fed.
Little Progress Made in the So.Called
Inves tigation of Chief Duck.
worth's Acts

SACRAMENTO, CAL, Jan. 2s.-Ed ].
Smith of San Francisco kept the Duck
worth committee on investigation on the
| laugh for fifteen or twenty minutes this
afternoon. He had been called as an ex-
pert to tell all he knew about the practice
and precedents of past sessions of the
| Legislature in temporary organizations.
| Mr.. Smith proved to be an expert to the
manner born. The air of candor with
which he discussed practical politics and
his surprising frankness took away the
breath of the members of the committee
and all that they could do was to sit back
In their chairs and roar with laughter.
He was page in the long ago when the
| Legislature held its sessions in what is
now the County Courthouse on l street.
rusty looking building with a magnificent
| portico modelled after that of TIE beauti-
| full Temple of Venus in Athens. There he
received his first lessons in practical poll
tics, and counting the Constitutional con-
ventions as a session of the Legislature he
has attended eighteen sessions as boy and
m an and he is yet poor. When he was
asked as to the number of attaches in
addition to the statutory officers that were
employed in past sessions he replied that
in the session of 1881 five extra attaches
were employed. In 1887 about fifteen:
| "Then," continued Smith, "they con-
tinued to increase from year to year up to
the present time. At the last session
there were twenty nine, and l was one of
the temporary fellows The Legislature
in the session before last was Democratic,
and the Democrats created the position OF
history clerk for me. When | came back
two years ago to help organize the Legis-
ature l was not on the temporary roll.
George Peckham was clerk and said:
"'Look here, George, have been work
ing here right along, and l ought to be
put on the roll, and he put me on the
third day after"
Smith told how he had worked in San
Francisco figuring on the mileage of
| mem bers before he came up here. For
instance, he figured Assemblyman Me-
lick's mileage from Lancaster to Los An
geles and from Los Angeles to San Fran
cisco. He had got the distances and
stage and railroad routes from a railway
guide, and this guide did not appear to
show that Lancaster was on the Mojave
Desert between Los Angeles and San
Francisco.
While the mem bers were heartily
laughing over this liberal me ethod of COM
putting mileage. Smith, wholly uncon-
scious of having made any funny revela-
tions, pointed his finger at Chynoweth's
black whiskers and said:
"Just as did for you, Mr.. Chynoweth."
This sally provoked such a shout of
laughter that Chynoweth's bushes con-
cealed his whiskers. He recovered from
his confusion in time to ask whether
Smith had treated him with the same
Iiberality as he had treated Melick, and
Smith replied that he had allowed him
only his proper mileage, as he had tried
TO do with all the other members.
Chairman Waymire asked Smith how
many employees he thought necessary to
organize the Assembly, and the witness
blurted out with breezy frankness:
well, politically speaking, / would
put on as many as | could
1t required FIVE minutes for the com.
mittee to recover from it's fit of laughing.
1t was plain that Diogenes need no longer
roam the desert with his lantern search
ing for the honest man; he could come to
the Assembly chamber.
Smith, then speaking not politically
but practically, explained that the Assem-
bly, could be nicely and comfortably or
ganized with the following officers: A
chief clerk, two assistant clerks and one
minute clerk, five pages. sergeant-at-
arms and three assistan for the gates, a
postmstress, a rear porter and a mail
carrier.
I,,Jf loox ho oil lr0i
asked Brusie facetiously.
"Oh, we don't want history clerk on
temporary organization" replied Smith.
1.-The temporary roll increases every year.
l don't blame them. When the Demo-
Gratis had no place for me they created the
office Of temporary clerk"
tAre you Democrat or a Republican,
inquired Chynoweth.
81 am Republican, sir, responded the
witness with dignity, Strengthening HIM
self up.
Belshaw was the next funny witness.
Belshaw's name appeared on Duckworth's s
temporary roll as sponsor for page named
A. A. Smith, and when the roll was read
out loud in meeting Belshsw, apparently
very much perturbed in spirit, produced
the affidavit of the page Smith to prove
that Smith was appointed or placed on
the temporary roll on January 5. the day
after the House was organized. The state
ment of the gentleman from Antioch was
received with smiles, winks and nudges
by all the newspaper men and by most of
the committee. 1t was rather tangled,
and runs as the crow flies as follows:
'One of the pages told me that his name
was A. A. Smith; that he had served as
page at the previous session. and that he
wished / would give him a recon menda-
ton so that he could draw his salary. l
thereupon wrote down on sheet of paper,
as near as l can recollect, the following:
I hereby recommend A. A. Smith to be
appointed temporary page, and signed
my name and sent it up to the desk.
Duckworth held the note up over his desk
and said Did you write that2' and l re-
piled that l certainly did, and Duck
worth put it down. l began TO udy over
the matter and it came to my mind that