The herald., 1898-02-04
Used to Silt Mr.. Simpsons
Conversation
IT PROVED A HOME PRODUCT
so THE PoPULIST POINT FELL
RATHER FLAT
Senators Discuss the Corbett Contest
and Provide for the Free Distri-
button of Seeds
Special to The Herald.

Special to The Herald.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 3.-Chairman
Dngley's silk hat gave the house the
heartiest laugh this afternoon it has had
for years.
| In a five minute speech Jerry Simp-
| son. the Populist leader from Kansas,
made that hat famous. He said:
During the extra session of this con-
gress a matter Of considerable comment
was a hat worn by the eminent chair
man of the committee on ways and
means The gentemans elegant silk
tile became, so to speak, political
barometer We always knew in the
morning, if that gentleman laid his hat
on his desk, it meant we were going to
take recess for three days. If that hat
| failed to be laid on the desk, it indicated
that we would transact some business
that day.
'I have been wondering, Mr.. Chair
man, what magical power was in that
hat thus to rally my Republican breth.
rem. Had it the same potency as the
white plume of Henry of Navarro? I
could not penetrate the mystery. So
yesterday, noticing the hat lying on the
desk it occurred to me that the time
had come to solve the mystery, so I
gaZed into the hat. and what discovery
do you think made? I saw in that hat
the magic word-so plain that anybody
could read it-'London.'
"Then.I asked myself, Can it be possi-
BILE that the distinguished gentleman, he
who was father of the bill to promote
American industry to protect the labor
ing man, is actually wearing a hat Of
foreign importation?'
Another point suggested itself to me
that perhaps the gentleman thought 1T
perfectly consistent and right to get his
hats from the same source from which
he gets his financial policy-from Lom-
bard and Threadneedle streets.
$50, Mr.. Chairman, 1 see the hat is
absent today; 1t has not lain on the desk
a single moment, and hence this lack of
: Republican harmony. I hope 1t will be
restored to its accustomed place so my
r Republican brethren can rally round it
= again, to promote American industries
r once more in this country, so that this
= wave of prosperity may encompass the
> land
Replying, Dingley said the hat was
, made in New York and that the manu-
Y facturers put on London" mark to
= make dudes purchase them, whereupon
i Simpson said Dingley was not dude.
Dingley said that Simpson was given
+, to talking through his hat, and ended by
denying he had imported wool before
the passage of the Dngley bill.
= ROUTINE BUSINESS
Associated Press Special Wire
. WASHINGTON, Feb. 3.-The house
r spent the day ostensibly considering the
t fortifications appropriation bill. In
s reality the major portion of the time
S was consumed in the discussion of poll
D. tical topics. The existence of prosperity
in this country was again the question
of dispute The feature of the day was
: the discovery by Mr.. Simpson, the KAN
a sas Populist, and the exploitation of the
: alleged fact, that Mr.. Dingley, chair
q man of the ways and means committee,
IS wore a London made pot hat. Mr. Ding
lev explained that the hat was made IN
e Naw York: the London trade mark was
= simply placed there to please the Anglo
! maniacs who always preferred things
G hecause they were English. All attempts
o to increase the appropriations in the
u fortifications appropriation bill or to
amend it in any respect were voted
down.
A bill was passed today appropriating
q SO 900 for a survey and report on the
o practicability of securing 35-foot chan
r mel in the southwest passage of the Mis-
/ sissippi river.
IS The house then assumed consideration
d of the fortification appropriation bill.
h The debate then drifted into politics,
e and Burk of Texas, Democrat, and
Il Grosvenor of Ohio, Republican, Joined
e issue on the subject of Mckinley pros
u perity.
: Simpson of Kansas. Populist followed
+ and again took up the controversy he
a had a few days ago with Pitney of New
J. Jersey. Republican, over the trusts
,e which. he said were organized in New
d. Jersey to prey on Kansas and other
states.
In a humorous vein he said that the
f. people of New Jersey were not to blame
? that legislation in that state was
ye knocked down to the highest bidders.
l. as they were descendants of the Hes
l. slams. When asked by Smith OF Mich
~ igan, Republican why he had done
lie nothing to eXterminate the trusts, Simp-
Up son replied that he was helpless.
* an this house" said he, ''the speaker
is the whole thing. 1 had as well file a
tn bill in the Potomac river as III TINS
ne house.
e. Pitney. in reply to Simpson, referred
n indirectly to the fact that simpson was
born in New Brunswick He remem-