Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-02-13
DEEMED A SESSION 1NADv1sABLE
Speaker Reed Did Not Make His Ap-
pearance at the Capitol.

The great marble Capitol looked like a
Stow palace today. Lodges, facades and
parapetS were banked with snow. On the
drives and the plaza in front of the build
ing the snow had drifted into great pillows
in some places ten feet deep. Not a ear
line approached the building, but a few
members of the House managed to reach
the Capitol in sleighs and carriages, and
the employees trudged and labored through
the deep snow and binding storm to reach
their posts of duty.
The hall of the House was as dark as a
cellar. The snow banked upon the ground
glass ceilings shut out the light, and half
an hour before noon, the hour for the
House to convene, the lights were turned
on to relieve the gloom. The committee
meetings, with but one or two exceptions,
were not held. The few members of the
House who arrived had DO thought for
anything save the weather. They stood
about the weather map in the lobby in rear
of the hall, discussing temperatures and
Snowfall and record breaking in all parts of
the country, aud it was the unanimous YER
d1ct or the oldest member in the group
that nothing approaching the present cold
spell and snowfall had been known in
Washington in their experience. The near
est approach to it was the blizzard of
1888, which cut Washington off for a week
from communication by railroad and tele-
graph
Speaker Reed did not appear at the Cap
itol, but sent word to his lieutenants that
in his opinion it was inadvisable to hold
session of the House today, and after con-
sulting several members of the majority
Gen. Henderson QOwa), who had braved
the storm, decided it would be best to ad-
journ Immediately after assembling.
Gen. Henderson had an engagement to
speak at East Orange, n. j. TODAY hut
found that he could not get there by rail-
MI DoiilVer Qowa) was to speak to a Sun
day school gathering in Newark, N. J.
Gen. GIosvenor (Ohio) was slated for a
speech at the Marquette Club in Chicago
tonight, but could not get away, and Rep
resentatives Lacey Qowa), Mann QlIl and
Packer (Pa.), with Assistant Secretary Hill
of the State Department, were to have
spoken at the Lincoln banquet tonight at
Wiliamsport Pa.
Some of the members had ludicrous ex-
periences in their efforts to get to the Cap
itOl. Mr.. Cannon GlI). the veteran chair
man of the appropriations committee was
tumbled out of a sleigh into a snow bank as
he was coming up Capitol Hill. Some of
the republican leaders We're disposed to go
ahead with session today, and an ATTEMPT
was made to communicate with the Sneak
er, but he could not be reached at his hotel
by telephone.
When the Senate convened there were
tWenty-three senators in their chairs and
this number was added to within half an
hour to make the whole number thirty
AS rule, the senators were able to get
carriages anu were brought to the Capitol
without special difficulty, but in some cases
they reached the building after a long walk
through the driving snow
Senator Berry of Arkansas who has but
one leg and who invariably walks on
clutches, was perhaps the first member of
the Senate to reach the Capitol Senator
Tillman lives on East Capitol street about
ten squares from the Capitol, and as the
ears were not running he faced the driv-
ing snow, walking on the tracks. When
he reached the Capitol grounds he was
oDHSed 10 plunge into drifts above his
knee, and, altogether, had such an expert
ence as he had never met in South Caro-
lima.
Senator Stewart walked from his home at
Dupoh Circle to the Shoreham where he
had ms breakfast, and secured a carriage
TO continue his journey.
A snow plow was kept going through the
Capitol grounds today to keep the walks
open, and especial effort being made TO keen
a space clear as well as possible between
the Capitol and the Maltby House. where a
large number of senators have their COM
nlittee rooms
The architect of the Capitol will employ
100 men tomorrow TO shovel snow from the
approaches to the Capitol. APPLICATIONS
should be made to the architect of the Cap
ito
A feeling of uneasiness prevailed at the
Capitol this afternoon when attempts to
obtain carriages met with the reply that
llNerymen found it impossible to get drivers
10 go out in the storm. In the Senate the
thirty senators who live where they could
summon carriages had had no special diff
Guilty in reaching the building and in a
large number of instances they ordered the
teams to return for them at s o'clock