The Portland daily press., 1899-01-10

FROM FRANKLIN TO kENNEBEC.
The franklin county people who want
to construct q narrow gauge road from
Pennington to wsterville or Augusta,
have graded the line as far as New
sharon, and work to that point IL well
advanced. but the charter needs extension
and the matter will come before the rail-
road committee. The friends Of the road
do not know exactly where they want to
GO That is where they differ from most
railroad builders. The usual difficulty Is
not to ind out where to 60. 1t Is
question of raising the wherewithal to
get there.
THE FIRST DEBATE.
Few of the members of the legislature
were on hand today and this evening the
State House and the hotels looked de-
serted. The.few members here, however,,
had learned Of IN impending battle In the
House tomorrow. Ever since the erection
of the new portion Of the State House,
the secretary OF the Senate and the clerk
OF the House, with their assistants, have
occupied as officers two rooms on the
third story of that section of the building.
of late the room of the secretary of the
Senate has been used as private onice by
Bank Examiner Timberlake, while the
roo,a OF the clerk of the House has served
as a similar purpose for the railroad CON-
missioners. When ths legislature met,
secretary and clerk were assigned to their
old quarters and took possession. On
Thursday, an order Of Innocent appear
ancs passed the Senate altar being intro
duced by Mr.. Heald of Kennebec. This
order directed the committee on public
buildings to provide suitable quarters for
the secretary and clerk. In the House
there Is In consequence ;he mutterings Of
the gathering storm. Members who pro
Tess to know say that back Of this order
Is deep laid plot to turn the secretary
and clerk out of their comfortable
quarters and relegate them to dark and
i'll ventilated room in the old part of the
Capitol, in order that the bank examiner
and railroad commissioner may continue
to enjoy their private offices This
nefarious scheme is OF course deadly
blow at the prerogatives of the House and
will be resented with proper amount OF
oratory Ordinarily IL is the passage Of
the stamp not" which is preceded by the
first debate. This year 1t promises to be
the attempted eviction OF the clerk of the
House.
OTHER MATTERS
The hearing IN the contest over the
Eliot seat In the House will be held
Thursday. Hon. George NJ. Soldiers OF
Portland, will appear for Francis Keefe
the contestant, and Hon. Herbert Nj.
Heath of this city and Judge 5. II.
Staples.
One of the matters which IL Frequently
discussed here is the proposition to rails
the salaries of the judges of the Supreme
judicial court The situation was sized
up today by prominent lawyer, who is
member OF the House, AS follows:
Lawyers who understand the situation
and know how small are the salaries in
comparison with the earnings of promi-
nent attorneys at the bar. will favor the
movement, but they will have hard work
OF convince their lay brethren among the
lawmakers. That this Is SO was shown
by the remark. made by one OF the lay
brothers, that he did not believe In giving
the judges twice as much as the governor
receives. That argument might not have
much force with others but 1t was re-
garded as clincher by the man who
made 1t.
The movement which It is thought will
b, made by Portland men to red uce the
renalty for possessing short lobstsrs. will
find support all along the coast A Knox
county member said tonight that jewellers
on the coast in his section were all In
favor of the change. The present penalty
is five dollars u lobster and 1t will be re-
membe that this and other features of
the law have been taken to the Supreme
court on questions as to their constitu.
tionality.
1t is said tonight that big grlst, in
GLIDING the Bangor insane hospital bill.
Will be presented when the legislature
meets in the morning. At every session
this week there will be a deluge OF meas
ures, public and private big and little
Then the committee will assign them for
hearings and after that the session will be
fairly under way.
Among the advance guard who arrived
tonight. were Representatives Webb and
Virgin of Portland.