The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-01-01

Members of the Legislature and OF
the third house began pouring into the
city last night, and the hotels did
rushing business. Throughout the day
matters were humdrum enough. and
the few Solons who had gathered were
hauled and buttonholed by seekers for
place, but spoke few encouraging
words
Very few of those present cared to
make Senatorial representations, and
usually put aside questions relat-
: ing to the election of a United States
Senator by the simple statement that
they We're for the best man, whoever
he might be.
There was Lack of organization, and,
as is usual in such cases, the Senators
and Assemblymen were busily engaged
in watching one another.
But when the San Francisco local
train pulled in in the evening, bringing
its cargo of human freight, the scene
livened up, and the corridors were
crowded. place seekers being in the ma
jority.
But even after the late train had
added it's quota to the crowd = ana
many Senators and Assemblymen were
aboard-there was a scarcity OF ac-
ton, everybody seeming to realize that
little of importance could be accom-
plished before the arrival Of the great
body of both houses to-day.
UNDER THE NEW LAW.
The main guys''-the body Of legis-
lators sent up to make or mar the laws
and to work their wills upon the long
suffering Code Of California-are not
materially different of aspect this year
from those of other years. The lobby
lists, so far as they have yet appeared,
bear a strong generic resemblance to
those of other third houses who have
been intrusted by a confiding constitu-
ency with the important mission of
concealing the bugs in their bills from
guileless legislators, and getting the
lowest terms possible from those less
guileless.
But there is notable change and de-
pletion in the ranks of the place hunt
ers-the men with shiny seams to their
coats, the women with strained faces
and hungry glance for every man
who might have a position" in his
pocket or up his sleeve-the importu-
nate, expectant, insistent hordes who
used to buttonhole and cajole and in
trigue until the last bone of patronage
was cast and captured-these are con-
spicuously absent. 1t is Chapter p
of the Statutes of 1897" that has
made this striking difference. The ex-
cesses in the appointment of attaches,
which had grown yearly. worked their
own reform and eliminated in the
law enacted at the last session, limit
he CT aY-bi fror il 10
form the working basis of the thirty
third session of the Legislature of Cali
fornia. 1t remains to be seen how eff
fectiye the reduction will be SO far a,
promoting the routine work of the two
houses is concerned. Whether it will
be better than in the days when
pages and porters tumbled over each
other, and clerks were numerous as
the leaves that fall in Valombrosa
no man can say; but it is whispered
though very much under the rose, that
there will be an effort to repeal the
Act. If the place hunters mourn over
lost patronage it is averred also that
the lawmakers themselves feel a good
deal lost without this most convenient
way of paying political debts Ante
election promises in the oIden days
were scarcely less good than coin, but
this year their value was deprecated
for the reason that there was very little
chance that the goods they represent
could be delivered. If there should be
any action tending toward repeal, how
ever, 1t will necessarily be delayed until
1T has been proven to the satisfaction
of everybody that the curtailed list
won't work. With this for an argu-
ment. a recession into the easy old
groove might not prove difficult.
Comparisons though odious. are
often pertinent, and comparison of the
old law regulating the number and pay
OF attaches of the two houses, with that
that passed in 1897. is, to say the least
interesting. Under the old law there
were in the Senate alone thirty eight
$S-a-day patronage positions disposed
of by the members, while under the
new law only one such position is to be
had, and that goes to the Secretary
under the old law two $6-a-day places
were given away, while under the new
law there are thirteen such places
most of them being the same offices
the incumbents of which of yore drew
IS per diem. Under the old law fifty
four $5-a-day jobs were given to ex-
pectant constituents, while under the
new law only ten positions of the va
riety mentioned exist. Under the ole
law sixty $4-a-day jobs We're giver
down to twenty-one; at former sessions