Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1900-12-13
House Page NUmBER !
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i metal DauEe on the lapel of his little
coat said--and all day long he heard
| nothing but Here, boy" from city
| members, or Hey, bub!" from country
members, or Hi there, kid.' from the
| other pages, or Get move on you,
Seyen!" as the chief page snapped his
| fingers at him in his lordiy way. His
| real name was James, but he never
heard that, now that his father was
dead. His mother called him Jamie.
Jamie was kept very busy and yet he
enjoyed his legislative duties. He felt
that it was big thing TO help, even
| in his humble little way, to make laws
for all the people in the state. 1t was
pretty important, for instance, to carry
paper from some member up to the
| clerks desk, for after the clerk had
read it, on three different days, and
the house had voted on it and passed
1T, and after it had been read on three
| different days and passed by the SEN
ate, and after the governor had read it
| and thought over it as he walked back
| and forth between the executive man
sion and the state house, and had writ
| ten his name on it, it became law,
and everybody in the state had to obey
1T or go to Jail.
The people We're called constituents;
they seemed to be divided up amongst
| all the members of the legislature; ev-
! erybody in the state house had his con-
| stituents. Jamie felt that, ss legis-
lator, he should have some constitu-
ents but he couldn't decide who his
constituents We're, and he didn't like
to ask anybody. But finally he thought
OF his MOTHER and when he told her
that she was his constituent she took
his little face between her two hands
and kissed him and pressed her cheek
to his. The cheek was moist with
| tears.
If everybody i'll the state house had
been as good to his constituents as
Jamie, Illinois would have been very
happy place in which to live. When
his father died. Jamie's mother had to
take in sewing and to work hard to
keep things going. She was sad much
of the time, and always looked tired,
and this made jamie sad. He longed
to help her, but he did not know what
to do. Then friend Of theirs, Mr..
Woodbridge said he could get jamie a
place in the house as a page boy-they
always say page boy" in the legisla
ture-and one morning Janie's mother
sent him UP to the state house with
Mr.. Woodbridge.
And so he became paga. He was
paid a dollar and half day. Every
twenty days the pay rolls were made
out, and Jamie would go down to the
treasury, sign his name in big, round
hand, james Horn" and then proudly
take home to his mother $50 in fresh,
crisp, green bills. His mother had
q 1fa1 ,ip,3 ste, sv,c al <,F
course, being a page was better tt.an
going to school. There We're no books
to study, and then you got out so much
earlier every day! And more than ALL
you couldn't take home money from
SCHOOL,!
The house met every morning at 10
O'clock. and after the speaker had
taken his place under the canopy
where the beautiful flag was draped,
and had raped for order, and the
| chaplain had prayed, the clerk would
call the roll for the Introduction of
bills. This was Jamie's busiest time
EVERYBODY would have bills to intro
duce or petitions from his constitu-
ents to present, and for an hour jamie
| would be scampering UP and down the
aisles between the members desks and
the clerks desk. But after that he
had a breathing spell, and could sit
VII lIic Sl)edheIS Steps iHu Whisper 10
the speakers page or look about over
the house and watch the members.
There We're grave members from the
country districts with long whiskers
and steel-bowed spectacles, there were
city members. with fancy vests and di-
almonds, there were Irish members and
German members, there was a Polish
member named Kumaszynski, and
there was a negro member. who sat
away back on the republican side all
most under the galleries, and was very
quiet. and wore black clothes and gold
eyeglasses.
But there was one whom jamie liked
| above all the others. He was tall. with
smiling blue eyes that saw everything,
and though is black hair was patched
with gray at the temples, his face was
that of young man. clean-shaven and
| ruddy. He was a Chicago member and
the most fashionably dressed man in
the house-he Wore different suit of
clothes every day. He was a lawyer
and his name was Bronson Meredith.
jamie loved him the first time he ever
saw him. and whenever Mr.. Meredith
clapped his hands Jamie would spring
to his side before any other page had
started, and if by chance Mr.. Meredith
ever gave a resolution or a bill to any
of the other boys jamie felt a twinge
of jealousy at his heart.
Sometimes he would loiter an instant
beside Mr.. Meredith's desk, and a
smile from him made Jamie happy all
with his hand, but dared not. The
only thing he could do was to pat Mr..
Meredith's overcoat, With its soft, silk
en- lining, as it hung on his hook i'm the
cloakroom. At night, lying in his bed,
Jamie would close his eyes and see
Mr.. Meredith standing beside his desk,
his lips slightly parted in II smile.
showing his white teeth and replying
SO sharply to members who interrupted
him that they would shoot down into
their seats with red faces and all the
other members would laugh, while MIR.
Meredith, raising his hand, would go
on with is speech, saying:
Now, Mr.. Speaker, as ] was about
to remark when ! yielded to the per-
picking question of the distinguished
gentleman from Pike
Mr.. Meredith was not often on his
feet, as they say in legislative bodies.
but when lie took his part in a debate
all the other members kept still and
listened with their hands behind their
ears, which they didn't do when any
one else spoke. Mr.. Meredith was a
leader-many called him q reformer.
Jamie decided that when he grew up
he would be lawyer, leader and a
reformer.
Now, when the session was about
over there was bill i'll the house
which almost all the Chicago members
hoped to see made into law; but Mr.
Meredith was against it. The country
members. too. for the most part We're
against the bill, and Jamie noticed
that when it first came over from the
senate there was a stir in the house,
and that every time it came up. after.
that, all the members would rush in