The Washington weekly post., 1900-12-25
MINUTE TALkS
WITH MEMBERS.

Representative Burke OF South Dakota.
relates a peculiar conversation be naa
with the late Representative Wise. a fes
days before the House adjourned for the
HOLIDAYS. I'VE we're taking luneh TO-
gether I'm the House restaurant. says
Mr Burke, and incidentally the conver-
sation turned To the link between TINS
world and the hereafter. Nr- Wise talked
quite extensively on the subject
81 have pondered on the future LOT
many years he remarked TO me. ana
long ago came TO the conclusion that
vas ready % meet whatever there might
be in store after death. | do not Know
of course. whether my end viii be SUD
den or otherwise. but as far as concerns
the hereafter. 1t il Of little consequence
70 me in what matter the end comes
There was nothing notable in the con-
versation at the time" added Mr.. Burke
bat it struck me with much force Wheh
l learned. last Friday morning. that Mr..
Wise. with whom / had talked ABOUT
death in such an informal manner only
little while before. had been so suddenly
ushered into the unknown"
An incident of a kindred character Is
told by Representative Gardner. OF New
Jersey, who Is using the leisure OF the
holiday season TO catch up with some OF
the routine work of a member OF the
House. About a year ago, observed
Mr.. Gardner, IT met at WIZARDS Hoted'
where | was stopping. Capt. Mitchell He
was an entertaining man in conversation,
and I enioyed talking with him. He told
me that he had a liking for military ser
vice. bat that coupled with this prefer
ence was a strange conviction or forebod-
ing. While ne was powerful man physl-
caIy, and fully capable Of enduring hard-
ship, he feltWertain that he could never
have long service in the army; in fact,
that he would lose his life in the very
first battle in which he should participate
I'VE parted excellent friends, and ulti-
rnately Capt. Mitchell was ordered to the
Philippines. / thought nothing OF his
strange statement to me till short while
ago, when | took up a newspaper ana
read that Capt. Mitchell had fought with
his company in an engagement lmme-
diately after arriving at his post Of duty,
and that he had been killed"
Representative Julius Kahn. OF Califor-
mia, lives too far from Washington to take
the long journey home. II stay here to
complete some of my department work,
he says ''In my correspondence or late L
have had numerous letters about the
storms in California. which were reported
here in the East as cloudburst. The
Eastern papers arriving in California
were the first information our people had
of the remarkable inundation. Ny inform
ants say that it was only good. old
fashioned rainstorm, such as used 10 pre-
vail in California during the winter
months.
"The ground has been very much parch-
ed out there for the last year or two.
There was not near rain enough during
the past twelve months. and the late
downpour was very welcome. II was not
a cloudbUrst or a severe storm at all
Representative Vandiver, Of Missouri,
has long blue envelope in his inside pock-
ct, which he will deposit with the Clerk of
the House within a few days. 1T is my
certificate Of election" he remarked, won
after hard fight, in which it was gener-
ally predicted that l would be driven to
the wall. The Republicans pounced on me
very hard in the closing days Of the
campaign, and one of the greatest cards
they played against me was a charge that
had spoken of Col. Flory. the Repub-
lican candidate for governor, as only a
common laborer any way, and not fit for
the Office should he be elected
"Some of the st. Louis newspapers tier
ated and reiterated that statement in the
belief that ii would hurt me with the
laboring people. 1t was an arrant false
hood. What I had said was that Col,
Flory, the Republican candidate fer gov
ernor. was a genial young fellow, who
had worked as a conductor on one of the
railroads in Missouri, but | did not con-
slider him man of sufficient experience
in public affairs to command the conf
denee of the business people OF the State
I also compared him as bicycling through
the State seeking the votes of Mlssourians
against Mr.. Dockery, a man who had
long been prominent in public life. and
was of known integrity and capacity. A
great hue and cry was made over the
newspaper publiea tions, but il did not
after all. injure me. for / ran way ahead
of the rest of the ticket in several parts
of my district
when undertake 10 pass bill like
that TO restrict the amount of second
class mail matter through the House, as
have done heretofore. succeeding on one
occasion" said Representative Loud, of
California, there are lots of men who
will say: Loud, you are a splendid fel-
low They applaud the effort of creating
sentiment In the House favorable to a
good bill. But there are many more
some of whom. for one reason or another
do not want the bill 10 become a law,
and they find nothing too mean TO say
about me.
mo, IL Is a thankless task TO take up a
thing OF that kind, and / shall not do IL
again. The bill is on the calendar, and, as
far as I am concerned, l shall let II re-
main there"
The chairman Of the Committee on
Post-ofices and Post Roads says he shall
devote portion of the holidays to some
preliminary work on the annual appropri-
ations bill, which he apprehends will reach
a total of about sl20, 900 this session.
There Is only one question before this
Congress of interest 10 the people of the
State OF Maine" remarked Representa-
tive Amos L. Allen. THAT is the question
of apportionment Of representatives. They
do not want to lose one representative
under the new apportionment, and really
they ought not TO lose one. The State
has a large area, with large interests OF
a varied character before Congress. The
seacoast of the Pine Tree State alone fs
5000 miles long, ard the amount of COM
merce that goes in and out OF the har-
bOrs is enormous"
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CsiIese Fines.