Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-07-10
Pen Picture of Ending of Congress
sional Session.
CLEVELAND AND ROOSEVELT'S way
Former Wanted But Little to Do with
the Members and Kept Away While
the Latter Hunted for Something to
do to Help.
Washington, D. c., July Z.

of congress. A "biograph" or NOV
ing picture" portraying the scenes
that took place that hour would rem,
der the vaudeville tame in compari-
son, and make Buffalo Bills Wild
West show seem like real domestic
felicity.
OF course the President came to ia
cilitate the work of completing legis-
lation, as has previously been intimat-
ed. 1t is much more convenient to
rush into the next room with a bill
which only lacks one name to make it
a law than to drive mile and a half
to the White House and have the same
affixed
Then and Now.
The last session but one under the
administration of Grover Cleveland
was different proposition 1t will be
recalled that President Cleveland re-
ferred at times to the responsibility
of being encountered by having con
gress on his hands" The relations
4 between the legislative and the exec
utive were very badly strained The
President was very "sore" on con-
gress. He did not want to get any
nearer to it than the White House.
! And he didn't. When adjournment
day arrived the President served no.
/ tice on congress that if that body had
any bills to be signed they must be at
the White House by 10 o'clock that
morning-the congress adjourned by
constitutional limitation at noon.
| 1t was not so at this session, and
has not been since that March A..
| President Roosevelt and his cabinet
drove to the capitol about 4:3O
O'Clock. Without ceremony they hur-
ried to the Presidents room and re-
manned there until the gilded old-fash.
Toned grandfather's clock standing in
one corner, had tinkled off the half
hour after five. A messenger entered
at this moment and in a quiet, every
day tone of voice remarked congress
has adjourned
More Business Like.
| This was no surprise. Everybody
had been expecting that. That was
the hour fixed, yet the system is such
in the senate and house that nothing
is left to chance and no one is com.
PEELED to depend upon hearsay The
senate and house had taken the pre-
caution to arrange that when the CAV
els fell the President should know it
first hand.
Element of Time.
Time is a peculiar thing. AS Con-
gresham William Alden Smith said
in the house, it is one thing that man
cannot in the slightest degree con-
troll. He cannot anticipate it; he can
not detain it. Here the President of
no TTr,tf aI Gta@ ~ IL,
hogany table affixing his name at the
bottom of pieces of parchment. That
signature brought into being an or
ganic law of the land, if affixed five
seconds before thirty minutes after 5
o'clock. Affixed five seconds after
$50 o'clock was ineffective, valueless
and imperative.
But there were no bills to sign after
$50 o'clock. Not bill was overlook
ed and not an error appears to have
crept in.
Where the Picture Comes In.
| remarked there was a picture in
the Presidents ROOM There was. In
the center of the room, which is small
not more than sixteen feet square
sat the President He was attired in
an ordinary suit of gray MARTIAL; wore
rundown collar. string tie and did
not have even flower In his button
hole. From external appearance no one
would have selected him as the Presi-
dent and no one would have imagined
for a moment that he was other than
an official OF guest.
The Details.
hn otN,. tan re
Z was conversing with some one. Now
it would be someone who sat in chair
drawn up close to his, a senator who
chatted with the President while he
signed bills; a congressman who had
come in to have last word, or a
friend of the President Then, when
the bills at hand had been disposed OF
:, the President would stand and talk
first to this one and then to that one
The President has, peculiar style OF
conversation. There is torrent OF
words; they come in an explosive OF
emphatic manner He impresses one
with the earnestness of his purpose
He seems incapable OF saying things
any other way and the intensity of his
expression carries the conviction that
he means what he says; that he could
not talk for the effect if he desired to-
The President seems to be trying tc
drive his convictions into the hearer
1t can readily be seen that the Pres
ident is not the man to mince words
If he thinks a thing he says it just as
he thinks it.
/, The Real Man Different.
Those who have seen only the pho
tographs printed in the papers will be
! disappointed when they see the rea
President. He is not tall man as
might be supposed. His face is quite
1 round, his hair very short, clipped
close to his head in the back and hi:
moustache is sandy celored. His eyes
seem to be half-closed, although al
, times they open wider. His face is
strong, his jaw indicating great firm
ness, yet there is an expression thai
denotes f1rmness and justice, His mo
tons are all quick; he is the incarna
y ton OF action.
4 Notices the Boys.
A score OF small boys drifted in. ac
COMMANDED nv parents who had tbai,