The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1903-04-03
THE OFFICIAL SILLY SEASON.
In This County it is Period When State
LEGISLATURES Are in Session.

In This County 1t is Period When State
Legislatures Are in Session.
New York Mail and Express: In Eng.
land "the silly. season." so-called, is due
about midsummer 1t afficts London and
spares the provinces. The American silly
season comes earlier. Through a gracious
dispensation of Providence it seldom in
vades Washington. 1t spends its force in
the minor capitals, where the lawmakers
of the several states are gathered in SOL
emn session. These are the days when it
Is at Its height. It begins about the Sec
ond week in February and lasts through
the third week in March. Although dis
tinctly asstate phenomenon, its features
are substantially identical everywhere. 1t
can be recognized by an irresistible ten
dency to introduce measures wearing the
hall mark Of intended humor.
Why all the illustrations Of freak legis-
lation should be crowded into the second
half of a session Is. a problem for the
anatomist of melancholy, or perhaps for
the political pathologist. There are those
who maintain that the unframed INTEL
lects, possessed by the class of men which
is becoming prevalent at the state cap
itals, gave way after about six weeks of
unaccustomed celebration. From Febru-
airy 10 on, according to this school of opin-
ion, they are unable to attend to their
duties. The waggish bills they introduce
thenceforth are symptoms of a double
hallucination that should invite the at
tention Of alienists. They are opposed
to be proper legislation and they are sup
posed to be real humor.
For a variety Of reasons which will sug-
gest themselves, and which 1t would be
impolite to specify, the southwest offers
the most congenial soil for this species Of
intellectual fungus. But no region is eX-
empt. The venerable bill taxing bachelors
n,J .~;,rfo~. loc Hft1cf haa,, introduced at
Albany. Illinois is discussing the pro-
hibition of foot ball. Utah has been asked
to establish an annual "washday'-its ad-
vocates maintain that such an institution
would put the Mormon commonwealth
"one ahead of it's present practices. The
northwestern states are wrestling with
that veteran of sumptuary legislation, this
bill to do away with Mother Hubbards'
in their subtler modern guise of tea
gowns. In the border states the sanitary
aspect of kissing has come under the
purview Of the lawmakers.
The southwestern states, as usual, are
pioneers in aggression. They have usurped
the exclusive control Of international mat
tiers which the constitution vests In the
federal government. Texas wants to tax
lords; Missouri wants to brand and H.
cense them. Texas has another pet meas
ure. 1t Is thinking Of framing the cotton
handkerchief which Mrs. Roosevelt sent
to some Dallas women, and ming 1t sol
emily away in the archives of the COM
monwealth, as a specimen Of "its leading
output'-whether this Is baled cotton OIL
baled humor Is not clearly indicated in the
text of the resolution.
The proper attitude of mind for the ma
ton to assume toward the merry men o.
the legislatures Is not one of Indignation
: If it cannot share their outlaws, at leas
it can express its sympathy and cut tn
{ legislative sessions in two. The argumen
} of a Utah newspaper that the state woul'
: be better served If it elected jackrabbit
instead of men to it's councils is stimu
lating rather than useful.