Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1904-01-01
SENATORIAL EXPENSES.
Luxuries Bought For Members
of the Upper House.
CANDY AND QUNINE IN THE LIST

Telegraph Message TO John ID. Rock
efeIler Paid For by the Govern
ment-It Cost Thirty Cents and Wa.
Sent by Senator Aldrich - HAIR
brushes and scents Among the
Items Bought Last Year.
Just 80 cents worth Of telegraphing,
for which the government paid. took
place between John ID. Rockefeller, the
Standard Oil magnate, and Senator
Nelson w. Aldrich of Rhode Island dur.
ing the last year, according to the off,
cial report of the secretary of the SEN
ate. 1t is presumed the telegram was
on official business, says Washington
dispatch to the New York World.
The entry is under miscellaneous
items" in the contingent account Of
the senate" and is dated May 2. 1902.
"Aldrich, Washington, to Rockefeller.
New York, 30."
That's all. The list also shows that
during the time Senator Foraker and
Boss Cox of Cincinnati We're not on
speaking terms, supposedly. Senator
Foraker sent Mr.. Cox fourteen tele-
grams.
Senator Beveridge holds the record
for kilograms sent. From the record it
would appear that every time Senator
Fairbanks sent telegram to Indiana
Senator Beveridge rushed to the near
est telegraph office and sent three.
Senators Plat and Depew either paid
for the bulk of their messages or
"franked" them. All told these two
senators did not send more than twen-
ty kilograms chargeable to the con-
tingent fund. Senator Hanna and Sen
ator Allison, known to his colleagues
as Pussy Foot" left no telegraphic
trail.
Telegraphing is not the only luxury
of senator, for the report tells Of 260
tons of best timothy hay for use Of
United States senate" 1t does not ex-
plain whether this has taken the place
of breakfast foods or is for the use Of
the horses.
There Is also an item of "one oak
ItlIlEtIulot pan ioi VA
woman suffrage" Evidently some SEN
ator in the privacy of his committee
room is doing light housekeeping, for
there appears "for repairing three cleo
tric stoves, S435." The record does
not show in what committee rooms the
stoves are. but there is an entry for
years subscription to the Ladies' Home
Journal furnished c. d. Clark Of Wyo-
ming.
The senator's exceeded their usual
limit in luxuries, for they bought a
"Piffard apparatus for static electric
machine" for $40 to be used in the bar
ber shop. Although not every senator
has hair on his head, some five dozen
hairbrushes were bought and paid for
out of the contingent fund of the SEN
ate, not to count nine dozen combs.
The moths must be pretty bad in the
senate, for forty pounds Of camphor
were bought and 100 pounds of sponges,
which does not include one dozen bath
sponges at 500 dozen.
Some Of the other things bought for
the senators to make them look and
smell nice were altar of roses, oil of
bergamot, glycerin, hair tonic, bay rum,
vaseline, dandruff cures, gallon Of
cologne, fourteen different kinds of
soap and some feather busters.
AS special reward to senators who
behaved themselves twenty-five pounds
of horehound candy were purchased
and dispensed, together with some
5000 quinine tablets and the usual
$4,000 worth of mineral waters. Just
as soon as a man becomes a senator he
bathes in artificial salt water and steps
out ON velvet bath mats.