The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1904-07-30
CONGRESS
SLANDERED
A New York Weekly CHARGED
congressman With Gamb-
ling and FistiCuffs

WASHINGTON. DC, July 2s.-l
New York weekly which must hav
peppeIy sensation to keep it alive ha,
An article the other day bewailing TIN
degeneacy of the times and enterin.
hpon the details Of what it call
gambling and fisti-cuffs" among
members of the present congress.
That hebdominal must be very hare
hp for an item. The fact is that oj
Ill the fifty eight congresses which
have assembled this is certainly the
uietest, cleanest, and most moral.
Considerable more than one per.
,onal encounter on an average has
Iaken place on the floor between the
.ongressmen during every session. In
7S9 the first occurred greatly disgust
big Washington on his Mount Vernon
hrm. Boyer Grinworld, of Con-
Aeticut had a quarrel with Mathew
yon Of Vermont Lyon abused the
onneticut members for their position
b certain bill, and said Il have u
lind to come back there and teach
Du good manners. -
III you come, cried Griswold,
don't forget to bring your wooden
word, - alluding to the rumor that
be Vermonter was drummed ont of
be army during the revolution. Lyon,
ithout word, crossed the room in
frenze of rage and deliberately spat
Griswold's face There was
otion to expell him during its pen.
ncy the offender made speech in
lf defence which was SO obscene
lat the news papers of even that
ee and easy day could not
dicate lts purport. The motion to
pei was defeared, whereupon Girls
prld ran over to Lyons
at jerked him out of it,
rev him down and beat him on the
por OF the house. Lyon escaped to
. fireplace and defended himself
th the tongs, but was beaten again.
lends rushed into the melee, and
battle came to an end only after
psiderable damage han been done.
hen jackson came to Washington he
pught with him qnarrelsome repu-
lion. He had wounded two men in
els and killed one, and had received
r wounds in street fracases, one of
ich, from the hand of Thomas H.
nton, he bore consciously all his
II. it was said that Old Hickory
been in a dozen duels and hun
ID personal fights when he entered
White House. He had been
sewhipped in a ballroom by
pmas II. Benton, who was resolved /
get even", and while he was
sldent he Was once shot at on
nsylvania Avenue and once had
nose pulled on the Potomac. He I
q strenuous man, and his example {
followed when Humphrey Mar &
y shot Henry Clay, when Senator {
ley assaulted President Tyler, and l
Pn Clay and General Scott had a 6
mmage in Boulanger's restaurant /
so little to the credit of either '
Its details have never been in t
1t. f
fact as early as 1924, when the t
pc was just moveing into Statuary o
from the building afterwards t
Fn as the Old Capitol prison, the
popular branch of Congress was
ny known as the bear garden.
s between Congressman were
non but they were not often N
~, Men believed that if they il
called liars or towards" d
blood-a greater or smaller CO
tlty as the case might be, would n
out the stain of the dishonor. n
1t seemed to make no difference II
her it was contributed from the Ii
es OF the offender or of the per- Il
nom he had injured. Anybody's al
would 90. &C
itting in the face seems to have Sc
much resorted to as a remedy, A
was in ancient times (Deut- r
py XIV. O.. in the case of a N
r-in-law. Besides Lyon, both M
nj md NJ CT, A-..-.I | AZ