The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-03-07
STORIES OF WASHINGTON.
HOW SPEAKER CANNON COUNTS
A QUORUM.
Senator Spooner Illustrates the Red
Mans ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Smiths Lament-Mr. Tendan Ser.
prised that He Was Elected to Con-
.reSS.

Senator Spooner serve as an army
officer for about a year, and was sta
toned among the Sioux Indians, in
North Dakota. Yesterday, when the
Indian bill was under consideration, he
related an anecdote illustrative of the
red mans improvidenee.
"One Indian / knew Of" said he. re
ceived 1880 for the sale Of some tim
Der. He took his wife and children to
St. Paul, and he saw the town. In a
couple OF weeks he c>.ne back to Ash
land, Wis, with his family in a freight
train. They unloaded a pair Of beauti-
full horses, then came a beautiful set
Of double harness, then came the hand
soonest hearse that ever had been seen
in that region
THE horses were harnessed TO the
hearse, the Indian mounted the drivers
seat, his family went into the hearse,
and he drove them as proudly as any
king through the streets OF Ashland"
Senate and House are on the watch
for Representative-elect William T.
Tindall, Of Sparta, Mo. He is a school
teacher whom the Missouri landslide
swept into office He has arrived in
Washington, and frankly AYERS that he
did not decline the Republican nominal
ton for Congress simply because he
did not think it worth the while to
spend the cost of a postage stamp on
it. His pay as a school teacher in that
secluded section was $40 a month. He
ives twelve miles from a railroad, and
had lever seen an %levator till a few
weeks ago, when he visited st. Louis.
Senator Lodge has established a rec
ord in getting a voluminous measure
read. The Philippine tariff, which the
House recently passed and h Senate
committee favorably reported, contains
d29 printed pages. It was generally
supposed the reading would occupy
three hours, which fact was regarded
as a great obstacle in the way of its
enactment this session.
Monday evening at 1879 O'Clock the
Senate emerged from executive session.
and the reading Of the great bill began.
AT 10:45-six minutes later-the read
ing had been concluded. How the clerk
cnunciated the words ON more han
twenty pages d HllluLo, the SOISIGS-
sional Record sayeth not, but any way
the bill was read, and Mr.. Allison NOV
ed to adjourn.
Speaker Cannon counts a quorum as
though it were a matter Of u play.
AS soon as the absence Of a quorum
is suggested, every muscle in his why
frame comes into action. He leans
warily out over the marble desk. His
gavel arm, the left, sweeps the arc of
a circle till the handle of his parlia-
mentary weapon is aimed on the level
of the desks.
Then the Speakers eagle eye glances
along the little wooden stick, as it
points straight at q member. He bobs
the stick, from man to man. When he
reaches a new block Of seats up goes
that gavel arm and down it comes again
with a sweep us the Speaker takes a
fresh sight along the handle.
The .rclnbers sit impassive under a
proceeding, Which is much in appear
ance as though the Speaker were tax
ing a pistol shot at every mothers son
Of them.
Right in the midst of heated debate
On military affairs, when the Republi-
can opposition was pressing him with
all its strength, Representative John
Sharp Williams paused for an anecdote.
He n Senator-elect Hemenway had
been talking about the morning n
evening salute business"
This ak reminds me OF a thing that
occurred at the Metropolitan Hotel the
other day." said Mr.. Williams. "It
seems to me that a great many Amer
leans have the idea that the negro
Tom at that hotel had. Ny friend,
bin Sterrett, who honorably represents
h press Of the State of Texas, came
down all at once in a brand-new puff
shirt and a very enlarged dress suit.
And this darby Tom, who came from
Virginia quite recently, said:
"*Mistah Sterrett, you sho' do look
patriotic today. 1 amt seed nothin'
dressed up like yo' for q month
Almost"
Smith of Punxsutawney, as the very
affable n equally able Representative
w. O. Smith, of the Twenty-seveltli
Pennsylvania district is sometimes call
ed, uttered a lament recently under the
leave TO print which ought not to
be intombed. Besides ~scrambling for
more for the Allegheny river thar
Chairman Burton's committee would
give him., Mr.. Smith has been delving
into the history of those who have gone
before him.
Probably I shall not participate in
the deliberations of this body when the
| next river and harbor bill is unde con
! sideration," observed Smith of Punxsu-
tawney, but the Allegheny river will
! still be there. The district which I
have the honor to represent Ices not
permit the Congressional service Of one
individual to cover the advent of Two
rivre and harbor bills.
THE only maj who ever received
more than two terms in our Congr1s-
sional district was the Hon. John Co.
vode. He cut a considerable figure N
the stormy sessions just preceding the
Oivi war. Mr.. Covode picked up con-
siderable information; also a lot Of ac-
quaintances and experience that we.e
useful to his constituents and III
country. He also picked up a cuspidor