Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1905-01-13
A DULL ROUTINE SESSION
CONGRESS MUST ECONOMIC
IN APPROPRIATIONS.
Official Social Season opcn-Wash'
ington in Summer - Hotel and
Boarding House Extortions-Pr'v'-
lesss of chairmen Of Committees
Especial to The Reformer,)

Washington, ID. c., Jan. Q, '05.-
once more congress has buckled
down to business. and is making as
long hours as body can which does
not get to work until noon. Unless
special resolution calls for an
earlier meeting, which very seldom
happens, high noon Is always the
meeting hour of the two houses. AT
the latter end Of busy session
sometimes they will meet at II
a. M, never earlier. Some of the
senators and members who do much,
IL not all of their work at their resi-
the meeting hour unless they are
called earlier for committee meet
ing. Others who are chairmen or
more or less important committees
and whose committee rooms are
their private workshops arrive early
with their staff of clerks and stenog-
raphers and wade into their public
and private correspondence.
The member or senator who is
chairman of committee Is exceed
ingly fortunate in this respect, as his
committee room is his own personal
Office In which he lives, moves and
has his being as he pleases. II he
lunch he issues the necessary orders
in time and from the house or sem
ate restaurant an elaborate meal is
spread by a detail of colored cafe
attendants. The host will make up
party of lady and gentlemen friends,
and issue lunch invitations to his
committee room as he would Tor
them to meet at his hotel or resi-
dence. In the capitol he is autocrat
of everything in sight at any or all
hours of the day or night, and the
touch of a button brings an obse-
quious waiter to receive any COM
mand. Many are the elaborate
spreads l have observed in transit,
route to or from there.
The house and senate each MAIN
tain an elaborate restaurant, equal
to the best in the land, open the year
around Here the general public is
entertained, and large stacks of dol
lars are daily harvested by the
thrifty managers. The prices are
about equal to those of any first
class city cafe, and the menu is
most attractive and elaborate one.
The senate restaurant Is conducted
by Fred Adams, for many years the
well-known clerk of the Pemigewas-
sett house at Plymouth, N. H., and
as such we'll and most favorably
known to many New Englanders. A
portion of each restaurant is for the
sole use of members and senators,
nearly all of whom habitually lunch
there in the rooms reserved for
them. once in while one dimes
alone and in state in his committee
rooms, ordering it by his messenger
each day.
The senators and members each
have private barber shops and bath
rooms equipped luxuriously, we'll
provided with artistic attendants.
and all without money and without
price. That is, our Uncle Samuel
foots the bill. The old gentleman
will shave and wash his lawmakers
free and do hundreds Of other things
for them gratis: but they have to
pay one hundred cents on the dollar
for what they eat.
The first class hotels all charge
excessively for accommodations, and
if member or senator has his fam
lily with him. however small, not
much of anything is left of his sal
airy of four hundred and eighty odd
dollars month after squaring thirty
days board with the diamond es-
capement cashier. The story is
told of Speaker Cannon, whose fam
lily consists of only one daughter, and
who last year when he came to town
the manager of one of
the high art hotels on the subject of
rooms and board for the two. After
looking around the house they were
finally shown one modest suite of
three rooms, sitting room and two
sleeping rooms near the roof which |
the manager thought he might be !
able to allow the speaker the use of
for the modest sum OF $475 per
with board for two. Uncle |
Toe Immediately lapsed into q deep /
reverie and was only aroused by the /
manager asking If he |
lid not consider the figures very /
YES, certainly" said /
Mr.. Cannon, ''and / hardly like to
AXE such an advantage of your pure
lering what could possibly do with
he extra nine dollars of my month
v salary!" He then wandered out,
md, unlike the historic cat, has never
,ome back.
Seriously, the above is fair sam
lie of the rapacity of the hotels, and
n an inferior degree, all down along
he line to the cheapest boarding
,ouses They all want to make
enough during a session of congress
O last through the year. The hotels
,eep open, but they barely pay ex-
,enses through the hot summer
months when few people come here
md the natives, even, have all fled
Boarding house keepers, if they can
strike enough unresisting victims,
xpect to extort enough to pay the
ent and running expenses of the
louise for the year. A few all-the- {
boarders, department '
Jerks furnish the clothes, beer and I
he summer vacation And there you ,
re. +,
/ think, in summer, this is the hot I
est town in the world. I have seen h
laces near the equator where the I
thermometer ran higher during the t
ay, but there was always a little +
reeze in the shade and the nights t
Tere tolerably cool. This town gets i
ed-hot in the spring and doesn't t
DOL off till fall The intense heat d
ntirely concerted. and is reflected \
ack against and into the houses, i
'hich are all brick. Therefore the I
treets are like breathless furnace
night and the inside of the adj
lcent houses a little worse. It is
as hot at midnight as at
lidday and I have seen the ther-
lometer bubbling around 112 de- |;
rees in my room at midnight more i,
ian once. I never was here but one b
INNER, and never will be again. s.
gardless of how poor the walking Ii
1t is a fact that a bicycle tire $,
Ill sink deep enough into the par b
ally melted concrete pavement to W
ave a permanent track. and a 81
lend here tells me that even the II
nglish sparrows leave their tracks 81
over the streets on hot days. L
ont attest to this latter however.
Thnsa rr-hn nrn fcrnod all. l