The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-03-23
Once the House Voted to Fine Him
Five Thousand Dollars
That Was One Of John Aliens Jokes
and Speaker Carlisle Found q Way
Out-A Shocking Experience at
Tom Reeds Dictum as to the Weight
of a Gentleman.

of representatives he was summoned
to the bar OF the house and menaced
with a fine of $1,000. This, however,
was a joke.
The incident occurred In 1888, when
the house was engaged in debate, night
and day, on the Mills tariff bill. John
G: Carlisle was speaker at that time.
The speaker found considerable diff
Guilty in maintaining a quorum during
the night sessions. The assistants Of
the sergeant-at-arms were kept busy
trotting all over Washington. corra!l-
ing absent members.
The absentees were formally arrest
ed Gnd brought to the house, where
after making all sorts of excuses to
the speaker for their absence they
were in all cases excused by Mr.. Car
Isle.
One night, shortly after II o'clock
Speaker Carlisle sent an assistant to
the sergeant-at-arms after Mr.. Hen
derSon. The assistant found Mr.. Hen
derson at one Of the Washington Inca
tres ana gathered him IN.
1t was just about midnight when the
Iowa congressman appeared in the
house. Mr.. Henderson, addressing the
chair, stated that his excuse, he feared,
might seem a lame one.
Il was with a theatre party, Mr..
Speaker" he said, 'wnen l was ar
rested and brought here"
John Allen, the joker, solemnly rose
to his feet.
81 move" said Mr.. Allen, in a sepul-
chral tone. and his usually amiabls
face as solid as stone, that the gentle
man from Iowa be fined $4,000"
About 80 of Mr.. Henderson's chum-
miest colleagues rose to their feet
at this.
4 second the notion" they all yell
ed in chorus.
Mr.. Carlisle, standing on the speak
er's rostrum, put on an expression of
applicability.
Il hear it moved and seconded" he
said, that the gentleman from Iowa
be fined 5000. Those in favor of the
motion will say Aye"
There were about 900 members pres
ent in the chamber. Every man jack
of them joined in a vociferous and
hilarious "Aye!"
.sThose opposed" continued the
speaker, still wearing his infexible ex-
preston, will say No"
Pathetic in it's thin solitariness was
Mr.. Henderson's voice saying mo"
Here was a straight case of a mo-
ton having been parliamentary put
and parliamentary carried. Speaker
Carlisle saw that there was only n
way in the world out of it, and ne
was equal to all of these sudden occa-
sions.
"The noes nave it," said the speak
er, with the greatest imaginable gray
ity, and the gentleman from Iowa is
excused"
*
During Mr.. Henderson's early days
in Washington he was known as a
player of a pretty nifty game of draw
poker, but he gave up cards a long
time before reaching the speakers
chair. He used to tell of a shocking
thing that happened to him in a game
of draw at Chamberlain's with a bunch
of six of his Iowa constituents who
were visiting Washington for an out
ing.
They played all jack pots hat night,
and Henderson solemnly vowed, YUM
med and affirmed in telling the story
that he didn't catch a single pair in
43 straight hands. His disgust was 81
keen that he finally fell to passing
blind, when under the gun without
looking at his cards.
II somebody would open it he would
pick up his cards and look them over.
but for all these rounds he had nc
chance to stay, having nothing to draw
to, and he'd been chipping his life
away as he expressed II. He hadn'-
won even a smell of a Dot all the
evening.
Finally, when he was once more the
next man to the dealer, there cam
a round when he said, Il pass" with
out picking his cards up. Everybody
else passed all down the line.
Mr Henderson idly picked his cards
I'D and saw he had four fves. And
all the rest of them would have stay
ed, as they were people who stayed
on any old thing and who consequently
caught something. right frequently.
The experience was too bitter and Mr..
Henderson quit the game for the night.
Mr.. Henderson wasn't in the ieas-
sensitive about the absence OF his
right leg, which he lost during the Civ
il war. He wore a orb leg during
most of the time he lived in Wash
ington, although when he first came
here he went about on crutches for a
while with his right trouser leg tuck
ed UP because of the difficulty he
found in getting the right kind of cork
leg.
Every time anybody asks me about
that missing member Of mine" he
said once, Il am reminded of a spin
ster of 80 or so who lives out in my
state. This young lady, while amiabla
enough was keenly sensitive about a
leg which she had lost in a railway
accident. She went about On clutches.
There was some sort of a religious
convention in Dubuque, and M day.
when the one-limbed spinster was