The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-12-22

As a retreat for veteran anglers the
Fisheries Committee has been widely
known around the Capitol II IS about
the only distinction the Fisheries Com
mittee ever had. save to furnish a chair
manship and room for some Senator.
Albert ]. Hopkins. junior Senator from
Illinois. who never caught anything but
founders in sluggish prairie water
courses. has had the Craftsmanship and
1.-THE room, while for years Senator Proc
tor, OF Vermont. Senator Frye, Of Maine.
and Senator Perkins. of California. who
is Maine man by birth. have upheld the
veteran anglers end.
Now the practiced hand Of Senator
Hale, as the moving spirit that reorgan-
lied the Senate's committee, has been laid
on the fisheries coterie. There has been
big shake-up. Hopkins. with mis- record
for catching founders, has been jumped
away to another assignment. Senator
Frye, who could sit at the committee
table and tell fish stories OF the Rangley
region till the cows come home. has with
drawn. Senator Proctor who always
hikes" away to wet a line in the ponds
Of Vermont every spring. the moment the
ice goes out, is left 10 match fish yarns
with Senator Perkins. and also with
Senator Buckley, who was taken into
membership as sdon as he came TO Wash
ington. Senator Jonathan Bourne. OF
Oregon, born down on Cape Cod. in a
fishing community. Is made chairman,
and Senator Frank Obadiah Briggs, Of
New Jersey. born in Concord, n. H. and
almost a dead ringer" for Buffalo Bill.
is put at the foot Of the table Thus the
Fisheries Committee comprises only Re
publicans who are native New England
Yankees, and three Southern Democrats,
all adept with the rod and line.
There were fewer members Of the
House on the floor yesterday than any
day since the opening of the session.
The place will look much deserted to-
day when the House convenes, only 10
8. the date set for the end of the holiday
recess
Two patriarchaI looking citizens lent
dignity to the appearance of the place
yesterday. They were former Senator
Stewart, of Nevada. and Ezra Meeker.
the man who came 20 Washington from
Oregon in a prairie schooner. Both have
long, flowing white boards, and look
much older than any present member
Of the House. There was a sprinkling
of visitors in the galleries, and all were
interested to know who the aged men
might be.
Senator Stewart, who has made and
lest three fortunes, and who has accumu-
lated another one since his retirement
from the Senate, IS fun Of the conviction
that the only way the present day trou-
bles can be settled is by the government
ownership of railroads He cites the
fact that the discriminating rates have
been the means Of turning half the
wealth of the country into the hands of
less than 1000 men.
Is Senator Beveridge booked for obliv-
ion? is the question that is agitating the
third House around the Capitol. Not be-
cause the handsome Senator from Indiana
has done anything that might mean his
political finish, but because some enter
prising cigar manufacturer has. In fact
there is a cigar or the market named
after the Senator from Indiana. and they
were freely INDUCED in yesterday about
the Senate wing of the Capitol
They were fair, as cigars go, and il
was NOT because OF any lnferiority on
their part that the question as to the
statesman's future arose. It was because
there is a well-defned superstition in
many places that the man. horse, or shin
uniucky eonugh 10 have cigar named
for him, 1t, OF her, viii not be the same
afterward- Race horsemen particularly
object TO having the name Of their fav-
orite speeder branded on a perfecto. and
the superstitious ones can cite many in
stances 10 show that such honor from