The Washington times., 1909-04-15
Capital Tales

One OF the strangest things TO be
seen about the Senate chamber is the
old snuff boxes.
One Of these is at the right of the
Vice Presidents chair and the other
at the left. The boxes are convenient
to the doors opening into the Senate
chamber from the corridor close to the
marble room. These snuff boxes have
been there for many a year. One might
think they would no longer be used, but
that is not so. They are filed up reg
ularly and a few of the older Senators
still find use for them. The snuff boxes
have not broken into the Senate's pro-
ceedfngs since Billy Mason Of Illi-
nols made allusICu to them at the time
ne was delivering his farewell speech
20 inc Senate and had some sharp crit
lclsms TO make OF Senate traditions and
the Senate disposition to cling to old
ways.
The use OF blotting paper is COMPARE
lively recent and before it was used
various methods were employed to dry
the ink on paper. The method which
the Senate adopted In the olden days
was to sprinkle the written page with
fine sand. Oddly enough. this custom
nas not ~ gone out of us.e in the Sen
a sand buster, which rests securely in a
mole In the top of the desk, much
IKE an inkwell. One of these busters
resembles a pepper box about as closely
older Senators employ the sand in pref
erenee TO blotting paper.
=
When 1T comes to family trees. the
Hon. William Willets Cocks, of the
First New York district, Is able to make
about as good a showing as any Of the
blue bloods of Congress. Mr. Cocks
Is a descendant of old colonial families.
and his ancestors settled on Long Is
land as far away as 1912. They were
tQuakers. and Mr.. Cocks is one of the
few Of that sect in Congress. He wears
the broad brimmed Quaker hat, but
otherwise dresses about as the average
business man. Mr.. Cocks represents the
Oyster Bay district IN the House, and
in the days of the Roosevelt regime was
one OF the most frequent visitors at the
White House. But that is past like the
tennis cabinet and other things Mr..
Cocks Is an infrequent White House
visitor.
Senator Elihu Root used to be a school
teacher. That was way back in the
distant past, wnen he was only twenty
years old. He made a good one, too.
having had the benefit of the fact that
his father was long a professor of
mathematics, and was able to give his
son points on pedagogy. 1t was at the
Rome IN. " Academy that the future
Secretary Of State trained the young
idea.
Senator Reed Smoot of Utah has at
last come into his own. For these
years Senator Smoot has been sitting
around In the Senate, listening to re-
ports OF the Committee on Privileges
and Elections on the subject of throw
ing him out of the Senate, and speeches
on the same subject, and has said lit
tie himself. Senator Smoot has paid
homage TO Senate traditions with the
utmost Difference and has observed the
rule that a new Senator should be seen
but not heard. It is likely that for one
of his years Senator Smoot has listened
to as many dry and prosy speeches as
any person living. He has seldom ven
tured to obtrude his own remarks on
the Senate.
But now, Senator Smoot has become
a force. He was put on the Finance
Committee at the beginning Of the spe-
cial session and has since then ceased
to be an onlOol<er in the upper house OF
Senator Smoot IS giving close atten-
ton to those schedules in which Utah
and the Mormon church are Interested,
And it may be observed that a careful
examination of these schedules will
show that Utah's interests have been
pretty carefully protected. Sugar, lead,
wool, and other products of that state
are not going to suffer for lack Of pro-
lection If Mr.. Smoot knows how TO pre-
vent IL. And he evidently does.