The National tribune., 1909-04-01


who will not remain in the hall of the
House and attend TO business is again
tuppermost. II is stated that Speaker
Cannon has about decided that he will
have all dclinquents reported. The Re-
| publicans, altho too largely in the ma
jority, can scarcely keep a working
majority on the floor during tariff dis
cussions. Speaker Crisp introduced the
docking business for a time when he
was Speaker. but IL was most unpopu-
lar. Speaker Reed enforced the rule
while the 54th Congress was I'm session
also. When you touch a members
pocketbooiS you touch the heart of his
SOUL and he gets busy. Not since that
time has it been necessary to draw tha
line on absentees. but on several roll
calls the Speaker has already been
forced to count very carefully and slow
ly that "out' members could be rushed
in. so as to decide as the Republicans
would have ii.
While all the plans have been made
and everything is ready to make the
changes that We're ordered in the seat
ing of the House, there is no money
available, and so the change will not
be made. 1t will take a good many
thousands of dollars to alter the Cham
ber of the House and good deal of
time. and there will be a good many
members who will want to think twice
about the change before it really be-
comes a law.
If President Taft keeps on accepting
invitations he will not have time for
much else. He has just accepted the
| invitation to attend the celebration of
| the tercentenary of the discovery of
Lake Champlain. He has also accepted
an invitation to attend the celebration
of the Mecklcnberg-Sehw Declara-
4 e 4 n n
| Almost at the same hour when his
comrade of the battle of San Juan Hill.
| Theodore RoGs evelt, departed for his
African hunting trip, Maj. e. II. Brown.
aged "a years, died of apoplexy at Fort
Thomas a few days ago.
! When the famous charge up San
Juan Hill occurred Maj. Brown was
Captain of a company of the Sd Inf.
He and Col Roosevelt were good
friends.
Then Brown, who had distinguished
himself thruout the War with Spain,
went to the Philippines and added to
| his name as a fighter and another pro-
nation. Maj. Brown was in charge of
| the I'd battalion of the I'd regiment Of
| infantry at Fort Thomas. He is sur
vived by a widow and daughter. Mat
Brown was born In Detroit.
Ben Beyerf0ge DEAD.
Ben Beveridge was one of the charac-
| ters of Washington. He kept the now
famous Indian House," on Third street.
| That wasn't the name of the house, but
the name that was given 1t, because 1t
was the hostelry of all the Indians who
come to Washington. For more than
40 years Beveridge had been host to
Indians only. He once had a Summer
resort over on Arlington estate, but
when the Government bought that
property he came to Washington with
his mother, and they opened the Ven-
dome Hotel. or Third street, on the
Avenue Here he had many distin-
guished guests. They entertained as
guests such men as President James
Buchanan, Henry Wilson. Vice Presi-
dent under Grant; Representative John
A. Bingham, Minister to Japan and
Judge-Advocate of the Surratt trial;
Speaker Sunset Cox, Senator Arthur P.
German and Representative Benjamin
Wade. Then Mrs. Beveridge died. and
her son went around the corner and
took up the catering to Indians.
Geronimo. John Grass. American
Horse, Fire Lightning, Andrew John
and Spotted Tail were Beveridge's fav-
orites among the Indians. For 40 years
they came to Washington, and would
stop at no other place than his house
The remarkable feature of the long
friendships was the fact that Beveridge
understood no word of the Indian Ian
guage, and his bronze guests compre-
hended but little English. But Bever-
idge spoke the language of hearts,
which is universal. and many copper
visaged Americans will learn of his
passing with genuine regret.
Since the Indian House" was opened
delegations from the Sioux, Piegan,
Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Comanche, Chick
apoo, Apache, Usage, Chippewa ana
Il > tl.AtV I< IL
quarters. Sometimes the Indians sought
to fight one another, but the strong
arm of Beveridge came between them.
Not infrequently "frewater" would be
unwisely used, and the Indians would
become obstreperous. In such cases
Beveridge felt no hesitancy in knocking
down the unruly redsllin and bearing
the unconscious man on his shoulder
to a bed. The following morning pale
face and redskin were still inseperable
friends.
Acoustics Shy.
The acoustics of an audience chamber
Is one of the queer things that no hu-
man being on earth has ever been able
to locate and stick a pin for other
chambers. The most wonderful build
ing in the world for its acoustics Is the
great Mormon Temple at Salt Lake City.
1t is elliptical in shape, and seats sew
eral thousand people. The roof looks
ike the Ddck OIL Z Iurtle- III tHiS leHi-
pie when absolute silence reigns pin
dropped anywhere in the huge audience
chamber can be heard at any point
most distant in the chamber. Many
times and oft the attempt has been
made to duplicate this chamber, but it
never has been accomplished. The old
hall of the House of Representatives,
which is now known as the Hall of
Horrors" because it is pretty we'll filed
with the perfectly atrocious statues of
great men" of the various States, was
one of the notable examples Of mai
acoustics. The hall is not large, and its
ceiling is not SO very high. altho
arched, but the voice rolls and tumbles
around in it in 4 most peculiar way, and
it came near being a "casus belli' many
times during the time it was occupied
as Representative Hall. There were
certain places where the member would
hear his own voice come clear as a bell,
as tho mocking him from the tiles below
his feet. On other tiles speakers would
hear their voices come mOckingly back
into their ears from over their shoul-
ders, and the member would angrily
call the presiding officers attention to
the. fact that his colleague in the rear
was tormenting him by repeating his
words in his ears, when, as a matter of
fact, his rear colleague probably was
not paying any attention to the speech
at all.
These particular stones are now called
the whispering stones" and the Capt.
tol guides take great delight in letting
fA.- ~.