The National tribune., 1910-01-20

Next to the Hall of Horrors, Wnere
the marble and bronze and plaster ef-
figies of dead and gone statesmen, Jur-
lists and warriors speck the walls
around what was once the old House
of Representatives, the painted cftlgles
in the lobby back of the House of Rep
resentativeS arouseS the risibiliteS OF
every lover of real art who passes thru.
That gallery of equal horrors is now
up for attack
Hanging upon the walls are rows
and rows of former Speakers of the
House of Representatives No, l don
mean just exactly that; that the Speak
ers themselves are there in rows and
rows, but pictures OF them. That IS,
they are called pictures. They are
positively the most hideOuS things that
could be possibly put upon paper and
canvas. at least most of them are.
Many of them are flamboyant things in
colored crayonS that would make q
kindergarten kid weep te gaze upon
them. A lot more of them are done in
black Crayon, and they are certainly
the limit. a few of the later ones are
done in oils, and the poor Speakers
whom they represent look as tho they
had been boiled in oil while sitting for
those same portraits, so panied and in
jured is the expression on the faces of
most of them. In the latter class are
Speaker Reed and Speaker Crisp
Speaker Reed, when gazing upon the
canvas that represents him one day,
turned to the friend with whom he had
Sauntered into the lobby and said:
''Sa-ay, 1 don't wonder the Democrats
hate me if 1 look like that to them"
The picture of Chas. S. Crisp is a SNUG,
fat-looking customer as little like the
genial-fdced clear-eyed Speaker crisp
as anything could well be imagined
But they go right on sticking these
pictures on the walls, each one in turn
appearing to be little worse than its
predecessor. Representative Parsons,
of New York, has introduced bill
asking for an appropriation of $500
TO purchase II oil paintings to replace
as many chromOs of the dead and gone
Speakers. While most of the pictures
in question cost about $50, there is not
the slightest doubt that great many
of them might have been purchased
with S1.49 worth of trading stamps. If
Representative Parsons wants to do the
right thing, he will have appropriated
about S17 900, and then he will prob
ably get about II good portraits, and
he isn't going to get them very much
under that.
And now they are at it again. For
long time-at least a quarter of the
century-there has been growing
opinion that the House of Representa-
fives is too big for all practical pur-
poses. The desks are really large
enough for two to sit at, and the room
is really pretty much all desk. 1t is so
big that it is quite impossible to hear
the speaker more than 10 rows back
from the Speaker of the House, hence
what he is saying is dead to everybody
excepting those who take time to read
thru the driyel in the Congressional!
u npprd Tho only n hiring the
members of the House closer together
and make it a more compact body is to
remove all of the desks and leave the
members only benches to sit upon in
stead of their present very handsome
easy chairs. This is quite English
''don't you know" and the idea takes
with the dilletante members, who don't
care to work in the House and don't
hurt themselves with work in their
Offices but turn almost everything over
to their clerks. The older members of
the House very seriously object to the
change, as they are given TO doing their
work in the House instead of in a COM
mittee room, so that they may be able
to keep an ear and an eye on the
Speaker and on their confreres. Elliot
Woods, Superintendent of the Capitol,
has gone to New York to see Carrere
and Hastings, consulting architects to
his Office, as to how this cutting down
departure Mr.. Woods said that he had
quite determined to decrease the size
of the room itself by about one-third,
and this would involve practically the
reconstruction Of the House wing of
the Capitol from floor to roof.
What is known as THE Old Soldier
Rolf of the House has been increased
to IA. Some 40 years ago, when the
Il
the roll of the House, the number was
limited TO u, and of that first II Capt.
Travers, the present Doorkeeper at the
Executive Gallery, is the only one who
Is yet holding down his job. Only
three of the IL are living-two besides
the Captain, and they are incapacitated
for work Capt. TraverS has been al
most constantly on this one door, and
is known to and knows every prOmi-
nent official and their families who
have entry to the Executive Gallery.
These Il members are protected by
law in their positions, and are there
for life or during good behavior, and
they cannot be removed except for
cause, and any attempt to remove them
must receive the approval of the men,
bers of the House. Most of these old
soldiers are without leg or an arm
or are otherwise fully inCapacitated for
manual labor.
Sensational headlines in all the news
papers outside of Washington of the
day following the diplomatic reception
told readers of those newspapers an
untruth which was only partially re-
yealed in the stories that followed
These headlines told that the Marquis
de Villa 10 Bar, the Spanish Minister to
the United States, was very much in
suited at the White House at the time
nf the diplon4fjc repeDtipn Tho
ment is made that he took umbragc at
the fact that he was assigned to the
ministerial part of the Diplomatic Corps
and was preceded into the Blue Room,
where the President received them, by
ambassadors from a lot OF little South
American and other States that he
could bury under one of the mountains
of Spain and they would never be
missed, and that the Marquis de Villa
10 Bar withdrew from the reception
and sent very turgid and curt note to
Spain, saying that he was going to leave
1.-THE court of the United States" and
telling how very badly he had been
treated. Now, this is about rs big a
mot so" as ever emanated from the
Capital The Marquis de Villa 10 Bar,
having been greeted most cordially by
the President, started to go back OF
the velvet ropes of the Blue Room, and
there being a grcenhorn messenger on
the job, he told the Spanish Minister to
keep out, as the reception room be-
Ionged TO the diamond-crested, gold
laced and epauletted ranks of the Di-