The Washington herald., 1910-05-29
By CHARLOTTE VI. CONGER.
Men are only boys grown tall.


century or so. for those sage and solemn
solons OF the Senate. those fiery paruisans
OF the House are. when airs told, only boys
grown tall and grown wiser. Of course,
but the same passions hold them, the
same impulses inspire them, the same
idlosyncrasies mark them as when they
wore knee breeches and roundabouts and
ran bare foot on a farm or, dressed in
velvet and lace, were tagged about by a
nursery maid.
There Is hardly a noted man OF any age
but is remembered for some character
istic, some popularity that was born
with him. grew with his growth and died
with him. VIII not Sam Johnson's roll
ing gait and his prodigious appetite be
associated with him as long as his pom
de-ous sentences are read? Do we not
to-day think OF Tom Campbell, as, 'the
poet Of Hope,
Bunful Of good liquor as gay as the Pope9"
Would the most OF US remember VIII
liam Maginn at all if he had been
"A randy. handy. brandy. no dandy.
Rollicking iig Of Irisbman."
And do we not think as often of the
Dandy Dasraeli as OF the great states
man OF whom Victoria, as she declared
upon the memorial she erected for him,
was the "greatful and affectionate Sow
ereign and Friends?"
Lincoln Never Forgotten.
Does any one call up the figure of
Lincoln without smiling at the boyish
fun. the keen irTepressible humOr that
he radiated even on the gravest occas-
associate his red cravat from John J.
ingalls,, or the Hyperion curl" that
decorated his massive brow from Conk-
ling? The man Lincoln always sug-
gested the boy and one can picture him
keeping his playmates in roars of
laughter over his witticisms, as we can
picture ingalls, always seeking the bright
places and bright people, for it was not
only his cravats that be liked gay, and
Conkling standing quietly and patiently
while some fond feminine relative made
the roach" that decorated his wise, lit
tie blond pate
The walls of the mysterious cloak room
Of the sober and dignihed Senate could
tell Of many a boyish prank, many
practical joke played by men whose
late Senator Stewart. Of Nevada, when he
was nearing eighty picked up and
tossed over his shoulder one OF his col
leagues who questioned his strength in
these same cloak rooms yet the Senate
IS said 10 be the most dignifed body In
the world. but looking down from the
gallery some Of these staid and reverend
solons have been seen TO take from their
desk and MUNICH In meetin' sticks OF
pink and white peppermint candy and,
crime OF crimes, 10 chew gum, while
others have been so di-respectful 10 some
eloquent speaker as to draw side splitting
caricatUres OF him and they further add
cd to their crime by passing these carl
catures around.
Have DignIhed Look.
Men are truly. only boys grown tall.
yet the boys in the Senate present digni-
fed and solemn appearance to the locker
on from the gallery. There is something
about the atmosphere of the place that
eliminates the sponteneity and blithe-
someness that are Characteristic Of the
men who SIT at the other end OF the
Capitol and endows its members with a
stateliness and ceremony that seem both
appropriate and becoming.
Looking back over the annals Of the
Senate one can hardly recall an undigni- !
fed Senator. and II a man entered that
body hail fellow well met, inclined TO
hilarity and frank1ess, he Is soon con-
verted into a person as lofty and unap-
proachable as his fellows, but this only |
in the Senate. mind Outside Of those
historic walls a Senator IS as human, as
approachable and responsive as the next |
one.
A man who would have been gay aad |
debonair. who was gay and debonair !
when he was outside OF the Senate's
frigid walls, was the late Charles Glib !
son. Of Maryland Charlie" Gibson. as
all Of his friends called him, was
curled darling Of fashion. and Adonis
when he was encountered in the drawing
rooms OF Vanity Fair, and even in the
Senate chamber he never attained to the
austerity that marked some Of his COL /
leagues. but whether In the Senate or in !
society he was always an inimitable
story teller and being from the Eastern |
Shore the story in his repertoire that he /
liked the best and told the best was the |
following. which he invariable introduced |
by saying, Il feel very much about the /
time ! am compelled TO stay in Washing |
ton as the man I am going to tell you Of /
who was being examined for a witness.
How old are your this fellow was
asked.
" Fifteen years old, sar,' was the re-
ply.
Fifteen years Old exclaimed the ex- !,
~ fraf ut
tion again. How old are YOU?
Fifteen years old, sar.' was the same /
reply.
81 protest. your honor said the
lawyer addressing the court, You can
see from his mans appearance that he
must he long passed thirty and II he
persists that he is only fifteen years old.
/ submit that he is not a competent wit
ness
How old are you. slr?' demanded the
judge sternly
Well your honor answered the wit
ness. now thoroughly cowed. I've lived
in the world thirty-ive years. but I
amt countin' them twenty years l was
away from the Eastern Sho' fer that
wasn't lvin''"
Family Long in Senate.
Senator Bayard. Of Delaware. was one
Of the stateliest, most dignifed, and yet
most gracious men who ever wore a
toga. His management Of his role was
as though he had been trained for it
and he had since he was the last OF
four Of his family to occupy a seat in
the Senate, for the service of these four
Bayards covered pe.fod Of sixty years.
The first Senator Bayard began his