Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-02-25
Spoliation Claims
and "Scenes of Disorder

tar and mouth organ. They were first
rate buck and wing dancers, too.
A number Of these bands of strolling
musicians and dancers were impressed
element of the House during the de-
bate. You would hear their music
floating out to the corridors from the
committee rooms at any old hour Of
the day or night as you passed along.
And II you had the privilege Of push
ing in one of these committee room
doors you beheld scenes that never
had been matched in the great build
ing.
There was the gigantic punch bowl.
at the br1m: on the big table in the
middle Of the room, with the black
committee room messenger kept con-
stantly employed refilling it and sh
Ing 1t out to the clamorous congress-
men who besieged the room. Loung-
ing In the deep leather chairs would
be the black boys with their instru-
ments. PUNK plunking away and exud-
ing their barber shops chords all the
more mellifiuously for the stimula-
upon them. The merry, merry repre-
sentatives would be grouped, sitting.
standing or sleeping, about the room
Presently one Of the celebrating repre-
sentat1ves would demand dance.
Then the buck and wing dancers of
the amateur minstrels would take
their positions and begin their "evuh-
body ra-ag" movements. The sleeping
members would wake up. All hands
of the representatives in the room
would form ring around the dancers
and begin to clap for them. 1t was
odd to see: dozen or two members
OF the national legislature bending
over clap clapping. with the musical
rataplan of hands. for the whirling,
MISUNDERSTANDING, sometimes rag
ged dancing black boys; and the rep
resentatfves, those OF them who had
been brought up in sect ons where
they had learned the chants for levee
dances. would bawl the encouraging
cries Of black longshoremen to keep
the dancers UP to their work
Looking back at several such scenes as
that here described which the writer saw
seems like a dream: as If nothing of
that sort could possibly have taken place
under the dome of the Capitol: yet it all
ala take place, as many Washingtonian
with the run of the House of Representa-
tives at that time will testify.
1t would have been odd If this carnival
spirit had not been carried right onto
the floor of the House during the debate:
and, of course, it was. Some of the men,
bers most incapacitated by their hover
ings around the punch bowls could not be
restrained by their better balanced col
leagues from wandering onto the floor OF
the House. A good many Of these, af
fected by the heat of the chamber as
soon as they entered it, pumped into
their own chairs, or any chairs that
came handy, and went soundiy to sleep
at once and without any preliminaries
whatever; and the chorus of snoies that
they emitted along toward dawn. and the
queer distorted positions of them as they
sprawled in their chairs, certainly did
make an impression upon those who
heard and saw that never has been for
gotten. 1t is to be remembered too, that
the galleries were packed. often with as
many women as men. throughout the
debate But that made no difference, 1t
appeared. The riotous ones were out for
fun and they stayed with that spirit
as long as they could last. One debater.
chorus of shores. above which. he said.
he could not make himself heard. But
his protest went for nothing. The Sleep
ars could or would not be Weakened.