The Washington herald., 1911-02-20

After a continuous session of twenty
omnibus claims bill was practically ended
at $3.50 o'clock yesterday afternoon, when
an agreement was reached to recess OYER
until this morning. IA sad-looking lot
| of statesmen filed out of the chamber
when the respite finally came. They had
been pounding away oratorically all night
long and for large part Of the Sabbath,
and were sleepy, hungry, and disguised.
| Although the weary hours of Saturday
night and Sunday morning were largely
given over to roll calls and bill reading
| by the clerks, there were interesting in
| tervals. Representative Manns pearls of
wisdom as to the working of the new
| House rules; colored folk yarns by Tom
| Hefiin, of Alabama, and patriotic songs
I by one of the House pages afforded
| entertainment. Once during Inc night
when there was some real earnest talk
| concerning the validity of the hundreds
of claims in the omnibus bill, rather
dramatic episode occurred. The agent
of an insurance company was pointed
out in his gallery seat by Representative
| ShackelfOrd, who waved his arm dra-
| matically in his direction and shouted:
There sits the gentlemans now, and he
! has been there through all this debate" !"
| The eyes of a hundred members fol-
lowed the gesture of MIR. Shackelford
and landed on the person of a rather
| discounted individual whose company
represented several claimants, and who
| had no doubt been sending up constant
| prayer throughout the evening for the
| confounding of Mann and the collapse
| Of his filibuster. The visitor was given
! further attention in the debate by Mr..
| Shackelford during the early daylight
! hours, when he deplOred the attempt of
an interested individual to bring his argu-
ment squarely into the ears of a Con-
gresham when the claims in which he
was interested were being deliberated.
| The agent in the gallery seemed quite
overcome by the notoriety he received
Told Negro Dialect Stories.
The questions as to whether Repre-
sentative Heffin could obtain permission
to address a quorumless House, and
whether Representative Rucker could
smoke a pipe in the open chamber during
a luIl caused by the hunt for absentees,
were settled on their merits. Mr.. Hef-
lin proceeded to allot himself fifteen min
utes in which to liken the actions Of the
administration to the congregation of
darky preacher, and Mr.. Rucker met
the proposal that the rules were always
in force by relegating his dudeen.
When Mr. Burgess Awoke.
The search for duorums was at times a
rather serious affair. About O'Clock it
began to look as though it might be nee
essary for the deputies Of the Sergeant
alarms to sally forth and rout many
of the older members. who had been al
+hoir xryaT- ha1S
One hundred is a quorum of the Com
mittee of the Whole The roll call at
4:15 developed but ninety-nfne members
present When it seemed as though the
committee kould have to rise and wait
for a Quorum of the whole House, which
was 193, Representative Bartlett, of Geor-
gia. discovered Mr.. Burgess, of Texas,
sound asleep in his chair. He awoke him
at once and learned the awful truth
the member from Texas had not answer
ed to his name on the roll call. Mr.
Bartlett forthwith got the attention of
the Chair, and delivered an early morn
ing panegyric on the unfair1esS and in
justice of failing to register a member
on a quorum call when he was there
all the ttme-and at 4 o'clock in the
morning." which will go down in House
lore as one of the most heartrending
appeals ever delivered to a presiding Of
fiCer.
During the delivery of the protest Rep
resentative Burgess stood up at inter-
walls and joined the Georgia member in
the battle for a Congressman rights.
The other members gteefuny gathered
around their gesticulating colleagues and
Urged them to greater efforts to move
the adamantine chairman, Mr.. Olmsted,
of Pennsylvania MIR. Omsted wear
ing a grin, gravefy searched for prece-
dents. with the help Of Asher Kinds, and
finally, to head of further references
to II o'clock and the other sad fea-
lures connected with the neglect of Mr..
Burgess, ordered that he be counted with
the quorum The necessary number of
members thus having been found, the
weary droning of the clerks voice was
again heard as he waded through page
after page of the war claims bill.
On Duty Until Daylight.
All sorts of ruses were employed as
attempts to call of Messrs Gardner and
Bennet, the chief hhbusters, in favor of
the spoIiation claims. Despite sfmulta-