Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-09-08

i'm his place: If twice that he should, be
there, il three times that he must" and
IL four that he 'disobeyed at his peril -
1t is an unwritten law of the house that
members should enter and leave IL only
through the door leading from the clois-
tiers, as the cloakroom is called, and at
this door the chief whip and his assist
ants post themselves and allow few MEM
bers OF their party to leave until they
have managed to pair with members or
the opposing side.
This. however, is not the only precau-
tion that is taken. Scattered around the
lobby are clerks who have in their hands
printed lists of all the members OF the
house. and who tick off the names OF
members as they enter and leave by that
Hateful door of the cloisters. 1t Is their
duty In turn to report to one Of the
junior whips what the state Of the house
Is, then it is up to the Junior whip 10
pass on the information to the chief
whip, who, in turn. tips of the leader OF
the house. If a division would endanger
the government, some member of tho
party who can talk indefinitely about
anything is put up" BY the time he
has been on his legs for a quarter or half
an hour. the chief whip. by means OF
taxfs kilograms and frantic telephoning
to different clubs and restaurants, gen
orally has rounded up enough OF his
supporters to save the situation. when
the "gasbag" gets the wink to subside,
and the division Is allowed to take place.
OnCe, last session, Wnen Things looked
critical for the government. the master
Of Efbank Communicated all the avail
able telephones and fed up the telegraph
office with urgent messages" to the un-
doing of the opposition. and quite often
such Napoleonic tactics are the only way
out of a hole.
=
That the coming session viii be .
tough one for the chief ministerial whip
is as sure as anything on this earth can
be. The new incumbent of that once
is not likely, however, to collapse under
the strain. Percy Holden Illingworth.
who has the fate of Messrs. Asquith.
Redmond and Lloyd-George I'm his charge.
is an ex-Rugby halfback. an ex-sculier.
big game hunter and a Boer war vet
eran. He is forty-three years old. comes
OF famous stock in the .'west riding" or
Yorkshire, and has sat in parliament tor
the Shipley division since 1908 when ne
defeated that fiery tory, Sir Fortescus
Flannery. Soon after his election he De-
came parliamentary secretary to Angus
tine BirreIl, secretary of state Tor ire
land. and In 1910 he succeeded Sir John
Fuller as Junior lord OF the treasury ana
second whip. the position he now vacates
TO succeed his former chief, the master
Of Elibank,
Illingworth has the two best character
istics possible for his new Jop-the ability
to keep his temper in all circumstances
and pluck. In the first respect. he often
has been tried and never found wanting.
The second quality he displayed several
times when on active service IL south
Africa. and quite strikingiy no later than
April of this year when the country
house he and his family were oecupying
was burned to the ground. The lives
of IIlingworth and his family were 0yed
by the timely barking Of q retriever do9
which slept outside his bedroom door.
The member OF parliament had time
N rescue his wife, children and the serv-
ants. but he lost everything In the house
except the pyjamas he was dressed in.
When all its human occupants were out
covered that the dog who had given the
warning was still inside. Just az he was,
he re-entered the burning building, Crosse
ed a floor that threatened to give way
under him and when he came out again
had the badly singed animal safe In biz
arms. ----s