Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-22

Representative Curley and his REFER
ence to the Boston beer Iarty will not
be forgotten by the visitors TO the gal
lery of the House on that immortal after
noon not long ago, when the House was
writhing in debate on the immigration
BILL And Fred Irland, lightninglike official
reporter Of debates. is not likely to forget
the speech. either. for if ever mortal
stenographer was called on to use his
utmost efforts Fred was at that time.
Just imagine yourself trying to take
down Curley's speech. He was geared up
to the highest speed anyhow and was
rafting along like a hundred horsepower
racer on shell road He was getting
himself rid of his ideas in plain Eng
lish. which is hard enough to take In
stenography when the words come at the
rate OF a thousand a minute. anyhow, but
suppose the honorable gentleman from
Massachusetts were to let out few
unheard-of links of speed and rattle
Off something like this:
How strange Mr.. Chairman, is this
faunt Of prejudice in the faces of Dante,
and Tasso and Petrarch, of Raphael and
Michael Angelo, and Canova, of Verdi, and
Rossni. Bellni and Donizetti, OF Ristori,
and Duse and SalVini. and Rossi, OF Al
zim. 0Applause.D
You can bet hat that Fred lrland
didn't stick that word "aI plause" in at
that time. He was too busy trying to
wonder whether "Cavour and Mazzini'
were pieces of cheese or the name OF
something in the new tariff. Applause
must have set itself down of its own
volition.
The press gallery coterie began to
gather and every man of them looked
at Fred Irland and commiserated.
Representative Curley dug into his
motor apparatus and found that he still
had more vocal speed. SO he shot away:
II should like to ask these brilliant
exemplars of literature, of science and
Of art, who never heard of an Italian
civilization. who never heard Of Italian
government. who never heard of Rome
who never heard of its arts, of its litera-
ture. of its science. what freak of con-
ccit ignores historians like Carlo Botta
and Pasquale Nillari. romancists like
ManZoni and D'Annunzio, masters of Ian
guage like Bartelli and De Amics. and
overiooks astronomers like Schiaparelii
and electricians like FerrariS and Mar
conf on the loftiest ranges of applied
science? In The held of railway enSi-
neering there are no more extraordinary
memorials than the three grand passage
ways of the Mount Cents St Ciothard
and Simplon tunnels the enduring monu-
nents of southern Latin engineers and
constructors, who are said to be unas-
simlable. (ApplauseD
Applause was omitted again from the
notes, but somehow IL found itself into
the Congressional Record II really hap
pened all right The House was ready
to yell at anyt ing. Representative Cur
Iey's speech sounded like Virs liam ode
Dock Oulahan wandered into the press
gallery and andy asked whether or not
Curley was recit ng blank verse. and look
ed as if he meant it.
Curley still had few geniuses unmen-
toned. and wanted 10 get EN- all in the
Record for the benefit OF that hichbrow
element which constitutes a large part of
the const' tuency In Massachusetts. So he
ratified away, with Fred Irland humping
along behind:
Nv at country owes more to Italy for
Its impulse than the so-called boosted
Anglo-Saxon England? The foremost Eng
fish poets and dramatists-Chaucer, Wyatt
Surrey, Spencer. Greene. Webster. Ford
and Cyril Tourneur-show d stinctively the
Italian molding in poetry and drama.
Even the master minds of greatest force
and fertility, Bacon and Shakespeare,
would frankly acknowledge their debt
5 Shakespeare most romantic heroines.
Juliet and Desdemona, observes Wilfred
Scawen Blunt in the Speaker were both
borrowed, as we know, and not without
the loss Of dignity. from Bandello's Ital-
Ian originals
In the midst of it his high-pitched voice