The Washington herald., 1914-05-27
Statesnen, Real and Near.
BY FRED c. KELLY.

BY FRED c. KELLY.
In making parliamentary rulings IN
the House OF Representatives, the Speaker
Is governed largely BY precedent The
plan Of going according to precedent u
In itself . matter Of precedent Thus
the Speaker 10 not % much concerned
with what ID the best line OF procedure
right now as with what was done In
such q situation Q great many years ago
just a. . lawyer trying to settle a
ditch case will get down set OF books
and try to find what vespasian or Moses
would have done In similar circumstances.
From time to time, when the Speaker
becomes too bored with his job OF pre-
siding to stand It any longer. he slides
out and appoints some other member to
stay In juxtaposition to the lid until
he returns. Almost any member is
tickled half to death to do this. just
as every little child. when playing school,
wants to be the teacher and sit up In
front with big stick.
Now II q number Of years ago. crazy
man happened to be in the chair for
the moment. and made aruling on some
new angle of parliamentary discussion.
that ruling would form q precedent. II
the same situation arose In the House
today, Bennett Clark, the parliamentary
clerk, searching for q precedent would
dig up that crazy mans ruling In less
time than II takes here to tell it-for
q mighty efficient and wise young per-
son Is Bennett Clark.
A few days ago Mr. Alfalfa Bill" MUIR
ray. of Oklahoma. was in the chair. Mr..
Alfalfa Bill' used to be speaker of the
house in Oklahoma, and knows a good
deal about parliamentary law. Before he
left the chair he made an Oklahoma rul-
Ing. There arose a dispute on the floor
as to whether q certain amendment was
In order. Acting according to the prece-
dents at hand, Murray ruled that the pre-
cedent was In order. Then some member
gayly offered an amendment to the
and Murray said that would
be all right. too. This provoked further
on the floor and nearly every
body was disagreeing with somebody else.
''As a matter Of fact" commented Act
Ing Speaker Murray, IT am convinced
that neither the amendment nor the
to the amendment was in
order at all. but have ruled that both
were In order. and so we are going to
proceed this afternoon on that basis
II We were a cartoonist, the first thing
We would do would be TO draw a picture
Of Senator John Sharp Williams face as
It looked On the street car a few morn
Ings ago.
Senators who persist in riding on street
cars along with the general run OF peo-
Pile. instead of dash!ng about In large.
richly upholstered Limousine cars, simply
have to stand for the consequences; and
that is what John Sharp Williams was
doing that morning.
A brisk young man with the air of a
person who keenly desires something,
sat down in the vacant seat beside Will
ANS and began to engage him in con-
versation.
I've been wanting to see you for a
ong time about a matter" began the
Young man. and his face beamed. But
Williams face did not beam
Here's something that will interest
vou." went on the young man. chuckling,
and slapping his thigh with one hand.
while he pulled a dull looking document
from an inside pocket with the other.
The young man read a few passages
rom the document while the Senator in
.eptly studied the language of a corset
at the top Of the car.
"Can you beat that?' gurgled the young
man. Now the position our people
lake in the matter is
And he was pulllng another dreary loOk-
ng paper from his pocket.
BY that time everybody in the car was
fascinated by the look on John Sharp
Williams face. II wore an expression
that should have been preserved to pos
terity, with some such title as this:
Portrait Study of Man Looking En-
tirely Disinterested."
''Uncle Hank" Barnhart, member of
Congress from Indiana, is a great mimic
and also likes to go to church. In addi-
ton, he has an exceptionally good men,
Dry. He can go to church and memorize
The entire sermon. Every Sunday Barn.
hart returns to his hotel full Of enthusi-
asm over the sermon he has just heard.
and starts in to repeat 1t word for word
Just as the man said IL He gives not
only a verbatim report of the sermon. but
has the minister's every intonation and
gesture.
The consequence of this is that Barn
hart is practically the only person at this
hotel who ever goes to church. All the
others figure that there is little use 60
ing when they can sit on the front We
randa and have the sermon fetched right
TO them by Barnhart.
Ambassador Da CANA. Of Brazil. one
Of the mediators Of the Mexican mix-up,
studies paintings and sculptures in his
leisure moments.
Minister Naon. of Argentina, another of
the Mexican mediators, collects rare
coins.
Uncle Jeremiah Donovan. member Of
Congress from Connecticut, is a great
kidder in a quiet. serious way. One
afternoon a visitor dropped into his office
and offered him a cigar. Donovan ex-
planned that he doesn't smoke.
''Mebby your secretary smokes" sug-
gested the caller. affably.
''Mebby he does" observed Donovan:
he doesn't do anything else"
lCopynght. dig. By Fred c. Kelly. All rights
reserred.l