Evening star., 1923-04-22
Capital Sidelights
By WILL p. KENNEDY.

uO1nS the most Skilled recOrOlnB OF
the world. During the last Congress
they took down as they were uttered
| in sharp and swiftly spoken debate
more than 150, 100000 words, and then
read Off their notes in the same legi-
Bile and facile way that people read
their Bibles During the closing ses-
sion the Senate was for weeks sitting
continuously from II am. until 10
O'Clock at night.
For seventy-four years. since the
stenography of Isaac Pitman began
10 record the Senate debates, they
, have been reported in just that fluent
and reliable way.
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When President Wilson came home
from Europe and invited the Senate
committee on foreign relations to
come to the White House and ques-
tion him about the peace conference.
| he suggested that the hearings should
be officially reported. Senator Lodge,
chairman OF tho committee, invited
James w. Murphy TO attend to the
reporting. Warren G Harding was
one OF the seventeen members OF the
committee who piled the Chief Execu-
tive with questions. There was no
time to revise the report and the
newspaper men got IL sheet by sheet.
1t made nineteen columns in the next
, mornings paper.
This man Murphy who had charge
or that job is tho son of Edward v.
Murphy, who for three score years
was a skilled and faithful official Of
the Senate. He is the nephew of
Dennis +. Murphy, the first real
American reporter, who learned his
stenography in the Philadelphia high
school SO that in d year he was able
to write at the rate OF $50 words a
minute and at the age OF fifteen, while
employed as amanuensis by the rep
resentative Of a Washington news
| paper. outspeeded the regular re-
porters of debate, and at twenty was
undisputedly the foremost reporter OF
debates In the English speaking Z
world. AT one time he took 230 words
| a minute during a forty mute hear
| ing, in 1874.
| Representative Jack" Garner Of
Texas. who was considered as q can
| didate for democratic leader in the
| next Congress until he announced
that he would not oppose Represent
| ative Finis j. Garrett OF Tennessee
for tho honor. has been IN Congress
continuously for twenty years-and
yet there are three counties IN the
| district which has reelected him for
| his eleventh term which he has never
visited. These three counties have al
| ways gone for him just the same.
| maybe because they have not seen
me-" Garner himself comments.
| Garner was born near Possum
Trot, at the edge of Blossom Prairie,
Red River county. Texas, in log
hut which is still standing. and which
! is still being preserved by him for
! sentimental and tender recollections
! Of early childhood.
I AT the age Of eight he rode TO mill
on a sack Of corn, and on the return
! trip homo the sack came united. the
| meal flowed out, and-well, he knew
what was coming to him when he got
| home.
! He was raised on a farm and
! known as a good cotton picker,
mary days picking over 400 pounds.
| He is now pretty comfortably well
| off in strong contrast TO his early
years when his first worldly posses
sion was Il motherless mule colt
| bought by him for So. which he
| earned selling eggs. This motherless
colt when four years old sold for
$3.50.
| The polyglot hero Of the last demo
cratic national campaign. who is
likely to be drafted for similar service
in the coming presidential campaign
is Representative Edward T. Taylor
| OF Glenwood Springs, Colo. He or
! ganized the bureau OF naturalized
| headquarters in Chicago in 1915 and
! Jn0nnnnfpd
| throughout the western twenty-foul
states to secure the vote of foreign
born citizens of forty-six different
nationalities and languages.
| x :; x =
| Representative Allen T. Treadway
who shares with Speaker Gillett the
honor of representing the western
part of Massachusetts in Congress
| is especially proud of a. compliment
paid him when he first aired his ora.
| torical powers in the House by the
veteran democratic leader Chamr
! Clark. Mr. Clark was in the cloak
room when Treadway started his
! speech, but hurried i'll to see who was
| making SO much noise. He told Mr
| Treadway later that he had 'fllet
the hall better than any man he hao
! ever heard.
The first time Allen Treadway ever
spoke in public on the stage was II
| a, prize speaking contest at Amherst
College on hot night. His subjec'
was 'The Battle March of Attila,'
| which required a good deal OF voice
Mr.. Treadway recalled that his train
er warned hiU that If he did not hole
himself back he was liable TO blow
the roof Off.
* x * x
Gen. Isaac r. Sherwood of Toledo
Ohio, who will be the oldest man IL
the ,Sixty-e eighth Congress when ht
returns in his eighty-eighth year
and who carried a musket in first bat
tie of the civil war at Philippi, Va
later West Virginia, as voluntee
soldier receiving 81 a month. mad'
his first visit to Washington in Febru
ary. 1859. He heard the culminatine
debate in the Senate on the bill to pur
chase the Island Of Cuba. He recalls
the startling and revolutionary utter
ance of Robert Toombs of Georgia
championing this measure, that h
aimed to call the roll Of his slave
under the shadow of Bunker Hill
Monument Senator Mason of Vir
ginia and Senator William H. Sewar'
of New York opposed the bill II
elaborate speeches. Representativ
Sherwood says that among the crowd
ing recollections of the battles ant
ira gedies Of the civil war the mem
ory Of that fierce and malignant de
bate stands out most vividly.
He remembers seeing for the frs
and last time Jefferson Davis Of Mis-
| sissippi, Senators Slidell and Juda
p. Benjamin of Louisiana, John !
Crittenden of Kentucky, Rober
Toombs of Georgia and dozen othe
southern senators who never re
turned after the war.
| There were then but thirty-thre
states and sixty-five senators. amonl
the most noted being Stephen A
| na,,ulass a. Illinois Hannibal Ham