Evening star., 1936-02-15

CONTINUED From First Page.)
terest in the boys and considerable
number of Annapolis and West Point
commissions have gone to pages In the
past, so Lee Brownheld can hope.
Being boys at the most cut-uppish
age, the discipline has to be pretty
stiff. If their monitors took them
too seriously or too lightly. they would
have a bad time and more gray hairs
than they do. Sometimes boys are
suspended for three or four days
without pay. and occasionally they
have been fired"
There was one famous little red
headed hellion of a page from Arkan-
sas, who somehow escaped the firing
process, but went in for wild car
ryings-on. He had quite a racket
selling sightseers admission to the
visitors galleries at rs cents a head
and actually getting them in by in
forming gullible doorkeepers that Sem
ator So-and-So had sent them up.
He also. on one notable occasion,
slipped two eggs into colored jani-
tors pocket and then, few moments
later, slapped that pocket with a
friendly hello, there" Yes, the eggs
brokel
He went on up to serve as spe-
cial messenger to Postmaster General
Farley for while and is now some
where. probably reformed, in q Gov
ernment department.
ONE hijinks episode occurred on the
rostrum right in the Senate
chamber. One page wore bow tie
with an elastic band attached. The
other pages delighted in pulling 1t out
and letting it snap back on a protest.
ing Adams apple. The victimiZed page
thought a while, excused himself, got
a quantity Of straight pins, stuck them
in the tie and the surrounding shirt
area with sharp points out, then went
back to the roStrum. When the others
pulled again, there was chorus of
yells, plus one ringing laugh, and then
the Vice President raped for order.
The boys don't think much of the
lame duck law, which ended the early
December convening Of Congress. 1t
also ended the annual Christmas eve
dinner given for the pages by all Vice
Presidents since Marshall. So far
there is no substitute, and that is a
grief to the pages, for as one wrote at
one of those dinners
"a page may work, but prefers to play,
And his greatest Joy is three meals a
day."
In case you think we've forgotten
the House pages, we haven't, but we
had more fun with the Senate boys,
and although Doorkeeper Joseph J.
Sinnott, who has charge of House
pages, was courteous and helpful, he
thought their story short and simple
rather than "featureful."
There are Al House pages. Their
age range is the same as on the Sen
ate side and they also go to school
there if they want to. They have no
particular dress uniform-"any suit
mott. They report for duty at Q am.
and their runs are "Hob"-House
Office Building-ones. Instead of snap
ping for pages Representatives push a
little electric button on the arms of
their chairs. There are two chief
pages, John McCabe and v. D. Mar
tindale, who attend to discipline.
The House pages stand in the cor
ners of the chamber at the rear. Sew
ersl take care of the phones, and some.
known as amendment pages, stand up
front near the rostrum ready to take
copies of bills and amendments to the
Representatives
The pages of the two houses some
times wage war-on the diamond in
the Summer and on snowy lawns in
the Winter. Eyes, the Senate wins"
said q truthful Senate page, "and
sometimes the House wins"
They are nice boys-more boys than
pages, II you know what we mean.