Evening star., 1940-04-07
Capital SideIights
By Will P. Kennedy.


gan, who recently put into the Record a
speech on the only Catholic priest who
ever served in Congress- is now prepar-
ing to call attention to the career of the
Rev, Charles Constantine Pise, D. D. Born
In Annapolis, Md, November 3, 1901, he
was an early assistant pastor of st.
Patricks Church here and more than a
century ago was chaplain Of the United
States Senate. He was for a time a
Jesuit scholastic, and after studying at
Georgetown and Rome, became a pro-
fessor at Mount st. Marys College. He
was courtly in manners and noted as
classical scholar, linguist, preacher, au-
thor, poet and editor. He translated the
soirees of De Maistre and has been called
the pioneer of Catholic literature in this
country. He was associated with the
celebrated DR.. Orestes A. Bronson. was
editor OF the Metropolitan and the Cath
olic Expositor, wrote a book of poems
and compiled a Catholic Church his
tory After leaving WsQrington he was
stationed at several churches in New
York and founded the Church of St.
Charles Borromeo, where he remained
until his death in June, 1866.
+*
The catfish war is over, after embroil-
ing the anglers and fish epicureans of
the District of Columbia and States from
Maine to Missouri and along the entire
Mississippi River Valley. It ended with
pronounced judgment by Representa-
tive Schuyler Otis Bland of Virginia,
chairman of the House Merchant Marine
and Fisheries Committee. as arbiter, and
the admission by Representative James
c. Oliver of Maine that the scales have
fallen from his eyes, that his erudition
has been enlarged and that he now rec
ognizes that catfish meat is as sweet as
chicken" But it took two catfish BAN
quets arranged by Chairman Jack Coch-
ran of the House Committee on Expendi-
lures, who started the squabble, to con-
vince the "doubting Thomases"-also a
personal inspection tour of the House
culinary department by many members
to see the king channel catfish from the
upper reaches of the Mississippi in his
uncooked state in snow ice The squab-
BILE started when Cochran appeared as a
protestant before the House Fisheries
Committee against proposed 10 per
cent tax on fishing tackle of all kinds
from rods to hooks. Representatives
Oliver Of Maine and Culkins of New York
proceeded to heckle Cochran as a catfish
angler. But Oliver made the mistake of
saying that a catfish wasn't fit to eat,
but was like the hornpout which his con-
stituents refused to eat. Then came the
backf1re from said constituents to the
emphatic effect that hornpout was good
eating and that they liked it. Cochran.
always good sport acquired three prize
channel catfish from the Potomac above
Great Falls and threw dinner for his
critics. Bland and Culkin promptly ad-
mltted the excellence Of channel catfish
but Oliver was still a holdout. Then
the fishermen and fish eaters Of the
National Capital took up verbal cudgels,
claiming that the Upper Potomac catfish,
in direct line from the Upper Mississippi
catfish, had been grossly maligned. Then
arrived 25-pound "cat" addressed
Jointly to Culkins and Oliver, from the
st. Louis Post-Dispatch. This fish had
been selected and packed by w. A. Me-
letio, nationally famous as an authority
on edible fish as table luxury, and a
brother of M. L. Meletio, Republican pair
clerk. After reposing in state in the
House kitchens, where homage was paid
by procession of members, it was well
cooked, garnished and served at another
Cochran banquet-"than which," his sur
feited colleagues testify, there is none
better" And thus the honor Of channel
catfish has been historically preserved
as will be chronicled in the Congress
sional Record.
And now comes another cat-catching
convert-House Leader, Sam Rayburn.
With Representative Cochran and 9TH
ers be spent week end fishing for Poto-
mac "cats"-caugnt them and gave q
catfish dinner in the Speakers dining
room for some SO prominent House and
Senate members. So now Congress is
"cat"- t"-consciouS.
That Greece has now rounded out ll9
years of independence was called to the
attention Of the House by Representative
Eberharter of Pennsylvania. Grecian
independence was achieved, he empha-
sized, after seven years Of continuous
struggle against the then mighty Turkish
Empire, whose domain extended over
large parts Of Asia, Europe and Africa"