Year: 1878

The Drunken senators.


Correspondence of the Utica Herald.
WASHINGTON, Feb. l6.-A more disgrace


ful scene than the Senate displayed during
the debate over the Silver bill last night, has


not been seen for years. An all night ses-
sion is never very creditablc affair. SEN
ators grow careless as the galleries empty.


Boots are drawn off Men lie down at full


length on the settees in their stocking feet.


Vests are unbuttoned. All the attitudes of
a railroad car at , a. m. are assumed Smok


ing goes on all over the floor. The doubt


ful jests of the cloak rooms float out among
the desks. Last night matters were worse.
The Senate was unmistakably drunk. A
mere snail fraction was affected, but they
colored the scene Just as 4 few noisy boys
make school disOrderly school. 1t is not
pleasant to write these things. 1t is worse
to see them. lt is scandalOus that they
should happen. The Senate sat, you must
remember, from noon yesterday till five this
morning, seventeen hours, long strain on
any ones patience. Matters ran smoothly
enough till between seven and eight. By
that time a fair portion of the Senate had
''dined.' There was ''spread" in the
sergcant-atarm' ; room-he is an officer un-
der charges, and not wholly secure in his
seat. There was another spread in com
mittce room confined principally to
some thirty-four brandy and water
tumblers. Other bottles were acces-
sible in a cloak ROOM Things were not
set out in quite as straightforward way rs
they used to be four years ago in the COM
mittee room of the House devoted to the
committee on public buildings and grounds,
where whiskey barrel was tipped on end
and provided with faucet and tin cup for
all comers, but liquor flowed nearly as
freely


The effect showed slowly. From eight to
ten it was noticeable that Senators were in
terrupting each other with great freedom
and singular lack of Conference. Around GER
tain seats men were shouting with laughter
at the drunken babble of Senators who were
leaving the room at intervals, measuring
their drinks while absent, Senator explain
ed to me, by perpendicular instead of hori-
zontal fingers" From ten on there could
be no possible doubt about the condition of
affairs on the floor. and two or three Sena-
tors wives in the private gallery, among
them the wife of an offending meaber, were
giggling behind their fans over the "fun."
Steps grew more unsteady, faces more flush
ed, interruptions more incoherent. dis
tinguished Senator from California strolled
back and forth with that spongy and uncer,
tain action of the knees which plain
lively suggests that one foot or the other
has been caught in a skein of sewing
silk. His arms went around every man he
met in some maadlIn embrace and both sides
of his desk were needed when he rose to
There yra apathar L.,
tinguished for his opposition to the pending
bill who displayed great anxiety ito strike
out the second line of the word Govern
ment :" shrieks of laughter; finally by
help of diligent whispering, a man prompt
ing and supporting on each side, he gave his
amendment correctly, and dropped back in
drunken stupor; the amendment was voted
down; he woke, rose, repeated his amend
ment wild and uncomfortable merriment
repeated it the third time Senators around
him nearly crazy with mirthl. and at
last persuaded in his befogged mind he tot
tered from group to group, donouncing the
uniairness of a vote on his amendment,
"while was down at dinner" lie dined
at five. The amendment. was voted on after
ten. Still third Senator, for thirty years
the hOnored leader of great party in great
State. passed from his seat to the cloak room
and the cloak room to his scat emily by wide
apart steps and supporting chairs, and when
he reached his seat fell there into q
drunken sleep in one of the pauses Of
debate in which he was endeavor-
ing to Join, did when he awoke-haying
slept with man laundering at him two feet
from his deSk-with incOherent exclama-
tions and doubtful answers to a simple, plain
and easy question. There were other Sena-
tors less noiSy and further gone-oue at full
length on his desk and chair legislating on
the silver question as Congress insists on
legslating on that and many other questions,
eyes shut and mouth wide open.


Such was the Senate which smirched the
national homer by passing the silver bill,
tacking on it an amendment expressly in
tended to scale the national debt ten per
cent in value. 1t ought to be clearly under
stood that this was not an usual scene.
Probably no one thing is more persistently
exaggerated than the evils of Washington
life. The LADY correspondents, doubtless
from the peaceful seclusion of their past
lives, manage the first three weeks of the
session they come here to see more evils to
chronicle, more vice, than any man will see
in year, even a man whose business it is
to see things. Taking matters as they are.
remembering the size of the city. the size of
its hotels and the manifold opportunity, life
is purer here and less stained by excess than
elsewhere.