Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1888 — THE DEAD-LOCK. [ARTICLE]

THE DEAD-LOCK.

Some Amusing Scenes and Incidents in the National House of Representatives. The Wheels of Legislation Were Blocked, but the Wags Had Plenty of , Pun. (Special Cor. Chicago Times.] The bright morning of the eighth calendar day of the deadlock upon the directtax bill dawned upon weary and forlornlooking groups of Representatives, who stood guardto watch each other. The extraordinary number of roll-calls and the length of the session has badly demoralized the reading clerks, and various employes of the House have been tried as substitutes, with indifferent success. As one clerk with insufficient vocal ability was struggling along with the roll-call on the Weaver motion, Mr. Dockery, of Missouri, generously stepped forward amid the applause of the House and took up the call in a sonorous voioe. During the small hours the snores of ebony occupants of the public gallery mingled with the sounds of campaign songs and laughter emanating from the coat-rooms, the confused rumble of hoarse breathing of sleepers, and the subdued applause of good story-tellers like Mason of Chicago and Allen of Mississippi. Every place available for a man to stretch himself upon was occupied, except the broad marble mantelpieces over the open grate-fires in the corners of the hall; and some of the relays on guard even sought repose by sitting upon the small of their backs with their legs thrown over a desk and heads resting upon the desk behind them. The more wakeful spirits amused themselves by playing jokes upon these. Among the most laughable incidents were the tricks played upon Brumm of Pennsylvania, Taulbee of Kentucky, and Long of Massachusetts. While Taulbee, one of the most officiously active and least influential of the minority, was snoozing in the amen corner, some wag hid his brogans, and when the lank Kentuckian was awakened by the fall of a bundle of Congressional records upon his stomach, he could not find his shoes, though he goodnaturedly hunted under the sofas, and behind the doors. Finally he found one shoe, and amid hilarious merriment and appeals of jesting members to put on his shoes, he came down the aisle, and, rising to a question of privilege, asked time he had left. “The gentleman is out of order,” said the Speaker, and Taulbee retired amid jeering laughter to appear a little later with odd shoes on his feet. Mr. Brumm of Pennsylvania was the butt of a joke that closed his gaping mouth with a snap and dropped his long legs from the desk to the floor with undignified haste, and of course everybody roared at his sudden waking in a fright. Somebody had pasted a placard upon the sole of his boot and another had touched a match to the paper. Ex-Gov. Long waked from a brief but sound slumber to find some difficulty in gaining an upright position, his legs having been tied to the top of the desk and a shower of paper balls rained upon him. The jolly and venerable Wade of Missouri fell asleep on the back row and attracted the attention of the fun-levera by loud snoring. They disengaged the green baize curtain from the brass railing behind him and wrapped the old man in it so that only his bald pate was exposed to view. His make-up was completed with a tall paper fool's-cap drawn down over one eye and one ear, and the lawmakers looked on and laughed as the tip of the cap swayed back and forth, keeping time with his heavy breathing. Mason, of Chicago, with his inexhaustible fund of good-humor, and overflowing with good stories, was a god-send to his fellowmembers on such an occasion. At almost any time he could be seen in some part of the chamber or through the open doors of the cloak-room with a crowd of laughing men around him. He would tell a yarn, and when the laughter was at its height, quietly walk away with his own fat sides shaking. In a few minutes a crowd would gather about him and make another draft upon ths resources of the genial Illinois member for merry-making. Toward morning the frolicksome members had quieted down, and the dnll monotony of carrying on the fiction of waiting for twelve hours for the Sergeant-at-arms to bring in absentees was seldom broken, even by the fellows who at all times obtrude themselves and their lame wit upon the attention of the House. When daylight began to creep through the glass panels overhead not more than fifty members were in their seats, the galleries were vacated, and the one-legged keepers of the upper tiers of doors hobbled to the windows for a breath of fresh air. The outer doors of the chamber bad been closed all night, and the hall was filled with a poisonous atmosphere. Still the majority stubbornly refused to suspend proceeding's under the call so that the doors might be opened. The Boston papers will suppress the fact, and papers elsewhere will announce it with pain and regret, that the most undignified attitude assumed by any member of the House this afternoon was that which Henry Cabot Lodge, the literary statesman from Massachusetts, assumed for an hour. He placed the small of his back on his chair, laid his legs on his desk, and confronted the presiding officer with the soles of his boots. He was reading a book with morocco cover and gilt edges, and as well as the title could be deciphered from the gallery it was Browning’s poems. Gen. Weaver sat in his proper place with qne leg thrown over the other in a firm but easy attitude, but deeply absorbed in a newspaper, and looking able to sit there as long as necessary. The flower in Mr. Springer’s button-hole was faded, and he looked depressed. A fresh flower and a shave restored to him all his native buoyancy. Mr. Johnson, of Indiana, lay with his head hanging over the back of his chair and his eyes closed in slumber. Mr. Burrows reclined with his feet on one chair and the heavier part of his anatomy in another, while he read the morning papers. The amiable and affectionate Gov. McCreary presented a pretty picture, 7 with a wee little girl on his knee. The gentlemen sleeping on the eight sofas in the comer of the hall generally had their faces covered with newspapers or handkerchiefs and they could not be iden-, tified at a distance. _ .