Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1892 — WITH SCANT RESPECT. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WITH SCANT RESPECT.

MEMORIAL SERVICES IN CONGRESS A FARCE. Congressmen Continue to Indulge In the Eulogistic Burlesque Every Saturday Afternoon—News Leaks from Senators Themselves. Members Talk to Empty Seats.

WASHINGTON correspondence: With all due respect to those Congressmen who have passed gift* it must be said that j||\ the weekly memorinl services have gal become a fareial and extravagant IraßpPjjn ulsance. ComFHjKr plaints of the Fifty.second Congress wwnmin' being a do-nothing ■Mgr- affair are heard on IliTr |lall sides, and among I! <!» the very loudest of l| " oomplalnants are

many of the members themselves. Yet every Saturday afternoon, week In and week out, month in and month out, these same Congressmen, among them the loudest complainers of them all, sit by and do nothing but condemn the custom which gives one-sixth of every week to eulogizing the dead and—yes—the next to forgotten. And such a farce it all is—save, perhaps, to such relatives of the deceased as may be present In the members’ gallery and to the speakers. To the former It is more than a farce. It is a burlesque. To the latter a stern reality. And no wonder. The Houeeris called to order, and in the presence of a quorurp and to spare the chaplain offers a prayer. That over, the journal Is read, a few bills are Introduced, and then the olerk begins to read a resolution setting aside the day to hear eulogies pronounced In memory of the late Honorable So-and-so. Scarce has he finished when there is a commotion on the floor. The members, that is, most of them, are leaving. Before the first speaker has got through his first paragraph less than a fifth of the quorum remain and more them, ‘half of those are busy writing letters, reading newspapers or conversing with one another on some political question of the day. The press gallery is empty; so, too, are most of the Other galleries. In the members’ gallery, perhaps, sit a few deeply Interested persons, one of them In deep black bending forward to catoh every wood, her tear-stained eyes observing the laok ‘Of interest among the few who remain on the floor and whose number is constantly diminishing until, as has been the case most every Saturday, not more 'than twehty-flve out of the three hundred and thirty odd members remain. Sympathetic oreatures these members of Oomgresß. And yet, listen a moment to the one who is speaking. His words are of a sympathetic character, and the speaker appears 'to be in earnest. So does an actor. IBoth have their parts to play. It is wotk for them both, and they are .heartily glad when it is over. The only'difference is that one Is paid for ft; thcother does it either because bo has'been'requested lo deliver a eulogy or foie-acquaintance with the deceased mattes Lina'think it would be rather indecent In ihlm (not to say a few words. And no ithe afternoon drags wearily along,'the solemn phrases being .occasionally punctuated by a laugh 'from the mlodk■•rooms, where another joke has just been cracked. It is all ewer .at last, and as the last speaker drops into bis seat .a .motion to adjourn is made, seconded,,put, and carried. The gawel strikes:the desk, the curtain falls 'upon ■smother day. ■ and the country wonders Why Congress is so far behind in it* work. ■During the debate on the rules some member .moved that eulogies be'delivered, on Sunday. There would thereby he ino interference with the legitimate work of Gongress. But an objection was .made and the proposition was mot 'pressed. But'most of the members were mew.and without experience then. Now; they would welcome such a chanoo were it not that < Congress is behind <on eulogies, and to stop now would seem.un-' kind to the:memories of the unenlogized ■dead. .'Should there come a time, how•ever, when Congress catches up., a (resolution will be offered to stop tbe farce' in the name of decency and economy. That .resolution will pass and will be probably fdllowed by the wiping out of that'Otherlburlesque, the Congressional funeral. And when these are out .of the way many.a day will be saved and the people will begin to think that they axe getting their money’s worth «as legislation . after .all.

Flaying the Baby. G-eai. JI. 'V. Boynton, the veteraai -correspondent, writing about the leakage of executive secrets, about which the Senate lhas been so concerned, says: “The proceedings of the executive sessions became known simply and solely because Senators divulge them. If Senators should reform there would never be a word made public, except what was guessed at. Of course, much of the matter which appears in the papers is seotmd-hand from Senators, but the preliminary disclosure is always from a Semotor, and more frequently than any other way directly to a newspaper correspondent. There is no exaggeration about these statements, it is the cold every-day fact year in and year out of the Senatorial sessions. Every correspondent of long service here will -confirm It. The fact is the correspondents universally recognize the obligations under which these officers are to the Senate and do not approach them with forbidden questions about executive proceedings. The present move against them is not only unjust, but to those whose business it Is to obtain executive proceedings and who both know how to do It and do it, the movement is ludicrous in the last degree. It becomes a case where men make children of themselves and outdo infants during the period in which they take leave of their senaes. Beyond question, if the Senate should rise to expel all who were disclosed by an investigation as having made known executive secrets, and should then call the correspondents and the latter should rise to answer, the Senate would almost immediately find itself not only without a quorum, but without a numerous minority, without it rescinded th« order to expel. Nothing but the refusal of correspondents to answer saves the Senate for a day when It orders investigations."

Blaine at the Circus. Secretary Blaine took in the cireup the other afternoon. Mr. Blaine looked well and seemed as pleased as any one at the show. He ate peanuts and heartily applauded the innumerable funny acts of the clowns and the donkeys. There was no applause when he came in, for the circus was the greater show to the Washington audience. The sight of. a Secretary of State was evidently a novelty to the attaches of the circus. The jockeys, male and female, the tumblers and the acrobats, kept their eyes glued pn Mr. Blaine during their acts, and in the production of “Columbus," in which Mr. Blaine took an especial interest, it was at times difficult to distinguish on whom Queen Isabella oast the longer glances, the hardy Columbus or the man from Maine.