Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1892 — IN THE LOWER HOUSE. [ARTICLE]

IN THE LOWER HOUSE.

AN INTERESTING STUDY OF ITS PERSONNEL. Bow n Compare, with Its Predecessor— In Numbers and Talent the Republicans. Gain While the Democrats Lose Old Members Returned. From the Capital. Washington • The lower house of the- Fifty-third Congress will have a decided Democratic majority, yet the Republicans by the recent gained more than they lost In numbers and talent,. while theDemocrats lost many old and experienced members, In the House of Representatives of the Fifty-second Congressthere are 235 Democrats,. 88. Republicans and 9 Farmers’ Alliance men, making, a total of 312 members. Jn the Fifty-third Congress the total membership will be 356, a gain of 24 ynder the reapportionment of the new census. It is impossible yet to state definitely the< relative strength of each party in the House, because in many districts the official count will be necessary to determine accurately the result. From the returns already received, however, It Is evident that the Democrats will have In round numbers 220 members, the Republicans 130, and the Populists and Independents the remaining 6. With such a working majority as thia the Democrats will be able to enact any legislation they choose on the tariff or any other question; and as the Sena’ewlll also have a Democratic majority, the party will be entirely responsible for whatever legislation is sent to President Cleveland for his sighature. A study of the personnel of the newly elected House shows that remarkably fpw changes have been made in its membership, considering the 1 fact that the Representatives were voted for at a Presidential election, when men of both parties are naturally more anxious for nominations than in so-called off years. There have been comparatively few men of '■onspicuous ability or striking personality in the lower house during the past tew .years, and the Fifty-sec-ond Congress was especially lacking in big men. The new Congress gains little if anything by ths changes resulting from the elections, and the Democrats have failed to make up in ability what they have lost in the failure of old and capable members to be renominated or re-elected. The Republicans, on the other hand, in proportion to their total number, will have more men of real ability and parliamentary experience than the Democrats.

Losses and Gains. The Democrats will still have such strong men as Speaker Crisp, Judge Holman, Springer, the Breckinridges, Bynum of Indiana, Bourke Cockran, Amos Cummings, Col. Fellows, Harter of Ohio, McMillin of Tennessee, Eayner of Maryland, and Blanchard of Louisiana; but they have lost Blount oi Georgia, Herbert and Forney of Alabama, Hemphill of South Carolina, Hoai and Williams of Massachusetts, and others. The three first named have served long years in Congress, and are possessed of valuable knowledge and experience, which will be missdd by their constituents and 1 their colleagues in committees and on the floor of the House. ' • ! The Republicans lost none of theit leaders, and the apt debaters, shrewd legislators, and skillful parliamentarians that make up the HlHe band who have stood so gallantly by their dethroned Czar during the sessions of the present Democratic House are all -returned, and will continue to f< How the brilliant, If erratic and fateful, leadership of Tom Reed. Among the members of the Fiftysecond Congress who were noted above their fellows for some peculiar trait of chaiacter, personal appearance, or incident in life, and wfiosb names will no longer be heard in the ikfll call, are Kittle Halvorsen, the ’ Norwegian Alliance and Prohibition member from Minnesota: the venerable Leonidas M. Miller, of Wisconsin, who, as he sat in the front row, his bald head bobbing over his spectacles, bore a striking resemblance to Pickwick, who was born in Greece, the son Qf»a. fighting chieftain, who left him, bn the battlefield After a fierce fight with the Turks; Hoar and George Pred Williams, of Massachusetts, wno wept when Mills was defeated in the speakership caucus, and refused forsooth to vote tor Crisp in the House; “Tom” Watson, of Georgia; who wrote a book to prove that his colleagues in Congress were 'drunkards, and “the three Taylors,” all from Ohio, and ail Republicans. There iwill only bs two Taylors in the new : House as against five in the old. One is from Indiana and the other is from i Texas. There will be two Smiths only, George W., from Pennsylvania, and Marcus A., a delegate from Arizona. His Last Official Days. Mr. Harrison will get his last month’s pay on February 28 or 29 in the shape of a draft issued on a warrant signed as usual by the Secretary of the Treasury and sent over to the White House by a messenger. The amount of this draft would be $4,166.67, but four days’ extra pay will be added for March. On the evening of March 3 he will go to the Capitol, where he will seat himself at the big table in the center of the President’s room. This is . said to be the handsomest room In the world, but the Chief Magistrate of the nation only uses it once in two years. It has a velvet carpet with a pile so deep that the footsteps of one who walks upon it are noiseless. The furniture is covered with red leather, and the celling is frescoed in the highest style of art. Mr. Harrison will take a chair between two great mirrors, which so throw back each other’s reflections that looking in either direction, he can see an interminable line of his own images extending out of ‘sight. Up to midnight he will be occudied in hurriedly signing bills, in order that they may become laws before the expiration of the Fifty-second Congress. It will be his last night of power. The next day he becomes a private citizen, with no more control over public affairs than a newly naturalized foreigner.