Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1896 — HIS IS A SOFT SNAP. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HIS IS A SOFT SNAP.

THE AVERAGE MEMBER OF i CONGRESS KILLS'TIME. k Pea Picture of His DaHy Life Jn ' Washington—Tells Btorics t apd ls an : All-Around "Good Fellow” - Mia Secretary Work*. . '■ 1 The Daily Grind. * ‘ {Washington correspondence:

t I VIE work of the a.v----t erage member 3T Congress is very light this session. _Only the leaders 4 have the slightest Ik prospect of hard work before them. jSk Most of t.he committecs will have nothIng to do. The Com mittee on Ways an-1 FyrSjjjfl Means, which is.usually hard worked, ha” finished its la- - bora, as far as any HRf’fl one can see, and can || II l"look complacently U ’ upon the future. The

Commit tees op elections have a great deal to do,• but the work is divided up. arid it Is expected that all will be soon over with. The Appropriations—Committee has its ksual work, and those other committees (taring appropriation bills canriot enjoy Immunity fromu labor, but beyond that, there is hardly any work in sight that the emnmittoewiH ha veto tto.unihw.toget campaign material, they take up investigations. Bills are numerous eipHtgh, but Very few of them demand atterition, or are likely to receive any. V pouf two or three members on the Democrati/side and half a dozen or so on the Republican side will fail the labor of looking out for party politics. - The average member of the House has ample time to think over his own affairs, •r to study and prepare himself for a career, or to devote to thca'ter going and pleasure. He does hot have to get to the Capitol much before 12 o'clock, unless he happens to have been assigned to one of the few working committees, and Ire does ■ot always have to go to the Capitol at - ail. The average man breakfasts about P o'clock. Half an hour before this his morning's mail is brought around. It twill consist of maybe half a dozen newspapers, a lot of pamphlets, tracts and advertise'ments, and from ten to twenty-five letters. AH the newspapers except the local paper of his own home goes into the, waste basket promptly. These are followed by the pamphlets and advertisements, and finally by some of the letters. (Most of the latter have to be answered. Rome of them require something to be looked up at the departments or elseiwhere. and involve work before they can be answered. Generally the reply can be made at once in a line and all'-of the writing is done by the Congressman’s stenographer, provided at Government expense, 'After the letters are seen to, the member reads his home paper and looks over the principal features of one of the Washington papers, and then aets out for the day. If he has a committee meeting at the Capitol, all this morning, work will be Shortened and much of it postponed until later in the day. If there is iio meeting •f this sort demanding his attention, the hour of .his arrival at the Capitol is regutated largely -by hiFTondness for being Been in his seat, or for mingling in the gossip autersession assemblage. At the Capitol. ! Whatever time he has to spare between bis arrival and the hour of prayer is devoted to gossip with his colleagues. Near the elevator, by the basement entrance principally used, is the House posjotiiee. Here the member stops on his way to'the hall of the House and gets bis second morning mail-. He may get from two to half a dozen letters. These he usually reads during the session of the House. If he did not have a clerk, he would have to answer? them as he read them, but, as it pow is. a note on the back will remind him of their contents, and he puts them away until he eau get hold of his stenographer. If the member has any bills he ■ has been asked to introduce, or which he has had his stenographer prepare for him, he hands them to one of the clerks at the desk or puts them in the receptacle designated for bills at Some time during the fay. If he has a bill or resolution he Wants unanimous consent to have consid-

•red daring the morning hour, he endeaEors to see the speaker before the . House leets, to arrange for recognition, and if he does not succeed in this he takes his place in the Semi-circular space in front o's the speaker's desk immediately after prayer, and, with bill held in the air. ■ waits the speaker’s recognition, ,meanprhiie making frantic efforts to catch that •vssive orb. the speaker’* eye. When the peeoguition has been arranged beforehand, be has but to stand in his place on the •oor and address the speaker. During the •essron, after the morning hour, the member seldom pays any attention to the reg ■lar proceedings Unless they personally ftaterest h»m. time is then demanded between [ reading letters or the newspapers, lookerit the Congressional Record, dis leussing some' question of exchanging Wossip and stories with some of bis colleagues, at his seat, in the cloak room or tthe speaker’s lobby; receiving visitors the lobbies, going to lunch and making am occasional visit to the other wing of fto Capitol to see hia Senator. If he is JmaUy entertained, and not given to talkjhg. he may lean back in his chair most •f the day, with his bands folded, and listen in an abstracted, inattentive sort of jray to what is going on about him, with.-

out participating in it or‘fully realizing what It Ik ’ S&tftHlmea,” seized with a At of industry or with the view of having his evening free, he may retire te the speaker's lobby qj to a committee room, with his clerk, 'and finlshoff his correspondence. An occasional trip 1 to the restaurant may relieve the monotony, or he may saunter throifgfiThe corridors, seeing the crowd and being seen, or he maysit for awhile with a visitor in one of the galleries. Usually as much time is occupied in going to the corridors in response to cards as in any other way. It is seldom that he pays any attention to tha business of the House, except on some special occasion, or when die has a direct •Interest—tn what-is up. After adjournment he either gets another mail_at tha postoflice or it is delivered at his lodgings, and this again demands his attention. All told, he may have a dozen Tetters during the day, or he may have fifty. The lighter mail of the afternoon he may dispose pf before dinner or he may let it ga th er until morning; After dinner it is a call, the theater, visitors, at? evening in the parlor with the ladies, a loaf in the hotel corridors, or a hunt through volumes in preparation of a speech held in contemplation, to be delivered at some time, according to sentiment and circumstances. The theaters and the hotel lobbies are the

most common places of resort in the even iug.

KILLING TIME IN THE CORRIDOR.

GETTINO THE MAIL.