Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 December 1898 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

Many letters and telegrams are being received by Senators and members of Congress inquiring when the bodies of thq dead soldiers who lost their lives in battlq in Cuba, or as the result of disease, will be sent to their late homes. It is the intention of the War Department to bring home the body of every American soldier, including those who died of yellow fever and other contagious diseases. Hermetically sealed caskets are being contracted for and sent to Cuba as .rapidly as possible, but the bodies will not be disinterred until some time in February, when it is considered they can be brought here with perfect safety. The bodies of the soldiers having relatives will be turned over to them, but in instances where there are none the body will be interred at Arlington, the national cemetery, a few miles> west of Washington, and the graves will be appropriately marked. . ’ •- The Morgan bill for the construction of the Nicaragua canal is a measure which will be pushed through Congress this ses sion if it can be done. It provides for $100,000,000 backing for the enterprise. This amount will be paid for the stock of a canal company, the subscription being taken at par. The Government will retain $i0,000,000 of the stock, the remainder being distributed to the Central American governments and to the Maritime Canal Company to reimburse it for money it has actually expended for prosecution of jvork on the canal. The Government will, therefore, be the’ controlling stockholder in the corporation. It will escapethe technical responsibility of direct construction, while the terms of the concession, which stipulate that its right and privileges shall not be transferred to a Government or nation, will not be violated. The funeral of Gen. Garcia was an imposing pageant. Among the participants were high officers of the Government, both civil and military, and the ministering clergymen were eminent prelates of the Catholic Church, Archbishop Ireland, Bishop O’Gorman of the diocese of Dakota and others. The I’resident was represented at the funeral. Mrs. McKinley sent a floral tribute; a military escort was provided by the Secretary of War, and every possible evidence of respe’dt and demonstration of honor was made by the United States to the hero of the Cuban revolution. The remains will be sent to Cuba on a man-of-war, with full military honors, to impress the Cubans and the Spaniards with the respect and confidence which the United States Government felt for Gen. Garcia. . If there is any one question which is* asked more than any other in Washington, it is, “What hour does the legislative day of March 3 end?” This question is propounded because the life of a Congress expires at that hour once every two years. That question was settled forty-seven years ago, and this was the Way it happened: March 3, 1851, at midnight, Senator Mason of Virginia, whose term expired that day and whose credentials for another term were on file, asked to have the oath administered to him, upon the ground that'his right to sit under his old credentials expired at that hour. The Senate refused to allow his request and byresolution declared that the session did not expire until 12 o’clock meridian the 4th. The Vice-President says he is a direct gainer financially by the late war and the reason he gives is a decidedly novel one. From his coming to Washington up to the outbreak of the war an average of 100 babies a month were named after him, or at least their fond parents so informed! him by letter. In this particular direction, his value has fallen off considerably, for the youngsters nowadays whose parents, want to start them off under the halo of somebody else’s name are christened Dewey, Schley, Roosevelt, Hobson and all the rest of the recent heroes of land and «ea. A little girl who had to leave the Senategallery the other day cried bitterly. After the big doors were closed the guardian of the stat-chamber secrets asked her why she was so opposed to leaving. “Because,” she stammered between sobs, “because Christmas is coming and Santa Claus was in there, and I wanted him tosee me.” She had been looking at Senator Stewart of Nevada. Veterans of the civil war enter complaint that the army bill which is being framed in the House discriminates Against them. They grumble loudest at the age limitations fixed in the bill ami grow indignant when they talk about the disposition on the part of the new generation of Congressmen to crowd the old heroes into the background to make way for, younger men. Senator Proctor introduced a resolution, providing for the appointment of a select committee, to consist of five Senators, which will visit the West Indies at the expens** of the Government to inquire into the military requirements, and another junketing party is in prospect which will in all probability spend the winter months' in Cuba and Porto Rico. The most appropriate way to celebratethe capital centennial would be to- erect a new residence for the President, for theWhite House is now so er >wded that eleven clerks and typewriters are engaged in a single room, and when a slate dinner* is served the tables have to be spread in a main corridor. An interesting ceremony occurred in the White Rouse in the presentation to President McKinley for deposit in the National Museum of the flag of the United State* frigate Bon Homme Richard. The presentation was made by Mrs. Harriet R, P. Stafford of Cottage City, Mass. There are symptoms of a long debate in the Senate, the general topic to be expansion am! constitutional limitations, concerning colonies. The only good res suit of such debates is to educate the country, because they never change any vote* in th* SvuaU*.