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Show HOW THE AVERAGE CONGRESSMAN CON-GRESSMAN LIVES. The con&titaents ef many of these gentlemen would he surprised to know how they live in Washington. Washing-ton. The number who keep houso or live in a fashionable hotel is comparatively com-paratively .small. Many of them, through motives ol economy (which I am Jar irom meaning to mention with contempt), havo one or more rooms in a boarding house, for which they pay twice what the lumiture would bring if sold at a f.iir valuation. As for meala, they are oerved at a miserable tabic d'hote in the basement, or a dark back room, where government govern-ment clerks rush in hungry at 4 p.m., to dinner, aud give the M. C. no quarter in the matter of choice bits, ualess said M. 0., scould, perhaps, be chairman of a committee that looks into department depart-ment estimates, and the number of clerkB in each bureau, or is pondering over a sensational investigation. In somo instances the M. (J. and his raniny nave lodgings only, and either 1 walk from two to four or moro squaree 1 to take their mealo at a hotel, or have the necessities ol life f urn iehed in their Bbabbily-furnished parlor, on tbe M. C.'s dingy, morocco-covered office table, 'from which a pile of newspapers and letters from constituent! are carelessly care-lessly swept aside to make room for the uneavory looking tray of "victuals" brought in twice a day. Suppose it is breakfast. There ia a smutiylooldng tin coflte or tea pot, from which a muddy liquid, full of grounds and lukewarm, is pourtd into tnick china cups, whose handles have long ago been cant aside. The milk and tugar are in cups or cracked tumblers. The plates are thick and hear unmistakable unmis-takable marks of having been set on hot slovee. The butter looks ss if it had undergone the same experience. The steak is charred and is tough enough to try the strength of the M. 0. 'a teeth; the potatoes have EOiked grease in frying; the buckwheat cakes are clammy and heavy, and the biscuits bis-cuits have yellow Bpots which are soda(r)iferoua. To aid in digesting this untempting repast, tho II. C 'e feet are cold aud his head hot, in consequence of the stove (stoves are an articlo ol faith in Washington boarding-housee) refusing to draw while he was dressing, and then suddenly bursting forth with an oppressive, dry heat, mixed with a strong odor of coal gas or the smoke of the damp kindhne wood. With such a preparation, what wonder the law-maker readsjhis morning mail in a savage mood and accepts friendly eugyeslious from constituents in his committee-room or seat in the lsgiB-lative lsgiB-lative hall a very different man fro.n him who, fresh from tho comforts of a well ordered home, in town or country, smiled on the multitude from election platforms when surrounded sur-rounded by hale, well fed committee men, with the prospect of a goodly feast before another great eflort at eloquence was to bo made. 1 But there are board ing-houaes here where the "member" or senator ia a sort oi a aemigou, ana is sure to receive re-ceive from the haudn ol an appreciative apprecia-tive landlady the tenderloin of the et ak at breakfast, the crispeat celery at dinner, and other choice bits, as opportunity may oflcr. Ooce, while myself a clerk in & governmeuiollice, I bo-Jidt-d with my mother in Puch a I'Linion, and oo lees a person ibac the Ule (Jakes Ames, of MasMacbueetts, w.ii the worshipped member. There wore lew of the other boarders con-tidt con-tidt red even good enough to it at the table witn him. The pleasantt geat in the shabby dining-room was his, and, while on our table ooly liie green eoild -l the celery wre placed, buf.ue him M.,d a giftv-s ful ot white, cri?-p, Hiictrult-iit stallcs. Whenever he pas-ed through the hill thehndlady's little daughter would rush to the parlor, whero we poor, ineigoinYunt morta'a were crouching over a culd Istove, with tho gas hnil lighting the room, exclaiming: "Oh, there he gorv; jnat see him; bo's a member!" Now, the mode of life wiii' h their rppresei.t itives lead and the fo A t:iey 1 cat is a matter of merj imp .rtance to iheir constituents than one would thick from a mere cursory gl m-.c The Germans were right in namiug their naiijual legislntjre a diet, and we seem to have an inkling of the ru! sjt3 of the case when we coll hound volumes of the laws a "tfigptjt." Dr. Ht'lmea was disposed ta label certain volumes in his library "p;o cruel," and wilh more reason migdl the tileti of the L'oivjredsiunal lle;vrl be labelled, "terrapin suppers and bad champagne," or "culu, 6oitr buckwheat cakes and d mind stove?." Washington Cjrr. Beaton u Herald. . K y |