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Show DRAMA OjCON'GIlESS. he Members re Actors in a Great Play, While all the World is an Tin ' ' jnerciM Audience. - BUT THE PLAY IS OFTEN EAESEST And Full of the Most Dramatio Incidents T The Recent Session Produced - ' V Many of Them. t (Bpecial Correspondence. , Washington. Oct 2. Congress Is a Stage, and the senators and representatives representa-tives merely players. But at times their play is very earnest play terribly ear- ; nest. Few sessions have been more pro- . dnctiveof dramatio incidents than the Fifty-first. This remark is particn- . larly true of the house. If the senate has had any dramatio incidents they have occurred in secret session. , There was a time whon the senate was more productive of dramatio incidents than the house. The pages of history The decision or the speaker b usnrpatory, revolutionary revo-lutionary and corrupt) . This was a day of incidents. Mr. Bland, of Missonri, had, in stentorian tones, shouted, "Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker!" Speak-er!" a dozen times or more. The speaker declined to recognize him, whereupon Mr. Bland, his voice trembling with passion, shook his fist in the direction of the chair and shouted: Only a tyrant would rule over this house or the members of this house In any such way, and I denounce yon as the worst tyrant that ever presided pre-sided over a deliberative body. Another incident of the same day was the refusal of Mr. Springer to take his seat. Having failed to obtain recognition recogni-tion of the chair, Mr. McKinley being recognized instead, Mr. Springer insisted npon interrupting the gentleman1 from Ohio, and' for -about five minutes both members ' were speaking- at . the. aine time. This was not drama, but comedy, and the house and Spectators enjoyed it hugely..:. Mr.; McKinley, however, was not so well pleased, and asked to be "protected "pro-tected from the gentleman from Illinois." Illi-nois." The speaker finally commanded Mr. Springer to take his seat, but that' gentleman refused tp do so, declaring there were no rules requring him to sit down. - He did sit down, when he got ready. Following this was the denunciation of the speaker by Mr. Bynum, of Indiana. In-diana. That made another exceedingly dramatic incident to go into the annals of the present congress. After the speaker had announced the presence of a quorum made up in the new way an exciting ex-citing colloquy ensued, during . which Mr. Bynum advanced to the area in front of the speaker's desk, and with uplifted, up-lifted, menacing hand shouted at the top of his voice: - Before the vote was taken on this question I rose and addressed the chair and made a motion to adjourn, which Is a proper and parliamentary par-liamentary motion. The chair, in defiance of parliamentary par-liamentary law, in defiance ot right and justice, In defiance ' ? ' ' The Speaker The gentleman from Indiana will be in order, - ' " Mr. Bynum The gentleman from Indiana Is In order. I propose, Mr. Speaker, to stand here In behalf of the right of the constituency which I represent on this floor, a constituency equal in Intelligence, In-telligence, equal in patriotism ;j: ... , --, - , A Member But they ore not here. . ' Mr. Bynum I am standing hero as their representative repre-sentative to sustain their rights against the arbitrary, arbi-trary, the outrageous, the damnable rulings of the chair applause on the Democratic side, and so far as I am responsible the people I represent shall not be silenced or gagged on this door. You, sir, have violated more than any man on this floor parliamentary rules, parliamentary prao-tice. prao-tice. J'There have been so many dramatio incidents in-cidents in the hor.se during this session , "LET THE ASSASSIN FIREl" teem with thrilling scenes in the senate chamber, but the most intensely dramatio of them all was when old Tom Benton, having goaded Foote, of Mississippi, Into drawing a pistol' from his pocket, bared his breast, struck an attitude, actor like, and exclaimed, "Let the assassin fire!" For dramatio incidents in the house we do not need to go further back . than the present session. The curtain - rose at noon Dec. 2 last, and in a few minutes the star of the caste made his entrance a large bodied, large head-. head-. ed man, with a short nose and a sharp tongue a unique, picturesque figure, a ' history maker, round whose head the storms of politics ore Still beating. : . ' i Let me quote here the' star's first words, the prologue of the play: ' To the end that I may satisfactorily oarry out jour will, I invite the considerate Judgment and; the cordial aid of all the members of the house,' Applause.1 ..- ... " ,. A gentle, good natured prologue, this, as all prologues are, and not at all indicative indica-tive of the turbulent scenes to follow,' For several weeks a calm reigned in the house and the skies were clear, but it was only the calm that precedes the storm.' Finally the. clouds gather, the ' hghtuing fl.men'bloii' begins t boil and their words are spoken with unwonted un-wonted bitterness, r Jan. 22 the speaker' mode a ruling on the method of voting by tellers, a ruling which the members of the minority resented, and the first gun was fired by Mr. Blount He exclaimed: ex-claimed: I am glad this tssue has been raised. It is an issue which Involves the rights of the minority. It la an American right, born of the genius of American institutions, and he who will trample on It on this floor or elsewhere, let him take the responsibility. I will not share it with him. Applause. Ap-plause. A week later the storm broke again. ' On that day the speaker introduced his now famous method of counting a quorum if one was visible to his eye. At last "the iron hand" had shown itself, it-self, and the Republicans applauded loudly. Amid the applause the lusty voice of Judge Crisp, of Georgia", was heard exclaiming: ex-claiming: ' ' Mr. Speaker, I appeal (here bs was interrupted by a great shout from the Democratic aide) I ap- peal from the decision of the chair I More applause on the Democratic side, but the speaker continued announcing . the names of members present and not voting, who were to be counted to make up a quorum: Mr. Blanchard, Mr.' Bland, Mr. Blount,' Mr. Breckinridge, of Arkansas; Mr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky. At this point a handsome man with a great shock of silver hair rushed toward the speaker, and in a voice- that quivered quiv-ered with passion sung out: 1 I deny the power ot the Speaker and donouno It as revolutionary! . - , . A whirlwind of Democratic applause greeted this dramatio declaration. For five minutes the discharge of a gun in the hall of the house could not have been heard. But when the noise subsided the . MB. KILOORR KICICS THE DOOR. that it is impossible to'mention them all. The contest for the location of the World's fair was full of the elements of the drama. It waa more than a struggle betweon men. It was a battle royal be-(ween be-(ween cities and between sections-of the country, the dividing line in this case, happily; running from north to south; and not from east to west. , . 1 f Unique and stage, like was. the sceni when the Democrats withdrew from tha hall, leaving only Mr. O'Ferrall, of , Viri ginia, on guard, in order to break a quo-rum quo-rum and prevent the unseating of Mr Venable. Nearly all the Republicans were in their seats,- and the house, thus presenting a one sided appearance, was photographed for the purposes of a campaign cam-paign document that will be picturesque if not effective. ' Dramatic also was the entrance to the hall during this struggle of Mr. Sweeney, of Iowa, whose presence pres-ence was sorely needed by his party friends. He was greeted by his colleagues col-leagues as a prodigal son. A dozen men seized his hand, and several threw their arms about him. Still a quorum was not present, but the arrival of Mr. Milliken made up the required number, and he, too, was received with joy. Other noteworthy incidents of the session were the kicking down of the door by Mr. Kilgore; the fisticuff fight between Messrs. Wilson and Beckwith, the censure -of Mr. Bynum for words used in debate a censure which Mr. Bynum dramatically declared he would wear as a decoration of honor; the discovery dis-covery of the flight of Silcott, ttie de-: faulting cashier of the sergeant-at-arms" office, taking with him the pay of members mem-bers of the houses the announcement of; the deaths of Randall and Kelleyby Mr. O'Neill, of Pennsylvania, who thus himself him-self became "Father of the House;" the return from Maine of the re-elected and triumphant speaker; the passage, after a memorable debate, of the tariff bill, the federal election bill, the silver bill and the adoption of the rules; the assemblage in the hall of the house of the president, his cabinet, the supreme court and the two houses of congress to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the supreme su-preme court; the speech of Mr. Kennedy, Kenne-dy, of Ohio, arraigning the senate and one of the senators, and the debate caused by a motion to expnnge this speech from The Congressional Record; the funeral in the house of Mr. Kelley, of Pennsylvania. ' Other congresses have gone down in history as "The Long Congress," "The Short Congress," "The Back Pay Congress," Con-gress," "The War Congress," etc. This congress will be known as "The Dramatic Dramat-ic Congress." Walter Wellman. ' MB. BYNUM DENOUNCING THE SPEAKER. peaker imperturbably read on from hig names of members. For several hours the battle raged. There were other dramatic incidents, as when Judge Crisp quoted remarks which Mr. Reed had made as a member of the house that Were not in accord with his present ruling, rul-ing, and exclaimed: I appeal from Philip drunk to Philip soberl - Incidents like these were common In those days of hard fighting. On another occasion Mr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, again came to the front He was, as usual, picturesque and intense. Tha speaker had declined to consider the point of "no quorum" made by Jipdge Crisp and renewed by Mr. Springer. Wane an angry colloquy was going- on between these gentlemen, and the house was in an uproar, the silver haired Breckinridge rushed down to the open pace in front of the speaker's chair, and as he raised his finger and (shook itj men-' adngly at the speaker his voice rang oat b clear as a belL |