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Show f dlman, the Versatile Observer, ffeaves Them Into a Washington Washing-ton Letter. PAETI BY THE NAME OF JOHES Kevacla is the Senatorial Story-Teller Story-Teller Par Excellence Plumb and the Papers, Special oorrespooaeoue.i msoTON, Sept. 4. Jones, of Ne-u Ne-u is known to his colleagues aa the Ltorial story teller. He is fond of iSing possession of a big chair just 'jjjjjn the senate cloak room, with a arrant cigar between his teeth and a offd of his fellow senators gathered ,wnti listening to bis stories. It is one 'the' traditions of the senate that Jones a a new story every morning, and sen-tors sen-tors on both sides of the chamber think jay has been lost if night comes and ,j- tjvo not heard the newest yarn of !e senator from Nevada. Jones' fund stories appears to be inexhaustible, aay of them are anecdotes of his per-aul per-aul experiences in the far west. Isaacs wanted his mone 7 sanrl'v '1?6 (t eighteen thon- sand? pleaded the unfortunate. "With much reluctance and manv roll .i ft?r fldlnS the bills into a fat roll and sttiffing them into his pocket J'- Isaac, looked up with an injured air and remarked: i throw off two thousand after all the trouble I had to get that verdict in the second degree for you. Why. I had to pay them eleven Christians a thousand dollars apiece to get them to vote my way. They was all for acquittal!'" Senator Plumb, who has been unusually unusu-ally conspicuous of late on account of his independent attitude on the tariff bill, is one of the busiest men in congress. con-gress. 1 have watched Plumb for a long time, and I have never seen him idle! He lives at the Shoreham hotel, but keeps a "den" on Fourteenth street, near the newspaper offices. This den, which is a curiosity in its way, the senator enters en-ters regularly every morning at 8 o'clock. For two hours he does notlung but sit there, with his western slouch hat upon his head, reading newspapers. He is the most omniverous newspaper reader I know of. He takes all the New York papers, several from Chicago, one from Philadelphia Phila-delphia and perhaps a dozen dailies from other large cities. Three daily papers from Kansas City and two from St. Louis reach his office regularly. There are magazines and weekly publications by the score. But the bulk of the senator's sen-ator's newspaper mail comes from his own state. He is a subscriber to every paper in Kansas. As there are four or five hundred papers in that state, a score or more of them published daily, it is easy to see that Senator Plumb has his hands full. Ho reads a newspaper like the exchange editor of a great daily. His typewriter operator opens the papers and spreads them out on his desk, and when the senator goes at them they disappear at the rate of three a minute. A rapid glance finishes one page, and a second glance another. But nothing of interest to him escapes his quick eyes. "I believe in the local newsoapers," says Senator Plumb. "They are the leaders, lead-ers, the makers of public sentiment. They are nearer to the people than any other papers. Their editors mingle with the people, and consciously or unconsciously uncon-sciously reflect the views of their readers. "By my private letters from all parts of the state, and by reading the local papers, pa-pers, I can tell just what the people of Kansas are thinking and talking about. I can feel the pulse of the people and take their temperature. I am amazed, OSS. OF NEVADA, THE SENATORIAL STORY TELLER. "Speaking about judges," said Jones he other day, "let me tell you of the ill alcalde we used to have out in Mari-icsa. Mari-icsa. In the early days, just after we tad acquired Lower California from leiico, the judicial system had not been irganized under the laws of the United States, and by common consent the old Icalde continued to hold court and set-le set-le disputes. Most of the litigation grew ratof mining claims. The laws were rery crude and unsatisfactory, and bo ire made a law of our own to the effect hat if a man did no work on his claim or thirty days it could then be taken jossession of by another. "One poor fellow named Harris took a :laiin and worked it for a week or two md then fell sick. Week after week ussed and he grew no better, and finally :he thirty days, and then forty and sore had elapsed since dirt had been uroed over on his claim. There wasn't i man in the camp that would jump the ilaim, but a stranger came along, sized up the situation and-took possession. As wra as Harris was able to leave his bed te brought suit of ejectment in the alcalde's al-calde's court. It was a clear case. The evidence was overwhelming that the original claimant had lost his rights under un-der the local law, and nothing remained re-mained for the alcalde to do but to decide In favor of the defend-snt. defend-snt. This he was very reluctant to do, and was hemming and hawing over his decision when Harris, seeing that the case was going against hint, lost his temper and sprang at the throat of the man who had dispossessed him of Ms property. The men clinched and rolled upon the floor, with Harris on top, and in a fair way to choke the wind out of his antagonist. Two or three bailiffs ran forward to pull the man off, when the old alcalde, his eyes flashing and his gray hair waving about, leaped from his bench with a revolver in his hand, shout- " 'Let no man touch them. These litigants liti-gants are settling their difficulty in their wn way, and it is the duty of this court to encourage private adjustment of all disputes. If any man touches them I'll shoot him on the spot!' "No man did touch them," added Senator Sen-ator Jones, "and Harris gave his man such a licking that he was not able to do 4 stroke of work for six weeks; and Harris thus got his claim back. That is the sort of justice we used to have in the wild west." ... Laughter over this anecdote had not subsided when Senator Jones was reminded re-minded of another story. "Out in San Francisco a good many years ago," he 6aid, "a Hebrew mer-tnant mer-tnant killed a- man. He was indicted wd brought up for triaL The jury was impaneled. Johnson was the name of the first man drawn, 'Johnson,' ex-tlairaed ex-tlairaed the defendant, 'dot ish bat." next was Hamilton. 'Another Christian,' was the defendant's despair- HUMAN NATURE AT THE PENSION OFFICE. too, at the excellence of our county papers. pa-pers. The majority of them are carefully, careful-ly, ably edited. They not only print the news of their neighborhood, but have opinions which I find it worth my while to read and reflect upon. I get no better bet-ter return for any of the money which I spend than for that which I pay out for the local newspapers of my state." One of the duties of Senator Plumb's pretty typewriter girl is to keep accounts with all of the newspapers of Kansas. It is not necessary for publishers to send their bills to him. Ho forwards a check for another year's subscription shortly before the old subscription expires. It is easy to guess that a man who has this sort of appreciation of the excellence of his local press is likely to be very popu- lar in his state, and to remain in tne senate as long as he cares to. At the big pension office the other day I saw an incident which had a good deal of human nature in it. A poor woman, who is trying to hasten action on her husband's pension claim, had arrived at the office just before the closing hour, and being in a hurry to see one of the officials, asked a young woman, one of the clerks, to watch her little girl for a few minutes. WhUe the mother was absent ab-sent up stairs the young woman lifted the pretty child upon one of the many e S -which half fill the great floor. In a few minutes the little elf was surrounded sur-rounded by hundreds of women, young a Aslhe army of clerks rolled down the stairs many of them paused towentap at the altar of babyhood. Kisses, ap-Sb. ap-Sb. oranges, candy, pieces of cake frorr tlon were rained upon the child till t tiny mortal must have fancied herself u fairV laud. What a pity, I. thought wrnle looking on. all these pension offic StarSTot be married and have babi SKown. XVlttrWellmak. fE-V'ATOR PLUMB, THE NEWSPAPER FIEND. comment. The next name was Aufl-1111 Aufl-1111 'Oh, dear," exclaimed the defend-tn'. defend-tn'. 'I haf no show at alL The verdict be in the virst decree.' Eleven Jaraes were finally drawn, every one of a Gentile. The defendant was Paging his hands in despair. But action of the name of the last juror Se him hope. It was Isaacs. " 'Ahr exclaimed the prisoner at the bar. '1 may bo able to do eomething Tth Mr. Isaacs.' That night the de-fendant de-fendant und Mr. Imam had an intor- 'I gif ten thousand foTTars . for "'rdictin the second decree,' said tne leased. Terms were finally arranged "130,000, cash on delivery of the ver-J'rt. ver-J'rt. The trial was held and the verdict aghtin. It was guilty in the second o-ree. Then Juror Isaacs and the con-man con-man had another interview. T- |