Show TilE THE SPEAKERS OF THE TIlE HOUSE The death of former Speaker Reed brings to mind the comparatively large number o of obscure names the roll of Speakers of the time House contains There have been three thirty Speakers since the opening of Congress in liS 1789 Out of this list howman how man many names can you JOu recall If even en the oldest in inhabitant inhabitant inhabitant habitant were to put on his thinking cap he be mention more than five live or six sir Nine out o o of ten persons perSons per- per sons eons Wo would ld Fa say Clay Blame Blaine and Reed and there the they would stop Indeed out of the time three thirty presiding officers of the House there have be been n not more than six or seven men of striking ability The TIme first Congressman elec elected d to this important position was F. F A. A Muhlenburg of Pennsylvania a highl highly re lle minister but not a per person perou ll of eminent nt ability His successor was Jonathan Trumbull of Conn Connecticut not that Revolutionary Governor r whom Washington used to 10 address as m Brother Jonathan but his son The Time first remarkable Speaker was Henry Clay who was elected in and serve served altogether five fie terms in that important office In En the opinion of the Kansas as City Star he lie was particularly well ell suited to the position h by his quickness his keenness of mind and his geniality The H House use has never neer had a more satisfactory pr preSIding presiding pre pre- siding aIding office office- But after Clay came caine a succession of mediocrities mediocrities medIocrities-Chees Cheves es J. J W. W Taylor 1 or Barbour Stevenson and B Bell ll Jam Jains K Polk served for tw two terms to be followed by men now forgotten forgotten forgotten-by by Hunter and White and Jones and Davis Dais and others as fiS obscure But with the time election of Colfax in 1813 began a more con conspicuous era of presiding officers He WAS Wl succeeded by Bl ine who served for six years In 18 1576 G Samuel J. J Randall began his bril Ua which lasted until the Garfield aih adminis inis tr tion John G. G Carlisle s six years and was followed by Thomas Brackett rackett Reed The sam forces that thit have ha so often kept the the party lead leader r from becoming its Presidential nominee have e frequently frequently fre fre- fre put a 1 mediocre man in the Speakers chair The Congressman of conspicuous ability often has hus bitter rivals whose support is thrown to the compromise compromise com promise candidate Or 01 he may have ha alienated members of the party by hy some bit of sarcasm In J John Sherman could not secure the place because because be be- cause canse of time the bitter hitter sectional feeling and so it went vent to a respectable nonentity William Pennington And the more one studies the time careers of the various vari ous oils Speakers the stronger grows the conviction that the position is a genuine political graveyard gran Even Eyen more so than the Vice Clay was wasa a defeated candidate for President So was Elaine Blame and Reeds Reed's ambition in that direction was never gratified ratified True these three men occupy a unique position Of the tile three thirty Speakers virtually they alone successfully eluded oblivion's grasp And more mOle than that their 1 names will ill live for they made it impo impossible to write the history of this country without making them parts of it |