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Show WASHINGTON LETTER. (From our regular correspondent.) A Washington letter writer recently described the House of Representatives as a very impressive body. It was not necessary for this writer to add that he had been but a short time at the Capitol, and that the ideas expressed were "first impressions." It would be interesting to read some letters of his, written with the same frankness and honesty, after he has spent one or two sessions here, during which he shall have witnessed from the gallery some of the occasional rows and attended all the night sessions and closing ceremonies. If he is attentive he will see members roaring drunk once in a while; he will see dozens of members squirting tobacco juice over carpets that cost ?? dollars a yard; he will see scores of members smoking in the chamber during the sitting; he will see members streached out on the sofas asleep, and he will hear them snore; he will see members with both feet on their desk, sitting on their backbone; he will see members munching apples while attending to the public business; he will see occasionally a member with his boots off, easing his corns, and he will see much else that will detract somewhat from his description of an impressive body. A few years ago a member from one of the Southern States, now happily out of public life, was in the habit during the sittings of the House of taking out his false teeth and wiping them on his coat sleeve and picking them with his finger nails. Another member was in the habit of combing his hair with a fine-tooth comb while listening to speeches. He was very tidy about it, and always spread a newspaper on his desk to prevent soiling it with the result of his labors. Nearly everybody has heard the story of the Kentucky member of the last Congress who washed his feet in the wash-bowl of his committee room in the presence of half a dozen members, one of whom was the fastidious Hewitt, of New York, who bolted out of the room uttering the word "damnation" between his teeth. Next week I will undertake to give some of the peculiarities of this "impressive" body, its method of transacting business, and the experience and difficulties of new members. Dom Pedro. Washington, D. C., Jan. 27th, 1882. |