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Show SPEECH-MAKING. <br><br> There are few really good talkers in Congress - that is, men who are distinguished for their oratory and rhetoric. Senator Conkling heads the list of the best. Conkling's speeches never need revision. Senator Edmunds makes his speeches and then is done with them. He is so careful with what he says and does that he can never be picked up on an utterance. The brilliant Matt Carpenter was always in a peck of trouble when he made a speech. Carpenter was averse to study, and relied upon his memory, which grew to be faulty. He always revised his speeches, tore them to pieces and rebuilt, interlined, crossed out, and made a frightful looking proof sheet. Then he always insisted upon getting the messenger from the printing office "full" when the latter was sent for his copy. Carpenter always demoralized the Congressional Record office upon a night when he would make a great effort in the Senate. Judge Thurman's speeches never needed revision, except to see if the quoted authorities were correct. Senator Bayard is one of the most pleasing speakers on the Democratic side, and he generally glances over the proof to see that no mistakes creep in. General Burnside repeats himself in about every ten sentences, and is apt to become nervous. Ben Hill fires away in a sledge-hammer style of oratory, and, no matter how trivial the matter may be, will work himself up to a fever heat and expend as much earnestness as if great things were to be accomplished. Morgan, of Alabama, is another Democratic orator possessing the distinctive peculiarities of the talkers of the South. A gallery lounger can tell in a second from what portion of the country a speaker comes. The peculiarities of dialect are marked in the representative men the same as in the lower classes of society in their vicinity. Over in the House "Sunset" Cox causes trouble to the printers. He always prepares his speeches and revises them. He writes on all sorts of paper. One page may be yellow, another white, a third a leaf from a book. Then his hand writing is not letter press; so Cox is dreaded. Randall revises every speech he makes General Harry White had a habit of sending for books during debates until his desk was littered, and he could scarcely be seen. By the time he found the authority desired debate would be exhausted, and he would produce a scare, nothing more. This was an old trick of White's. The most remarkable instance of the effect of talking is that which Mr. Blount's voice has upon a journalist who is well known here. Blount has the pure, unadulterated Southern accent, and is inclined to be harsh, without meaning it. A few years ago a young man, who was a student at the Annapolis Academy, was detected in a hazing scrape. The latter came before Congress and Mr. Blount made a violent speech against the naval cadets. One of the young men occupied a seat in the gallery, and the effect of Blount's speech, coupled with the thought of being dismissed from the academy, was such that he became violently ill and had to be carried from the Capitol. Later in his career he branched out as a journalist, and was assigned to duty in the House gallery. Blount rose to speak, and the recollections of past events came so vividly to the young man's mind that he again became ill. He tried in vain, day after day, to conquer the feeling, but it was found to be impossible. Every time Blount spoke he became sick. At last he was compelled to relinquish his position on this account. Even to this day that gentleman never appears in the House gallery for fear of Blount.<br><br> The great [unreadable] the Senate, and the crop is being fast thinned out there. The retirement of Wallace, Thurman and Blaine and the death of Carpenter took away four of the most brilliant men at a swoop.<br><br> It costs $50,000 per year for the mere jotting down of the remarks of the Congressmen. The crops of official stenographers, both in the Senate and House, is probably the best in the United States. Every word uttered is recorded, and many a Congressman is surprised the next morning to find in the Congressional Record some remark which was hardly intended for publication. It requires a resolution to expunge the annoying paragraph, a fact which requires members to be careful what they say.-Philadelphia Record. |