| Show HOUSE AND SENATE PAGES A young man who served as page in in the house of representatives for several years talked interestingly with a washington star reporter recently times have changed since I 1 went into the house he said they were much better then tor for the page than they are now in many different points of view theuay the pay of a page in both the house and the senate as is pretty generally generalli known Is a day during the long sessions the boy has a chance to make something extra or ai at least he used to this has been done away with though to a certain extent when the representatives had no private secretaries or when they had to pay for them out of their own pockets the pages used to make considerable on the side by working tor for the representatives helping to mail their documents writing tor for them and doing various kinds of work since the bill was passed granting the representatives private secretaries of course this has all changed nowadays the pages cant even listen to the debates and have a chance to learn something that way as was formerly the case since mr reeds second term as speaker he has made a great revolution in this respect now the pages are cooped up in quarters in the cloakrooms on either side of the house it is a regular hotel bellboy arrangement ran gement instead of clapping their hands as they used to do the representatives senta tives when they want a page simply touch a button this rings a bell in the pages rooms there is an electric which is the same as is used in hotels for bellboys so that it can be told directly where the boy IS 18 wanted I 1 understand they axe are going still further to make the arrangement savor of the bellboy position as there is talk of the boys when I 1 first went in they had two chief pages who got 1000 salary who were supposed to look atter after the others now as the boys sit on the long benches in the corners of the cloakroom they are watched by an overseer as he is called who receives a wary salary of he watches the and when a bell rings sends a boy to the desk so 90 it is getting more and more like the hotel system all the time in the senate they do not allow boys ove over r 16 years of age but it makes no difference in the house when I 1 was there here some of them were 24 or 25 years of age A boy has to be 12 years of age or more to occupy a a position as page there are thirty three in the house and sixteen in the senate the pages I 1 believe in the supreme court chamber are required to wear knee breeches when they axe are on duty but this is not enforced on the others the boys I 1 found were well posted on political affairs and it to is not surprising that senator gorman turned out as able a politician as he did when it is considered that he served as a page in the senate they know the pedigree as it were of every senator and represents ave and generally have nicknames for them which would prove very amusing if they did not fit so well in a number of eased cases they can forecast what is going to happen nearly as well as the senators and representatives talk about messenger boys being baing up to snuff why they are not in it with the senate and house pages in the unit t place they are generally of a his order i of intelligence coming from families and the little schew schema they work among themselves wod do Q credit to a politician of an reputation if they find anything out t to the discredit of a member of congress they axe are not slow sometimes to take advantage of it for their own benefit it in a most innocent manner they are a high minded set of fellows however and do credit to themselves and th their country |
