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Show VOICES FROM THE PAST. Included in a dispatch the other morning saying say-ing that possibly Senator-elect Heyfcurn of Idaho might require a larger chair than any now in the senate, was the following: "Once the Senate had a mighty chair, specially constructed for the late Senator Dixon H. Lewis, of Alabama Mr Lewis took his seat April 22, 1844, on appointment of the Governor of tue State, was afterward elected by the Legislature, and served till his death, which occurred October 25, 1848." That is a reminder of old times When Senator Haynes of South Carolina made his famous speech aimed especially at Daniel Webster, his Southern friends were jubilant. The evening after the delivery de-livery of the speech they were, so to speak, painting paint-ing the town crimson. A bunch of them called upon Senator Lewis of Alabama, and exultingly declared that the great Yankee was finally downed, that the speech of Haynes was unanswerable unan-swerable The mighty man Lewis weighed 400 pounds replied: "Yes, you have roused the lion, wait until you hear his roar and feel his claws." Next day the then Senate chamber, later the Supreme Su-preme Court room, was crowded to suffocation to hear the great expounder's answer to the fiery Southerner. Senator Lewis worked his way to a window and to get a breath of outside air, with his pocket knife he cut and broke a hole about the size of a walnut in the window pane. At last account ac-count that pane, with the hole in it remained just as it was left by the Alabama Senator. To one with a little imagination, a visit to that room is about the mosjt interesting one that can be made in Washington. He should go when the chamber is empty, save as the venerable colored Janitor on noiseless footsteps glides around among the ancient furniture. Empty, did we say? No, no- It at such a time, is filled with the ghosts of old-time giants, and it is not hard to hear ghostly voices sublimated from the old deep tones, "still, small voices," proclaiming as of old their high Noughts in a diction as stately as ever thrilled forum of Rome, or caught and held captive e passioned Greeks when Pericles was speak-,DS- Haynes and Webster and Benton and Mar-snail Mar-snail and Calhoun and Seward and a hundred toore of those who placed the siding, the cornices, he towers on the rough frame of the Constitution, o ere the chief factors in rounding our young g0vernment into completed form and preparing 0Urs to take the foremost place among the nations of the earth. It is not difficult when there to hear those voices coming back, low and clear, on the telephone of the years, o- to feel around one the stately presences of those who from their work here passed to immortality. Surely the young states carved out of the wilderness wil-derness should be careful what manner of men they send as senators to Washington, for the record rec-ord is kept and when the pho. graph of the ages is summoned to repeat the old voices, the younger young-er states should not supply discordant notes. It is feared that a special chair will have to be supplied sup-plied to Senator Heyburn when he reaches the Senate. Surely Senator Heyburn will not be the only misfit there, though he may be the only one that will require a larger chair. In that high hall are many forms shrunken sadly from the ancient pattern, when to be an American Senator "was greater than to be a king," though it should not be so. From rude surroundings did many of those giants of the old days emerge, but when they spoke it was clear that no matter how lowly and primitive were the cradles in which they were rocked, angels had bent above those cradles, touched with a Divine light their eyes and given to their baby voices the rhythm of deathless eloquence. elo-quence. We, in the west, should be careful lest we make discord in that mighty national oratoria that comes sounding down the years and the deep tones of which will continue their high octaves as the ages ebb and flow. |