Sketcher.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 357, 12 March 1903, Page 7

Sketcher.

PAGES IN U. S. PARLIAMENT. •WKKHE senatorial temperament, detfj'lo mands unsophisticated youth as a CJS&s complement to its wisdom and profundity. Hence the page of the more dignified legislative house must be in the age of knickerbockers and soprano votce. His age limits are fixed at 12 and 16, but I am teld that in some cases both the minimum and maximum have been overstepped. The rule is that the appointment age shall be at 12 years and that the tenure of office shall be four years or two congresses. Of the sixteen pages on the floor of the senate eight are replaced every two years, and thus the youthful corps becomes a perpetual body liki that which it serves, the theory being that at the beginning of each congress a half of the force is sufficiently experienced to prompt newcomers. How Appointed. Senate pa?es are appointed by the sergeant-at-arme, through senatorial influence. Senators belonging to the majority party have the patronage of their slice of the oapitol divided among them by mutual understanding. Each has the choice of a number of employes. The salary of a page is. two and a half dollars a day. If an extra session of congress be called on the last day of a given month he receives pay for every day in that month, and, similarly, if the present session adjourns on the Ist of July the two and a half dollars per diem will be allowed for the thirty idle days in that month. It has become an established custom never to pay the youthful messengers less than a month's salary nor to deduct Sundays, holidays or days over which temporary adjournment has been taken. Thus in months of thirty-one days each lad earns foi those dependent upon him seventy-seven dollars. In addition to this, senatorial generosity goes to the extent of voting each employe of the chamber an extra month's salary each session, and the junior members of the higher legislative body come in for their share, Thus short sessions assure a total pay of three hundred and seventy-seven dollars for three months' work interrupted by several weeks of vacation at Christmas, while long sessions are worth six hundred and eighty-two dollars, if adjourument is prolonged until July. Extra sessions, so common in past congresses, of course add to these figures. A majority of the senate pages are fatherless boys whose mothers need assistance. Some took their first baby steps, upon velvet, others first saw the light of day in humble homes. One is the orphan of a senator from West Viginia, another of an adjutant-general of the army, another of a post-master at Washington. Two lost fathers in the Ford's theatre disaster of ten years ago, when many war department clerks working in the illfated building were crushed by falling timbers.

Sheer pluck won the smallest senate page his commission. A year ago he was selling newspapers on the streets of a small town in Illinois. He had heard of the pages at the capitol, made up his determined little mind that he would become one of them, and finally obtained a letter of introduction to Senator CuDem from a local politician in his community. He boarded an east bound train alene, walked up to the senate chamber unattended and handed to the senator what his friends had supposed to be useless credentials. The kindly statesman who bears such a marked resemblance to Lincoln looked the little man over, talked with him a while, glanced at the letter with a smile, and then stepped over to the office of Sergeant-at-Arms Bandsell. ' Put this little soldier on your roll,' he said,' he has earned it by his pluck.' Duties Not Menial. The duties of the senate page are not those of a menial messenger. Acute memory and quick co-ordination of braia and limb are essential to his success. He must combine in his makeup the functions of an animate congressional directory, a fleet-footed library catalogue, a prancing menu card, a fast-stepping baseball score, smooth buffer between the impatient lobyist and the basy lawmaker and the expert trenslator of senatorial cbirography. He must not only know all of the ninety senators by name, but be able to identify the conspicuous membars of the lower house. He mußt be able to keep strict account of funds intrusted to his care. In the basement of the senate wing is an appartment known as the pages' room. This is equipped with tables, for eating purposes, electric lights, olectric fans, running water, toilet articles, and shoepolishing outfits and all necessary conveniences. Every member of the youthful corps must repart at the chamber at 9 a.m., and, just, as at school, satisfactory excuses must he given for tardiness or absence. The first duty in the daily routine is the distribution among senators' desks of bills introduced at the previous day's session, of calendars and other printed legislative documents. All bills placed upon the calendar must be filed upon the desk, together with reports, and a copy of the Congressional Eecord mast be added to each senator's. individual file. This being accomplished, the. boys are divided into squads for special duties, some being designated to brush off the cloth-covered desks of the president, secretary and clerk. Another must examine all pens left upon members' desks and must renew their points. ! " Bkcess Time,

From 10 to 10.30 is recess time. Now the youthfpl legislators are at liberty to romp in the capitoi park, and this they are wont to do, often to the terror of the capitoi police. Beporting promptly when the recreation period is over, they find that senators aire beginning to arrive and that errands-are growing more and more plentiful) until the noon hour. As promptly as the clock points to 12 each page takes his stand before one of the senators' desks in the front row of the chamber, bows his head, endeavours to banish all traces of mischief from his face, and thus awaUs the completion of the blind chaplain's opening prayer. The day's session has now commenced in earnest. The little fellows post themselves upon the steps of the president's platform, half on the Bepnblican and half on the Democratic side, awaiting there the hand-clap of some senator. There are forty-three pages in the house of representatives. Twenty-four of these are detailed for duty on the noor. The others are stationed at the doors to receive visitors' cards; others are engaged in tbe telephone booths and some run errands to and from tha city. The floor pages of the house are youngsters between 12 and 16, but those outside vary in years up to 20, with the exception of tbe ' minority page,' who is 84. According to the custom of the house the minority party is allowed to retain one pags as long as it likes, and the one in queation has served since boyhood through, sessions of both Bepnblican and Democratic control. The house pages receive the same pay and allowances as those of the upper chamber.