A SCENE IN CONGRESS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 24, 8 July 1871, Page 16

A SCENE IN CONGRESS.

The House of Commons trooping in to prayers on the night of a great debate, in order that members may secure a seat for the evening, does not present a very dignified spectacle ; and we beg to recommend to their notice the American practice of " drawing for seats" in Congress at the commencement of a session. The account given of the ceremony by the " New York Times" is very graphic ; and by substituting in imagination the names of English for those of Transatlantic statesmen we can form some idea of the interesting character of the scene :—" Delegate Hooper, of Utah, was the first man called, and went into the seat of Blair, of Michigan; Rorsevelt, of Indiana, walked into Sunset Cox's quarters, while Williams, of Indiana, got his old place, once filled by Thaddeus Stevens, and from which not a sentence worth noting has come since that day; Rainey, the fine-looking colored member from South Carolina, was called early, but modestly took a seat a little on one side; Hooper sat down in his old place, right under the Speaker's nose. . . . James Brooke lost his favorite roost, but got over very well on the next division, and a little nearer the republican line. . . General John Ketchem's lucky star was again in the ascendant, and he took a quarter line desk in the heart of the Republican country. A small coloured colony gathered round Harney's seat, Walls, of Florida, with a blue necktie

and a very white shirt, going in on his right, and De Lange, of South Carolina, on his rear, until Horace Maynard came along the wharf, and deckered with De Lange by which the latter was shoved nearer the, wall, so that Maynard's lean, threaten! ng cadaverous finger, ever pointingtowards something, is in a direct line with the Speaker's profile. . . . Beside him sat the Mephistopheles of New York Democratic politics, and on the outer rim of the circle at the foot of the main aisle, near the main door, in the draught,the dust,andthe ashes,theebony Elliott, of South Carolina, spread his blanket. Among the unfortunates were the Jolly Peters, of Maine, and Sunset Cox, who made thsir camp on the then fringe of their respective political circles." The last result of the drawing is singular, and we trust will prove of happy augury for future Anglo-Ameri-can history. It is that Butler was unluckiest of all; he left before the drawing and now has not even a foot of the House to call his own.—" Pall Mall Gazette."