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CHANGES which are
certain to como in
the membership of
the United States
Senate next March
will involve much
more than a mere
disappearance of old
faces and the ap
pearance of new
ones. It often has
been said that the
senate of the United
States is a law unto
llseii 111 matters of procedure, and so
It is. The senate dees things as no
other legislative body in the world
does them. The senators pride them
selves upon the dignify of their body
and they take no little pride appar
ently in tho uniqueness of the rules
which govern them and in the ac
cepted method of doing things with
out absolute governing regulation.
Over in the houae members draw for seat 3. A
inan Juet elected is as likely to get a first-class
seat as a man who has been in the Eervice of the
house for years. The leader of the majority and
the leader of the minority and the oldest mem
ber in point of service in the hall are allowed to
select their own seats. After they have made
their choice all is a lottery. In the senate the
thing is different. A newly elected member of
the upper house takes such a seat as he can find
vacant, and his first duty to himself is to "file"
on the seat of some other member so that he may
get it when the other member dies or retires.
At times there are five or six "filings" for the
same seat. For instance, if some senator has a
choice seat and he is aged and in the ordinary
course of things may be expected to die soon, his
seat is certain to be in request by several sena
tors provided that those lower on the list of ap
plicants think that those above them like the
holder of the seat himself, are likely to die, or
to be retired quickly from the service by their
constituents.
Some of the old senators do not like the way
In which the younger members file for their
seats. Then there are some senators who are
not old who do not like to feel that others think
that their seats soon are to be vacated. When
a senator in the prime of life finds that his seat
has bf-en "filed" on he takes it as an intimation
that the senator who does the filing thinks that
the seat's o< cupant is nearing tie end of ills
tether because his state hat', disapproved of his
services, or that tlie political party opposing the
one of which he is a member is likely soon to
become In the ascendant.
Senator Dolliver, who died recently, had ono of
the best seats in the senate chamber, a com
manding place from which he could always catch
—■the eye of the presiding officer. The lowan's
successor in the senate will not get his predeces
sor's seat, for notwithstanding the fact that Mr.
Dolliver was apparently in good health and was
only fifty-two years old, there were three appli
cations on file for bis seat when he should va
cate it. Of course It must be understood that
the peats of the Republicans and those of the
Democrats are separated and that no man of one
party ever files an application for the seat of a
man of the other party.
Senator lieveridge of Indiana was in the upper
bouse for years before he succeeded in getting a
seat to his liking Early In hVi service lie had
fllfd an application for the seat occupied by
Benator Spooner of Wisconsin, a vigorous man
with apparently a long lease of earthly and sena
torial life ahead of him. Unexpectedly Senator
Bpooner resigned, and Beverldge moved to what
is perhaps the best seat in the house, one on the
middle aisle midway between the front and rear
of the chamber
Kllhu Hoot, who is accounted one of the fore
most men in the upper house in point of ability,
Is obliged to sit in what Is known as the "Chero
kee Strip " There are ko many Republicans In
the present tsenate that they more than fill the
Seat* allotted to the majority on the left side of
the center aisle There are not enough Demo
crats to I'll the allotted to them The va
cant Democratl< seats are away iroiind near the
wall to the extnitiM right of the vice president,
who has to turn his bt<ad to m u the seats of the
occupants li this "Cherokee Htrtp" sits the
"overflow" Republicans an I one of tin in I Kllhu
Root
liefore the ne* s«?na'e orttce bulbllim was
it WHS thee i »rt of the *eiti*ie to pro
vide a separate room in the Capitol for ea< h t . tl
Hoi AH 10 »m» were « mIK-I committee
posed to meet in the
assigned chambers. This gave the minority sena
tors chairmanships, but it can be taken for grant
ed that the majority always saw to it that the
committees presided over by minority men were
not of a kind to have any great influence on legis
lation.
Now that the senate office building Is occupied
and each senator has a general office, a private
office, a reception room and a bath, it is not nec
essary to provide separate rooms In the Capitol
for all the upper house members. So It is that
before long It may be that the farce of naming
committees which never have anything to do
may be done away with.
Hero is a list of some of the practically use
less committees of the senate: "Transportation
and sale of meat products;" "Revolutionary
claims;" "Transportation rates to the seaboard;"
"Investigate trespass upon Indian lands;" and
last, "Disposition of useless papers In the execu
tive departments."
There are to be many changes In committee
chairmanships in March next and in fact there
will have to be a general shaking up in the
committee memberships as a result of changes
in the senate's roll call. Senator Dolliver who
died was the chairman of the committee on ag
riculture and forestry, one of the most im
portant subsidiary bodies of the t'nited States
senate. Senator Frances E. Warren of Wyoming
is the ranking member of the committee now
that Senator Dolliver is dead, but Warren is the
chairman of the committee on military affairs, a
position which he would prefer to hold to that
of the chairmanship of tho agricultural body. No
member holds two important chairs and so some
one besides Senator Warren must he selected to
take Mr. Dolllver's place at the bead of the com
mittee which looks after tho billH in which the
farmers of tho country and tho forest enthusiast*
are particularly interested.
Kugene Hale of Maine will retire In March. He
is at the head of the committee on appropria
tions. a position which next to the chieftainship
of the committee on tlnance Is tho most impor
tant chairmanship In the gift of the senate. No
body knows yet who will succeed Mr. Hale as
committee chief, but It can be taken for granted
that If the Republicans hold control of the sen
ate and the so-called regulars hold control of the
Republicans, Mr, Hale will be succeeded by R
man of what In these days the country Is given
to call the old school of Republican thought.
Senator Nelson W. Aldrtch of Rhode Island, the
Republican leader In the senate, la tho chairman
of the committee on finance, which corresponds
to the committee on ways and means of tho
house of representatives. It was the committee
on finance which considered the l'uyne-Aldrloh
tariff bill utul which ro|H>rted It to the senate
Kvery bill which has to do with the raising of
revenue goes to Mr Aldrlch's committee I'mler
the constitution all such revenue measures must
originate In the house of representatives, but
frequently the I'lilted States senate takes houso
hills und strlkis out everything In them except
the •nactlng clause, thus gets around ttio con
stitutional question, and frames revenue bills
much as It wishes to of course thexe bills have
togo back to tho house for agreement, hut the
enat" despite constitutional Inhibition does just
aliotil as much original work In revenue mens
tires ns the house Itself
Who In going to ciicc.dd Nelson \V AMrlclt ns
chairman of the most powerful comiultUM In the
units of the Culled States? N'ohody knows.
Senator Julius (' llurruws of Michigan rnnks
ii >«t to Mr Aldtlch ou the finance committee "'"I
In th* natural order of thlnga be would suo evil
CAMERON COUNT' PRESS, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1910.
rooms, but in order
to dignify them aa
such it was neces
sary to create sev
eral committees
which really wero
nothing more than
committees in name,
for they seldom held
meetings and it Is
said that in one or
two cases no rneet
ings ever have
been held. The sen
ators as they were
assigned to rooms
were made chair
men of the commit
tees which were sup-
to Mr. Aldrich's place as finance chair
man. The difficulty la that Mr. Bur
rows has been defeated in the pri
maries for re-election to the senate
and like Mr. Aldrich ho is to retire
In March. Boies Penrose of Pennsyl
vania comes next on this all power
ful body, but it is more than whis
pered that chairmanship preferment
is not to be given to Mr. Penrose.
Next iu order comes Eugene Hale of
Maine, who is to retire in March, and
thus is out of consideration. Then
coines Shelby M. Cullom of Illinois,
who will not accept tho chairmanship
under any circumstances, for his
age precludes his undertaking the
hard work connected with it. No 0110 knows yet
who will succeed the powerful Senator Aldrich of
Rhode Island as the chief of tho finance committee,
a position which carries with it ordinarily the Re
publican leadership of the senate of the United
States.
A good deal of historic Interest centers In some
of the committee rooms of the senate. The pres
ent senate wing of tho Capitol was not completed un
til the year 1859, but there are several committee
rooms still located in the old part of the great build
ing. Even in the new section there are two or
three rooms which have witnessed stirring scenes.
In the room of the committee on territories for irf
stance, a body of which Senator Beverldge of In
diana is the chairman, there were held the hearings
on the Kansas-Nebraska bill and on other "free or
slave soil state" matters. In the room of the com
mittee on privileges and elections, of which Sena
tor Burrows of Michigan is the chairman, many
senators have had what might bo called grand
Jury hearings on the question of their right to their
Beats. The Utah cases have been heard here, and
it was here that Senator W. A. Clark of Montana ap
peared through his counsel to try to prove that
he did not use wrongful means to secure his seat
in the senate.
In the room of the committee on military af
fairs hundreds upon hundreds of problems were
worked out during the days of the civil war. Since
the United States has become a world power Sena
tor Henry Cabot Lodge, chairman of the commit
tee on the Philippines, has had many puzzling
questions on his hands, and the hearings which
have been held in this room at times have at
tracted crowds and nearly always have been of
deep interest. In the Philippines room the "anti-
Imperlalists" have argued on behalf of Indepen
dence for the Pillpplno, and there have been met
In debate by men who have maintained that the
day of liberty for tho "little brown brother" must
be postponed until he is qualified for its privi
leges.
Memories of men pass quickly. While tho
United States government as a government Is only
MAD KING OTTO'S LIFE
Some remarkable details relating to the mad
King Otto of Bavaria are published from a dip
lomatic source by the Giornale d'ltalia. the London
Chronicle says. Though shut up for forty years
In castles, now at tho Castle Furstenrled, nnd
though sixty-two years of ago. Otto Is still a fine,
handsome figure, with a magnificent beard and
flowing gray locks.
Tho stories about his periodical fits of fury are
quite untrue. His court Is presided over by Mar
shal liaron Redwlz and consists of a few trusty
gentry belonging to the most ancient families of
the Bavarian aristocracy.
King Otto suffers terriby from Insomnia and oft
en sits up In bed half the night staring toward the
door, as If expecting somebody to enter. He, how
over. rises punctually every morning at 8 and mute
ly allows himself to bo dressed by his valet. He
has a holy horror of soap and water, and of hav
ing his hair and nails cut. so that servants have
to await patiently a favorable day for these opera
tions, when the poor patient Is In a state of com
plete apathy. King Otto smokes Incredible quan
tities of cigarettes and Is always putting away save
when ho is absorbed In his favorite pastime of
studying the operatic music of his pet composer,
Verdi. Often he causes the castle to resound all
day long with the melodies of "Hlgoletto."
The diplomat relates that the first symptom of
brain decay In the young prince, till then so
bright, forceful and courageous, was manifested
during the Franco-Herman war. Just before the
Beige of I'urls Kaiser Wllllatu summoned him to the
headquarters of the general staff und kept him un
der observation. In company with Hlsmurek and
Moltke, the reason being that King otto had called
out a squad of cavalry and ordered them to charge
Htralght at a stone wall, which, he Insisted, was a
body of the enemy's Infant rv
lie began preaching everywhere the stern neces
sity of concluding peace with France at any price.
Soon alter Intercepted letters were brought to the
ilmperor William which tin Havatian prince had
been dispatching secretly to tin enemy It was
tin n that tl •• old kaiser sadly sent for the demented
prince, lie. rati d him with the order of the Iron
cross for ivice rendered In the campaign and
packed hln Off under a medical escort for a plvat
urn trip In pain and Italy
•bout 121 years oM, few men can b«»
found today to identify without look
ing at the names, the pictures and
the busts of men high in official gov
ernment position or of great fame in
their time in contemporary history.
In the senate chamber placed in
niches about the gallery walls are
*>usts of the vice-presidents of the
• Jnited States. Only the guides of the
Capitol who have their lessons letters
proof, can tell the names of these
men without reference to the printed
lists or the printed inscriptions.
When the house cleaning days were
over only a season ago two pictures
were replaced on the walls of the
corridor of the Benate. One of them
was a picture of Patrick Henry and
the other was that of Thomas Jef
ferson. For weeks the fact that Jef
ferson's picture has been labeled
Patrick Henry and Patrick Henry's
had been labeled Thomas Jefferson
went undetected. Finally a visitor
noticed the error, called attention to
it and had the change made.
Perhaps the most striking picture
in the senate corridors is that which
shows Commodore Perry standing in
the row boat to which ho went from
his sinking flag ship Lawrence to the
ship Niagara at the battle of Lake
Erie. Perry is pictured erect in the
boat whilo a small boy evidently a
"midship-mite," also standing trying
to pull the Commodore down to a
seat so that he will be less exposed
to the furious rain of the shot of the
enemy. The boy who is trying to In
duce the commodore to take the nec
essary precaution to save his life was
a nephew of the great sailor, and It
was he who later opened the ports
of Japan to the commerce of the
world. So it is that In the painting
are the portraits of two Perrys, both
of whom are famous in the naval an
nals of the United States.
Curari a Queer Poison
Curari, the vegetable poison with
which the Indians of the upper Ama
zon tip their hunting arrows, remains
a mystery in its composition after a
hundred years of investigation by sci
entists. The Indians will sell it for
its weight in sliver, but will not reveal
the plants from which It -is derived.
Not long ago a professor in a German
university was sent to the Amazon
wilderness for the express purpose of
discovering the secret, for curari, or
urarl, as it is otherwise called, is now
thought to be of great value in medi
cine. The professor lived two years
in Indian villages, and while he was
permitted to witness the boiling of
the "witches' broth," which lasted sev
eral days, he could not tell what
plants went into the brew. Returning
from his baffled quest down the Ama
zon with a quantity of the poison, the
professor was met by another traveler,
Dewey Austin Cobb, who had got pos
session of a native blowgun. The lat
ter tells in the National Geographio
Magazine how he put some of the pro
fessor's curari on some of his blowgun
arrows, which are like toothpicks
feathered with cotton, and tried it on
a buck deer in the forest.
"After a deliberate aim our hunter
fl: ad," says Mr. Cobb, "if I may use
such a word for the little puff, scarce
ly heard by us, and entirely inaudible
above the rustling corn leaves at the
distance of the deer. The animal gave
a slight start as it felt the prick of
the arrow on its flank and turned part
ly around, sniffing the air for a scent,
and looking about as if searching for
the insect that had bitten or stung it.
Detecting nothing, it stood still and
unalarmed. At the end of a mlnuta,
or a minute and a half at most, Its
head dropped a little, as if it was
sleepy.
"When the hunter saw this he arose
and stepped out in plain sight. The
deer turned his head and looked at
him, and moved forward, not away
from him, a few steps, and stopped. It
showed no fear, but simply curiosity.
After another minute the professor
and I arose, and all three walked
quietly to within reach of it. It made
no movement to run away, but watch
ed us Intently, and shifted Its position
a little. Its movements seemed per
fectly easy and natural. Absence of
fear was the only observable change,
until at the end of three minutes
more; then It lay down, not falling,
but as naturally as a cow or sheep
when ready for sleep.
"We all approached Its side, and
the hunter laid a hand on Its shoulder
It looked up at him, but showed no re
sentment or fear. Even Its breathing
seemed easy and natural, which sur
prised me, as I had heard that death
resulted from paralysis of the lungs
when caused by urarl."
Gaunt House of "Vanity Fair."
Writing on the original of Guunt
House in Thackeray's first novel.
"Vanity Fair," C. Van Noorden con
cludes that this was llarcourt House.
Cavendish Square, and not, as most
commentators incline to believe, elth
er Hertford liouae, Manchester
Square, or Lansdowne House, llerke
ley Square, llarcourt House, says Mr.
Van Noorden. corresponds almost e*
actlv with the novelist's description
In "Vanity Fair."
"The vast hall, the great gateway,
etc.. all are here, while the equestrian
statue resolves |the|f Into that of the
I Hike of Cumberland, the 'Butcher' id
Culloden. which was removed in lH»is,
ostensibly to b« recast, but ha.i never
I- appeared This itßure appears In
Thackeray's own Illustration of ihit
ari' *t ('apt Crawley wli-'it leaving
(Intuit 110 (KM, affording another proof
I the r irreetius* of thli localisation
llarcourt House has now given wa> .
•!" • • 112 r-' Hernial Ha'- l
Oiaybl;.
DEATH OF EX-MAYOR GRANT
Twice Chief Executive of New York
and a Man of Great
Prominence.
New York.—One of the most promi
nent figures in the political life of
New York City 20 years ago wan
Hugh J. Grant, who died in the metro
polls recently, at the age of 55. He
was a native of the metropolis and
received hia education at St. Francis
Xavier College and in France and
Germany, where he studied languages
and music. Afterward he studied law
at the Columbia Law School and en-'
gaged in real estate and legal busi
ness.
In 1883 he entered politics, being
elected alderman, and his course in
the board the following year in oppo
sition to boodle legislation made him
a candidate for mayor on the Tam
many ticket in 1884. He wan defeated.
Hugh J. Grant.
however. In 1885 he was elected
sheriff and three years later was
chosen mayor, and was re-elected in
1890. It was Mayor Grant who mado
the telephone and telegraph compa
nies take down their overhead wires.
The wires formed a network over the
city, interfering with firemen and
forming a danger and a nuisance.
When the subways were ready and
the wires did not come down Mayor
Grant settled the controversy in a
characteristic way. He went out with
gangs of linemen, laborers and axmen
and chopped down the poles and tore
down the wires.
In 1894 he was again a candidate
for mayor, but met with defeat at the
polls. He then withdrew from active
participation in politics.
Mayor Grant was a man of fine phy
sical proportions and was big intel
lectually. He was fond of outdoor life,
took a deep Interest in trotting horses
and was a member of several golf
clubs. He married a daughter of ex-
Senator Murphy, of Troy. In business
he amassed a large fortune and was
charitable during his life in its dis
position. At Christmas time he spent
large sums in charity. While Mayor
Grant like his great namesake, Gen.
Grant, was a man of silence, he was
not In the least morose.
MOST REMARKABLE FISHHOOK
Primitive Affair Used by the Indian
of Alaska for Catching
Halibut.
St. Paul, Minn. —The picture illus
trates a halibut hook used by the In
dians in Alaska. It is about nine
Inches long and two inches wide in
the widest portion. From top to bot
tom of the fork it is about five Inches.
A heavy sinker is attached to the cord
that is seen descending from the low
er fork of the hook, and this sinker
rests on the bottom when the hook is
in action. The hook itself floats about
two feet above the sinker, and is kept
Fl»h Hook of Wood.
In the position ghown In tho illiistra
tion by the strips of light cedar thai
are tied to tho upper fork of the hook.
The book Itself la of wood In two
pieces. lashed together by thongs <4
some kind of hide, with a iteel promt
lashed to the upper part of the fork
with thong* of hide. A ple<*« of sal
mon steak is placed on tb« hook
prong, and the halibut comes ahum
and trie* to vat It. When the wily
redskin ferls a ttiK on bis llshllne he
gives It a jerk and the hntik prong la
driven Into the lower jaw of the hall
but and the Ash Is caught Halibut
weighting aa high as Son |M>unds havn
hreti taught on th>- <• primitive hooka
The hiMik Illustrated waa brought t«
tit Haul by Martin Kennedy, Jr. on
bin return front hi* recent trip to
Alaska One peculiarity that putt
ihit hook nut of the ordinary cUaa c.(
li>lmm and halibut hooka la that tb«
l« *er piung la tarvtul In ».U«j ot
au Idol