The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, February 26, 1929, Page 10

| ‘PAGE SIX miata Editor's Note: This is the first 7 of an interesting series of three articles an inaugural reminis- cences of William Tyler Page, a veteran of such ceremonies in Washington. * * * By RODNEY DUTCHER (NEA Service Writer) Washington, Feb. 26.—Once it was considered honest enough for both houses of Congress to turn back their clocks and continue to function, in- stead of dying decorously promptly at noon on March 4. And if a president-elect, to say nothing of a hundred thousand or more spectators, were kept waiting for the inauguration ceremony, what of that? The Hon. William Tyler Page has served in Washington through a doz- en inaugurations and his memory, as the Hoover inauguration approaches, goes back to the time when President Chester A. Arthur and President-elect Grover Cleveland were forced to cool their heels outside the Senate cham- ber while Congress passed a bill for the financial relief of an ex-president, Ulysses 8. Grant. Mr. Page is clerk of the House of Representatives. He is widely known as the author of the American's Creed. He has served in the house far longer than any elected member of that body, for he went there as a page boy aged 13 years and is now 60 years old. ee % As & page boy, he played no unim- portant part in that clock-pushing drama which attended the first in- auguration of Cleveland in 1885. He came to Washington in 1881, but just missed the Garfield inauguration. Ed- ward MacPherson, who had just been elected clerk of the house, wrote and asked his mother if she had a boy old enough to be a page in his office. William Tyler was a printer's devil and Mrs. Page sat up all night to make him a homespun suit. He came from Frederick, Md., to take the job ‘&t $60 a month. “Cleveland had grand weather for his first inauguration and a tremend- ous crowd,” he recalls, “for his was the first Democratic victory since be- fore the Civil War. Everybody said the weather was ‘Cleveland luck.’ ! “Pennsylvania avenue was a seeth- ing, milling mass of people here for @ typical old-fashioned inauguration. And Washington was packed full of state militiamen. Pennsylvania alone sent 50,000 troops and the problem of housing them all was so great that they were allowed to sleep in federal buildings. * * * “As the fourth of March dawned had been in session all night, for the house was tied up with ® filibuster over the contest Fred- erick of Iowa had made for the seat of ‘Tamar Jim’ Wilson, who later was secretary of agriculture under Mc- Kinley, Roosevelt and Taft. “The corridors of the Capitol were jammed with people and men in uni- form were sleeping all over the place. Not @ seat in the galleries was va- cant, for they were ideal sleeping Places. “The Frederick-Wilson contest, which had been pending all through the 48th Congress which was now about to expire, had been before the house for several days, and appar- ently it would still be up at noon. Pilibusters in the house were easy then because the rules permitted dilatory motions, which were often Pyramided. Roll calls were demanded ‘and those on the filibustering side re- frained from voting so as to break the quorum. On this particular occa- sion @ great deal of legislation, in- Sie appropriation bills, was held ree gue BRS p#—— RWASHINGTON | oe res veer rank and pay. Grant was poverty- stricken and everyone wanted to keep him from starving, but with the fili- buster on there was no way of get- ting the bill up to a vote. ** * “That last morning wore on toward noon and by 10 o'clock party feeling and personal rancor were running very high. It was dangerously near noon when ‘Tamar Jim’ Wilson climbed up on his desk and began to wave both arms for recognition. The scene on the floor resembled pande- monium and the galleries were now wide awake. Speaker Carlyle finally managed to recognize Wilson, who was a tall, lanky, bearded and quite picturesque Scotchman. “‘Mr. Speaker,’ yelled Wilson at the top of his voice, ‘if my Democrat- ic friends on the other side of the aisle will permit the General Grant retirement bill to be taken up and acted upon without obstruction, I will be willing to ask my Republican friends to withdraw their dilatory motions and have a vote on the Frederick-Wilson contest at once.’ ““We will! We will!’ shouted the Democrats, who wanted his blood, and there was a roar of approval, even in the galleries. “So the House immediately voted to seat Frederick, the Democrat, and unseat Wilson, the Republican. Fred- erick took the oath and the Grant bill was passed, on a suspension of the rules, by more than the required two- thirds vote. Of course there had been no great sacrifice on Wilson's part, as he had only ubout an hour more to serve anyhow, but it meant two years pay, or $10,000 for Frederick —$10,000 for a single vote. * * * “I was then a page boy at the desk. Gen. John B. Clark, Jr., of Missouri was then clerk of the House and he was over in the Senate waiting for the Grant bill or whatever else the house might have to be rushed to him because, as I said, the corridors were packed and it was almost physically impossible to get from one chamber to the other. “Twelve o'clock, the time for the inauguration ceremony, had come and gone. But the clocks had been turned back in both house and sen- ate. Senator Isaac Bartlett, a white- bearded patriarch, had the honor of turning the senate clock back with his long cane. An immense mob of people waited impatiently ‘for the ceremony outside, but no one want- ed to adjourn until the Grant bill had gone through. “While Gen. Clark waited at the main door of the senate, President Arthur was waiting in the president's room outside the chamber for the last bill he would sign as president. He waited a long time, but there also, to preserve the fiction, the clock had been turned back. * * * “I imagine that perhaps only a boy. could have wriggled through that throng in the corridors that day. At any rate, I was handed the Grant bill and given the job of breaking through after having taken the bill to the enrolling clerk. “Sometimes by crawling between people's legs and sometimes by buck- ing the line in football fashion, I managed to make my way to Clark. The committee on enrolled bills soon had the Grant measure and presented it to President Arthur, who signed it. “By that time it was close to 1 o'clock, Hendricks was at once in- ducted as vice president and every- one went out onto the platform for the inaugural. “Such a thing couldn't happen in these days. We have a little more conscience about the way we do things.” “The Democrats had a majority, but some of them favored the bill which the Senate had passed to put, ex-President Grant on the army re- tired list with a lieutenant-general’s “Hello folks!” Tony cried, appear- Ing suddenly in the doorway between the Hathaway dining and living “Oh, lay off that stuff!” she pleaded, laughingly, but sincere, as ge‘neone started to cheer. “I didn't do anything but stay up in the air until everyone got sick of waiting for me to come down. Please forget and listen to something much more im- portant.” “Al right, Tony—shoot!” George Pruitt grinned at her. “We're all of TOMORROW—William Tyler Page tells of his interesting personal ex- periences at the time of the Harrison, second Cleveland and McKinley in- augurations. looked like a truculent boy, just spoiling for a good fight. But she said nothing, she just waited, her blue eyes blazing into Cherry's topaz ones, until slowly the latter wavered and “Of course I promise, Tony!” Cherry shrugged. “I don't relish the thought :of being beaten up. Did you leave your sense of humor up in the Salons clouds? I was just kid- Still unnaturally grave, To: clicked the heels of her little brown boots together, touched her forehead in a jaunty salute, and wheeled sharply. When she had gone to fetch Crystal, a buzz of conversation broke’ out in the room. “Amazing girl!” Alan Beardsley commented, a smile of amused appre- : t sis epeeenseaii i ciation, lighting up his handsom distinguished face. 3 When her vivid, impudent little face was almost touching his, Cherry MARY- WHAT ISTHIS HEAR? You BROKE OFF YOUR ENGAGE! .» Wit HENRY AUSSTINN — WHAT DOES atty has greater talen* than any.of z 43 g § z TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2%, 1929 THE GUMPS-— MOTHER KNOWS BEST ‘ - You CAN'T DO THIS — You CAN'T TURN BACK NOW <= AND RESIDE? MARY ==> You CAN'T CHANGE YOUR MIND No THINK WHAT THAT MEANS = WR'VE RIED. Yo KEEP IT FROM YOU: THINK OF THE SCANDAL ~ AFTER ALL WE'VE DONE FOR YOoU= BUT I'M NOW FORCED YO TELL ~ ALL THE GIFTS THAT HAVE BEEN SPENT A FORTUNE = GETTING You Nov YOuR FATHER HAS MET Wi'Th: bag et Regie et READY —. aye > Now, sine tialie FINANCIAL REVERSES — THE WEDDING ALREADY THINK OF THE PORTION We feng «abel - THE TIME — oe ie Ce You PUT MR. AUSBTINN IN= THIS MEAN ? 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