THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND

By ROBERT FITZGERALD

Illustrated by Wad-el-Ward

New York and Washington
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1909

>CONTENTS

I. The Funeral
II. Senator Bull and Mr. Ridley—Trials and Tribulations of the Newly Fledged Member
III. Colonel Manysnifters—An Outing with the "Jewels"
IV. An Accident—Dinner
V. Senator Bull's Story
VI. Representative Holloway Has the Floor
VII. Representative Van Rensselaer Unfolds a Strange Tale
VIII. Senator Wendell Reads "The Creaking of the Stairs"
IX. Senator Hammond's Experience
X. Mr. Callahan's Story
XI. What Happened to Denmead
XII. O'Brien's Narrative
XIII. An Uninvited Guest

ILLUSTRATIONS

Senator Bull and Sammy Ridley

President Madison

Senator Pennypacker

Colonel Ross Addressing the Jury

"Stick to the Thirteenth Commandment!"

The Kiss

Manuel Villasante

Papa Villasante

"Upon each stair the clear impression of a naked human foot!"

"Ah Moy, shrieking, turned and fled!"

"Shoved a revolver right up in the teeth of the prosperous one!"

"Writes the dramatic criticisms for the moving-picture shows"

"Framed in the doorway stood one of the finest examples of the early Gothic I have ever seen"

Professor Habib

An Uninvited Guest

The Statesmen Snowbound

I

THE FUNERAL

Toward the close of the —th Congress I was designated a member of a committee on the part of the House to accompany the remains of the late Senator Thurlow to their last resting-place at the old home in Kentucky. And it might be well to state here that I am quite aware that some of my ungrateful countrymen apply the spiteful term "junket" to a journey of this description. When one considers the sacrifices we Congressmen make in order to serve the nation, it is hard to believe that unthinking persons begrudge us a little pleasure. In many cases we give up all home life, business interests, and personal comfort, and take up our abode in second-rate hotels and boarding-houses. We are continually pestered and annoyed by office-seekers, book-agents, cranks, and reporters; and, alas, we form habits that cling like barnacles, try as hard as we may to shake them off. A taste of public life is fatal to most men, and the desire to feed from the public crib goes right to the bone. It is like a cancer, and it is removed only with grave danger to the afflicted. Everything, therefore, which may lighten our burdens and tend to relieve the situation should be the aim and study of our constituents. But this may be digression.

The trip out was necessarily a quiet one, though a well-stocked buffet kept the delegation from absolute depression. Leaving Washington early in the afternoon we arrived at the little Kentucky town the next morning about eleven o'clock, and found that we had yet some five miles to go over bad