Identifier: picturesquewas00moor (find matches)
Title: Picturesque Washington: pen and pencil sketches of its scenery, history, traditions, public and social life, with graphic descriptions of the Capitol and Congress, the White House, and the government departments ..
Year: 1884 (1880s)
Authors: Moore, Joseph West
Subjects: Washington (D.C.)
Publisher: Providence : J.A. & R.A. Reid
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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s furnished in an elegant and costly manner. There are five official short-hand reporters who have salaries of$5,000, and two stenographers for committees, who also receive $5,000each. The chaplain has $900, the postmaster, $2,500, and the assist-ant postmaster, $2,000. In the House post-office there are nineclerks with salaries of $1,200, and two clerks with $800. An em-ploye known as the conductor of the elevator has a salary of$1,200. The stationery and newspapers for the House cost $47,500per year ; $10,000 are paid for repairs to the furniture, the expenses ofspecial committees are $50,000, and condngent expenses many morethousands. If the amount of the compensation and mileage of themembers is added to the amount expended for miscellaneous expenses,it will be found that the aggregate yearly cost of the House is morethan $2,300,000. Each annual session of Congress costs the country all of threemillions of dollars, and if this vast sum is divided by the number of ^m^mz.f^i>^^;^
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128 PICTURESQUE WASHINGTON. days or weeks of the session it will give a really startling result. Forinstance, the short session, deducting the usual holiday recess, is ofless than tw^elve weeks duration. If the session is estimated at twelveweeks the cost of it will be $250,000 per week, and, if Congress sitssix days in each week, which is a rare occurrence, very nearly $42-000 per day. The long session will cost about one-half as much perday and week as the other. The daily sessions of Congress begin at noon and continue untilthree or four oclock in the afternoon. During the first weeks of theannual meeting both houses have short sittings, as there is very littlethat can be done until the committees get in working order, and reportbills for action. The last weeks are crowded with business, and itis generally necessary to hold night-sessions. Much of the w^ork oflegislation is done in the committee-rooms, and some of the commit-tees are tasked to the utmost with a multiplicity of affa

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