waited until his bill became a law, you would need to be pretty big and
pretty strong to carry it far.

"The Wilson, McKinley, and all tariff bills, the silver bill, on the
authority of which the silver dollar in your pocket was coined, the
anti-Chinese, and all similar laws of the United States, have, in their
early stages, half a dozen different forms, but when engrossed and
signed they have one unchangeable form that has obtained ever since the
first law was passed by the First Congress.

"I remember having seen in one of your Round Table puzzles a question
about the 'Father of the Greenback.' The first draught of the law, which
gave Mr. Chase this nickname, was written by Congressman Spalding, of
the Buffalo, New York, district, on both sides of four sheets of common
legal cap paper. Mr. Chase then made some changes in it, using red ink.
President Lincoln suggested some additional changes, making his notes on
a slip of paper, which he pinned to one of the sheets.

"But that was before the day of type-writing machines. Nowadays first
draughts of most bills are prepared on type-writers. In this form a bill
is introduced into Congress, read by the clerk by title, a number is
given to it, and it is referred to the committee having in charge the
business to which it relates. Once in committee, it is ordered printed,
and the first draught, often bearing the compositor's marks, may be
returned to the author of the measure as a souvenir. At least the first
draught of the legal-tender act, bearing Mr. Chase's and Mr. Lincoln's
suggestions about changes, was returned to Mr. Spalding, and by him
kindly shown to me.

"Great measures, such as the Wilson, the McKinley, and the seigniorage
bills, are changed many times before they are passed by Congress, and
each change means new printed copies. Some of these copies are printed
on paper about the size of a HARPER'S ROUND TABLE leaf. The type is very
large, and the lines are very wide apart and numbered. Other printed
copies are in the form of a pamphlet, in order that they may be mailed
to friends of the member whose measure it is, and to men whose business
is likely to be affected.

"Only a very small fraction of the bills that reach the pamphlet stage
are ever finally passed and become laws. But even this small fraction is
large enough to fill many shelves in the State Department, where
originals of all laws are kept. The originals are engrossed on parchment
that is fourte