colored men whose types it would be hard to find outside of
Congo; whose costumes, visages, attitudes, and expression, only befit
the forecastle of a buccaneer. It must be remembered, also, that these
men, with not more than a half dozen exceptions, have been themselves
slaves, and that their ancestors were slaves for generations...

"But the old stagers admit that the colored brethren have a wonderful
aptness at legislative proceedings. They are 'quick as lightning'
at detecting points of order, and they certainly make incessant and
extraordinary use of their knowledge. No one is allowed to talk five
minutes without interruption, and one interruption is a signal for
another and another, until the original speaker is smothered under an
avalanche of them. Forty questions of privilege will be raised in a
day. At times, nothing goes on but alternating questions of order and
of privilege. The inefficient colored friend who sits in the Speaker's
chair cannot suppress this extraordinary element of the debate. Some of
the blackest members exhibit a pertinacity of intrusion in raising these
points of order and questions of privilege that few white men can
equal. Their struggles to get the floor, their bellowings and physical
contortions, baffle description.

"The Speaker's hammer plays a perpetual tattoo to no purpose. The
talking and the interruptions from all quarters go on with the utmost
license. Everyone esteems himself as good as his neighbor, and puts
in his oar, apparently as often for love of riot and confusion as for
anything else.... The Speaker orders a member whom he has discovered to
be particularly unruly to take his seat. The member obeys, and with the
same motion that he sits down, throws his feet on to his desk, hiding
himself from the Speaker by the soles of his boots .... After a few
experiences of this sort, the Speaker threatens, in a laugh, to call
the 'gemman' to order. This is considered a capital joke, and a guffaw
follows. The laugh goes round and then the peanuts are cracked and
munched faster than ever; one hand being employed in fortifying the
inner man with this nutriment of universal use, while the other enforces
the views of the orator. This laughing propensity of the sable crowd is
a great cause of disorder. They laugh as hens cackle--one begins and all
follow.

"But underneath all this shocking burlesque upon legislative
proceedings, we must not forget that there is something very real
to