ut in the
confusion which filled the chamber: "How are you going to do it?"
and the query was succeeded by shouts of laughter, mingled with
sounds of vexation.

As midnight approached it was curious to watch the various effects
produced by the scene on different temperaments. Some yawned
fearfully; others cursed and swore; others shook their sides with
merriment; others reasoned and remonstrated with their neighbors;
some very composedly stretched themselves upon the sofas, having
first borrowed chair-cushions enough to support their somnolent
heads; other bivouacked on three chairs, while some, not finding
a convenient couch, stretched themselves flat on the floor of the
House, with, perhaps, a volume of the Laws of the United States as
their pillow.

At half-past one a call of the House was ordered, the doors were
closed, and one hundred and forty-nine members were found to be
present. This House went into Committee of the Whole to come out
of it again, and the yeas and nays were called until the clerk grew
hoarse. Thus rolled the hours away. Candles burned down to their
sockets, forming picturesque grottoes of spermaceti as they declined;
lamps went out in suffocating fumes. Some insisted on having a
window up, others on having it down.

When the morning light began to dawn through the large south windows
of the Representatives' Hall, it contrasted strongly with the glare
of lights, the smoke of the lamps, and all the crowded tumult
within. At four o'clock the Sergeant-at-Arms arrived with Corwin,
Giddings, and a dozen other captured absentees, who were, one by
one, required to account for their absence by the Speaker, who
would say: "Mr. A. B., you have absented yourself from the House
during its sittings, contrary to law, and without leave of the
House; what excuse have you to offer?" And then the unfortunate
men made out the best story they could. Some had been sick; others
had a sick wife; others had got a bad headache from the late session;
some had witnessed such night scenes on former occasions, and did
not wish to see the like again; one had told the Sergeant that he
would come if he would send a hack for him, and no hack had been
sent; while one very cavalierly informed the House that the reason
why he had been absent was that he had not been there. Many were
excused altogether; others discharged from custody on paying their
fines (about two dollars each to the Sergeant for his fee of arrest)