Washington Letter

Wasiiinotox, D. Oh MarcU 3, 1883. The Capitol is, by far, the most popular resort in Washington this week, and the evening sessions of Congress are the most attractive to visitors, for then the gallerie are packed with strangers accompanied by their city f rienda: the house draws the largest crowds. Buncombe and parrot speeches are the rule, which, with monkey gesticulation, make so good a show that the spectators get the worth of their money, since the seats are free. They enter heartily into the spirit of the turbulance below, which has reached its climax this week, in a perfect uproar of noisy, stormy, wholly unintelligible discussion. At times nearly every member will be on lus feet, and two dozen of them addressingthe chair at the same time, andcheers, applause and laughter, whicli render not only their own words, but the utterauces of the chair inaudible. Of course the chairman refuses to recognize anyone until they can come to order, but no recognition is a3ked for or desired. But, In spite of all this fun and fury, these last days of the forty-seventh Congress will never be remembered by thesoondepartingjmemberg with unmixed pleasure. Home, rest, and relaxation will doubtless (for a time at least) be a boon to all of them, for theit souls are being sorely tried now by a train of grievances following close upon their heels and dogging every step, in the shape of thousands of constituent just airived in the city, aided by thousands of others already here, and all wanting a thousand little niatters attended to before Congress adjourns. These pilgrlms are from every section of the United States, from Maine to Texas, from Florida to California; each has hls pet project. It may be the passag of a little bill, or the obtainment of a little office, but no matter how small to the rest of the world, it is a life and death scheme to him, and at tliis high pressure stage of the session he asks nis congressman to run it througb at once. Every Senator and Alember is ransacking his brain for invention to elude this ublquitous mob which is manoeuvering how to intercept him on his way from his bedroom to his breakfast tuble, and at each successive movement he makes during the day, until he places his distracted head upon his pillow at night for a short, dis turbed repose, his stolen slumberg even, being haunted by visions of his vigilant pursuers. When he starts for the Capitol he is tugged, pulled, button-holed and talked at until constrained to break away by force and take horse-car or carriage as his case may be. When he arrivés at the Capitol he has to run another gauntlet before he can reach thecloak-room. Once upon the floor, he finds half a dozen of the privileged class, the ex-Congressmen, waiting to make other impossible requests. Every few minutes he is hamled a card from sorue influential person from his own state, (perhaps his next door neighbor when at home), for whom he has the highpst. rpfiranl. and whn oannot, with potito ness and safety to his political existence. be ueniea me rew words " that invariably lengthen into an interview of fifteen or twenty minutes. He tries to dance at the letters on his desk, but his fellow members surround him ask his assistance In furthering their projects, for each is in turn assailed in the same way. He is forced to listen over and over again to the same questions, requests and inquiries as to the probable result of the cherlshed scheme, until his once active brain Is addled and his clear understanding muddled. Truly, the last days of the Congressman are hard. Washington will undergo a great change in its general crowd and aspect between the fourth and fitth days of March. Many of the Senators and Representatives will leave the city with their families on Sunday, havinjf secured seats and berths on the trains for that day. Political life in Washington is said to exercise a inost demoralizing influence upon the average Congressman by destroyingrelish for, and adaptation to private life forever afterward. More than half of the present Congress will soon have a chance to test the truth of this,and medítate over the ephemeral character of political .influence. The city now so abounds in greatness, that you rub against it at all public places, jostle it on the street corners, confront it on the Avenue, see it everywhere; but much of it is on the point of vanishing, to return to its original insignifkance, and will leave no trace or footprint here.