sing what deep interest the negro takes in
legislation," he went on, lifting his eyes to the gallery, which was
black with their intent and solemn faces. "See this old fellow with his
hat off as if he were in the midst of a temple," he said, nodding at a
group before the speaker's desk.

Bradley looked at the poor, bent, meek, old man with a thrill of pity.
He observed that many of the negroes were splashed with orange-colored
clay.

Members began to take their seats and to call pages by clapping their
hands. The cloak-rooms and barber-shop resounded with laughter.
Newspaper men sauntered by, addressing Radbourn and asking for news.
And here and there others, like Radbourn, were acting as guides to
groups of visitors.

In the midst of the growing tumult a one-armed man entered the
speaker's desk and called out in snappy tenor--

"Gentlemen, I am requested by the door-keeper to ask all persons not
entitled to the floor to please retire."

Bradley started, but Radbourn said, "No hurry, you have fifteen minutes
yet. As a member-elect you have the courtesy of the floor anyway. Do
you want to meet anybody?"

"No, I guess not. I just want to look on for to-day."

"Well, we'll go up in the gallery."

Looking down upon the floor and its increasing swarm of individuals,
Bradley got a complete sense of its vastness and its complexity and
noise.

"It makes the Iowa legislature seem like a school-room," he said to
Radbourn.

At precisely noon the gavel fell with a single sharp stroke, and the
speaker called persuasively, "The house will _please_ be in order." The
members rose and stood reluctantly, some of them sharpening their
pencils, others reading while the chaplin prayed sonorously with many
oratorical cadences, taking in all the departments of government in the
swing of his generous benediction.

Instantly at the word "Amen," like the popping of a cork, the tumult
burst out again. Hands clapped, laughter flared out, desks were
slammed, papers were rattled, feet pounded, and the brazen monotonous
clanging voice of the clerk sounded above it all like some new steam
calliope whose sounds were words.

"You see how much prayer means here," said Radbourn.

A good deal of the business which followed was similar in character to
the proceedings at Des Moines. Resolutions were passed with two or
three aye votes and no noes at all, while the rest of the members
looked over the Record, read the morning papers, or wrote