_The Oath of Office_ is usually administered to the speaker by the oldest member in point of service,--called "the Father of the House,"--after which the speaker calls the other members to the front--usually by state delegations--and administers the oath to them. Newly elected senators are escorted to the Vice President's desk, usually each by his state colleague, and are sworn in individually. _Adoption of the Rules._--After the administering of the oaths of office, the house adopts the rules of the preceding Congress for regulating its procedure pending the adoption of new rules. Usually this is a perfunctory performance and is carried through without opposition. At the opening of the sixty-first Congress, however, strong opposition was manifested toward the old rules and they were not readopted until important amendments had been made in them. After the adoption of the rules each house appoints a committee to notify the other of its readiness for business, and the two then appoint a joint committee to inform the President of the United States that Congress is ready to receive any communication that he may be pleased to make. The message of the President is then laid before each house and the business of Congress proceeds. =Quorum.=--The Constitution provides that a majority of each house shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, but that a smaller number may compel the attendance of absent members in such manner and under such penalties as each house may prescribe. _Old Method of Counting a Quorum._--For a long time the method of ascertaining whether a quorum was present was by a roll call. If the roll call failed to show the presence of a majority, the speaker ruled that no quorum was present, even though every member of the house was actually in his seat. In the course of time this rule came to be frequently abused by the minority for the purpose of preventing consideration of measures to which it was opposed. Thus in January, 1890, when the Republicans had only a slight majority in the house of representatives, the Democrats were able, owing to the absence of a few Republican members, to break a quorum and prevent consideration of important measures, by refusing to answer to the roll call. On a notable occasion in January, 1890, the roll call showed 161 yeas, 2 nays, and not voting 165, the 165 who refused to vote being Democrats who were opposed to the taking up of a certain measure which the Republicans desired to pass. Under the rules the roll call did not show a quorum present, though more than two thirds of the members were actually in their seats.