The mace is a bundle of ebony rods, bound together with silver bands, having on top a silver globe, surmounted by a silver eagle. In the British House of Commons the mace represents the royal authority, but in the United States it stands for the power of the people, which, tho not present in bodily form, yet is a force always to be reckoned with. The one now in the House has been in use since 1842. The Sergeant carries it before him as his symbol of office when enforcing order, or in conducting a member to the bar of the House by order of the Speaker. The Speaker’s room is across the lobby back of his chair, and is one of the most beautiful rooms in the building. It has velvet carpet, fine, carved furniture, large bookcases and mirrors, and its walls, as well as the walls of the lobby, are hung with the portraits of every Speaker, from our first Congress to the present one. Most of the pictures in the House of Representatives with which I was familiar fifteen years ago have been removed. Now there remains but one—Brumidi’s fresco representing General Washington declining the overtures of Lord Cornwallis for a two days’ cessation of hostilities. Washington, like Grant, was an “unconditional surrender” man. Each State is entitled to a number of Representatives in Congress, proportioned upon the number of its population. The State is districted by its own State Legislature. Then the district selects its own man, who is supposed to understand its wants and needs, and elects him to represent his people for two years. He must be twenty-five years of age, seven years a citizen of the United States, and a citizen of the State which he represents. There are about three hundred and fifty-six members and delegates. The latter represent the territories of Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and Hawaii. [Illustration: THE SPEAKER’S ROOM ] Congress is an aggregate of selfish units, each fighting for his district. No doubt good influences prevail, but no one class of men, either the extremely good or the extremely bad, has the entire say, for law is the formulated average public opinion of the age and country in which it is made. It can not be too strongly impressed upon the voters of this country that it is their duty to select good, strong, noble men with high convictions of public duty, and then to keep them in Congress term after term if they desire their district to be represented by anything more than a mere vote. Important places on committees are given men not alone in proportion to intellectual merit, but in proportion to Congressional experience. All men will not become leaders from remaining there a long time, but none will without it. It is a wonderful thing to note the changes in the House since 1885. At that time John G. Carlisle was Speaker of the House. So fair in his rulings was Mr. Carlisle that one might spend hours in the gallery and be unable to decide which side he favored.