A silver plate on each desk bears the name of its occupant. As in the Senate, the Republicans occupy the left of the Speaker and the Democrats the right. When the House is in session the mace is in an upright position at the table of the Sergeant-at-Arms on the right of the Speaker, and when the House is adjourned, or in committee of the whole, it is removed. 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. [Illustration: THE MACE ] 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.