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LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS
Carson, January 14, 1864
HOUSE - THIRD DAY
Say - you have got a compositor up there who is too rotten particular, it seems to me. When I spell "devil" in my usual frank and open manner, he puts it "d---l"! Now, Lord love his conceited and accommodating soul, if I choose to use the language of the vulgar, the low-flung and the sinful, and such as will shock the ears of the highly civilized, I don't want him to appoint himself an editorial critic and proceed to tone me down and save me from the consequences of my conduct; that is, unless I pay him for it, which I won't. I expect I could spell "devil' before that fastidious cuss was born. - MARK TWAIN.
The Speaker called the House to order at 10 A.M.
RESOLUTIONS
Mr. Heaton introduced a concurrent resolution, that when the Legislative Assembly adjourn to-morrow, it be to meet again on Wednesday, 21st, at 12 M.
A motion to suspend the rules was put to a vote and carried - ayes 15; noes, Messrs. Clagett, Curley, Gillespie, Gove, Hess, Hunter, Jones and Trask.
Mr. Gillespie moved to amend by making the hour 1 P.M.
[More skirmishing about parliamentary usage but the Chair is not in fault. - REPORTER.]
Mr. Fisher offered an amendment, to read "the House of Representatives and Council concurring." [Mr. Fisher got his notion from - well - say inspiration, for instance. - REPORTER.]
Mr. Clagett finally got up and straightened the blasted resolution.
The Speaker made a suggestion concerning the wording of the document. [Half an hour more will get it all right, you know. The parliamentary skirmishing still goes on, with unabated intelligence. This Aggregation of Wisdom can frame a concurrent resolution, but we must have time we must have a reasonable length of time to do it in. I could have furnished all the amendments offered to this document, and all the transmogrifications it has passed through - but then you don't want a column of that kind of information. I don't consider it important. - REP.]
The resolution as infinitely amended and improved, was voted upon at last, and carried - ayes 18, noes 5 - Messrs. Clagett, Gillespie, Gove, Hunter and Phillips. [I asked the Clerk what the resolution proposed to do now? And he said he'd be d---d if he knew. - REP.]
Mr. Clagett offered a resolution that the regular daily sessions of the House commence at 10 A.M.
Mr. Fisher moved to insert "except when otherwise ordered."
On a division the motion was lost - 14 to 6.
The resolution was then adopted.
[reprinted in Mark Twain of the Enterprise, edited by Henry Nash Smith, (Univ. of California Press, 1957), pp. 139-40.]
