Answer.—The act of Congress of February, 1882, provided for a reapportionment of the membership of the House of Representatives, based on the census of 1880, provided that in the cases of States entitled under this apportionment to additional representation, the additional members in the Forty-eighth Congress might be elected on a general State ticket; also, that in all cases where the number of representatives was reduced, as in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, the whole number for such State should be elected at large, “unless the Legislatures of said States have provided or shall provide before the time fixed by law for the next election of Representatives therein.” Kansas, for example, which is entitled by this act to four additional representatives, did not redistrict before the last Congressional election, and so she elected four Congressmen at large, viz., Edmund W. Morrill, Lewis Hanback, Samuel R. Peters, and Bishop W. Perkins. Maine did not redistrict, so all her representatives were elected at large, instead of by districts.
CONTESTANTS OF SEATS IN CONGRESS.
Bloomington, Iowa.
To settle a dispute between me and a Greenbacker, who claims that when a seat is contested in Congress the contestant doesn’t draw any pay if he fails to get the seat, except his expenses, while I contend that both draw pay until the contest is decided, state which is right.
John Taylor.
Answer.—Section 2 of chapter 182 of “Supplement to the Revised Statutes of the United States,” par. 15, says: “That hereafter no contestee or contestant for a seat in the House of Representatives shall be paid exceeding $2,000 for expenses in election contests; and before any sum whatever shall be paid to a contestant or contestee for expenses of election contests he shall file with the clerk of the Committee on Elections a full and detailed account of his expenses, accompanied by the vouchers and receipts of each item, which shall be sworn to by the party presenting the same.” Nevertheless it is customary for Congress to vote compensation to contestants by appropriations in the nature of “relief bills,” where each case is presumed to stand on its own merits.
BALLOONS AND THEIR PERFORMANCES.
Auburn, D. T.