Wausau, Wis.
Please give the names of the Presidents of the United States Senate up to date. How long do the Presidents pro tempore retain that position? Give the names of Speakers of the House of Representatives, beginning with the Forty-second Congress.
N. A. S.
Answer.—The Vice President of the United States is President of the Senate when sitting in that body, but in his absence a President pro tempore is proposed and chosen by ballot. “His office is understood to be determined on the Vice President appearing and taking the chair, or at the meeting of the Senate after the first recess.” (See Jefferson’s Manual.) The persons who have presided over the Senate are: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr, George Clinton, William H. Crawford, Elbridge Gerry, John Gaillard, Daniel D. Tompkins, John C. Calhoun, Hugh L. White, Martin Van Buren, Richard M. Johnson, John Tyler, Samuel L. Southard, Willie P. Mangum, George M. Dallas, Millard Fillmore, William R. King, David R. Atkinson, Jesse D. Bright, John C. Breckinridge, Hannibal Hamlin, Andrew Johnson, Lafayette S. Foster, Benjamin F. Wade, Schuyler Colfax, Henry Wilson, Thomas W. Ferry, William A. Wheeler, Chester A. Arthur, David Davis, and the present incumbent, George F. Edmunds. It is not worth while to mention those who have filled the chair only for a few hours at a time. The Speakers since the Forty-second Congress have been James G. Blaine, Michael C. Kerr, Samuel J. Randall, and J. Warren Keifer.
DAVID H. STROTHER—“PORTE CRAYON.”
Chicago, Ill.
Kindly give the right name of the author of “Virginian Illustrated,” “Life in the Old Dominion,” “Virginian Canaan,” etc., which appeared in Harper’s Monthly, vols. 6 to 12, under the nom de plume of “Porte Crayon.” What became of him? Is he still living?
James Butcher.
Answer.—The real name of this author is David Hunter Strother. He was born in Virginia, in 1816, studied art in New York; first became known to the public as “Porte Crayon” in 1853; entered the Union army as Captain in 1864, resigned, and in 1867 was brevetted Brigadier General; after the war, published in Harper’s Monthly a series of “Personal Reminiscences of the War;” and in 1879 went to Mexico as Consul General, an office he still holds.