[Vision2020] Legislative Newsletter VI - February 15, 2012

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the Idaho Statesman at:

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/02/12/1991041/legislators-had-fun-in-sessions.html

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Idaho History: Legislators had fun in sessions of the ‘Third House’
Members of the Idaho Legislature were not always as serious as they appear in this photo from the 1880s. The “Third House” let them enact some outrageous laws but all in fun.



The creation of a nonsensical “Third House” of the Idaho Legislature was announced in a letter to the editor of the Idaho Tri-weekly Statesman on Christmas Day 1866. It left little doubt as to the function of the new body.

“Mr. Editor: Seeing by your paper that there exist many different opinions as to the proper boundary line between Alturas and Ada counties, I beg leave to inform you that in the Third House, on Dec. 20th, notice was given of the intended introduction of a bill to provide for the building of a whitewashed fence from the mouth of More’s Creek to the mouth of Gander Creek, being for the benefit of the assessor, so that he might not again, through ignorance of the proper line, overstep it and his duty. Trusting that this will allay the excitement of the public in regard to this important question, I have the honor to be, Sir, yours obediently, E. Raymer, Secretary, Third House.”

Since nobody named “Raymer” was a member of the Legislature, we assume that outsiders were also part of that fun-loving group.

Ten years later the Third House was still furnishing amusement to members of the Idaho Legislature, and presumably to readers of the Statesman: “The LAW of the THIRD HOUSE. The proceedings this evening shall be perfectly free from anything offensive to refined and delicate ears. If anyone feels that they may be tempted to utter a word that should not be heard by ladies, such persons are specially invited to stay away.”

The inference is clear that ladies had attended earlier meetings of the Third House and that they had heard offensive language during these legislative shenanigans.

In 1879, more Third House activity was reported: “A member of the Third House will introduce a bill to turn Idaho Territory over to the War Department, along with the Indians, as a matter of economy.

In 1887, a member from Custer County “offered an amendment to the Lord’s prayer so that it will hereafter read ‘O Lord, deliver us from the Idaho Legislature.’ All the people shouted Amen.”

Also in 1887, a man named Higgins bought 44 bottles from the Capitol janitor. “None of them will hold over a pint, and most of them not more than half that amount. They are relics of the last Legislature.” The paper called the bottles “these receptacles of the inspiration of eloquence.”

Two years later, in March 1889, “Sixty-eight whiskey flasks and bottles were found in the nooks and corners about the Capitol building during the cleanup that followed the adjournment of the Legislature. Very few of them were found in the members’ desks — it is therefore presumed that the lobbyists conveyed them to the capitol building. Janitor Cartwright and Peter of the library room appropriated the spoils. Some of the bottles had a drink left in them which would never have been the case had their owners been Democrats.” (This dig was from the paper’s Republican editor). “The number as well as the size of the bottles beats the record of two years ago.”

As late as 1895, under a headline “Third House Nonsense,” the paper reported that along with other absurdities, the pranksters had proposed a bounty on mosquito scalps, moving the state agricultural college to Ola and annexing Nampa to the state of Missouri.

Even without the nonsense produced by the Third House, the Statesman found and reported other news of the Idaho Legislature it found amusing. In the struggle to defeat the nomination of G.L. Waters to the post of attorney general, for example, a bill was presented to repeal the act that had created the position in the first place.

In 1897, when the Oregon Short Line railroad offered free transportation to legislators and their friends and families for an excursion to Salt Lake City, there was standing room only in four fully loaded passenger cars.

The Statesman took obvious delight in reporting, “As the train left the depot a bystander called out ‘now we’re safe for three days.’”

An 1899 session of the Third House enacted a number of laws, including one “to regulate the amount of work to be performed by a man whose wife takes in washing for a living. It was referred to the committee on cruelty to animals.”

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Seeya later, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Post Falls, Idaho

"If not us, who?
If not now, when?"

- Unknown

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