THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXI, Issue 2260, 20 April 1926, Page 6

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

STORIES OF 60 YEARS BEHIND THE SCENES.

Governments serve their term of office and go out. But there is a man still at his post who has been in Parliament's service for nearly sixty years (says a writer in "TitBits")- He has seen numerous Prime Ministers walk out, some in the flush of party triumph, other under defeat. This jovial spinner of yarns is MiDavid Eves, M.V.0., who is on the engineering staff of the House. "Bending down and putting my ear to the floor," Mr Eves confided. "I have often been able to hear and see many things going on in the Houses, for my duty often took me above them, and you can see through the fretwork 'of the ceiling. I could also hear when I was under the rooms on ventilation duty.

"The Tichborne trial was in progress when I firs't took up duty. Large

crowds attended this extraordinary case, and it was terribly stuffy, in spite of the tubes which passed through the roof to provide ventilation. They were surmounted by cowls which revolved by the wind. Fountains, too, were fixed up in front of the Bench, and these squirted little streams of disinfectant up into the air. AN UNWELCOME TASK. Ventilation of the House is now accomplished by large electric fans. The air is drawn from the terrace and passes through filtering arrange ments which include a screen of drip ping water. This purifies the air. There is also an ozone plant on the premises. Talking about the clays of the 'eighties,' Mr Eves recalled some of the members of the Irish party, "the most peculiar lot of men with whom I ever came in contact!" "They were as easy to manage as you like when things were going right," he added, "but that wasn't very often." "They used to stop up very late,"

he explained. "They crowded into the smoking room off the Terrace, and often thev would be there at four i j o'clock in the morning. Ceaseless j chatter went on amidst the clinking of glasses. I believe that many of I them had no other place to go to! ! "Those lively nights greatly per-

turbed the Sergeant-at-Arms, and i

remember a particularly hot-headed squabble in No. 14 Committee Room. Keeping a policeman up there had no effect. At last an idea was conceived of printing a card demanding that all M.P.'s should leave the smokingroom about an hour and a half P.ftoi the House rose. I was <;iven the job of showing the card to each mem ber of the Irish party. "In fear and trembling I remember showing it to Parnell, Sexton. Dillon, and Tim Healey. now Governor-Gen-eral of the Irish Free State. Most of them took it very well. "On the first night at'te;- this arrangment I went in to put ->ut the lights at the usual time, but they escorted me back to the door. On another occasion, after I had actually extinguished the lights, another mem ber asked me to bring him a candle, saying he would sit there till Judgment Day!"

"Parliament," Mr Eves told me, "is the best club in London, for there are fourteen houses and sets of luxurious apartments within its precincts. Various people, who hold official positions occupy them.

"Prominent officials, such as the Sergeant-at-Arms in the Commons and Lords, the Yeoman-Usher of the Black Rod, and the Superintendant of the House of Lords do not change their residences except when they retire or die. On the other hand the Lord Chancellor only enjoys the uso of the apartments devoted solely to his family during his period of office. The furniture vans have to come when he retires or his party goes out of office. The Speaker is not affected by any change of party, so long as he is re-elected to the Speakership." The Speaker's house is the largest of all the residences in Parliament. It forms a large hollow square; one side faces the river at the Westminster Bridge corner, and another side looks onto Bridge Street. A part of this house blocks the end of the Terrace, whilst another section looks into what is known as Speaker's Court.

"Who's that one over there?" This was a question often put to Mr Eves by Harry Furniss, the famous cartoonist. "He used to look up from his work and nudge my elbow. He sat in the House for hours, sketching away. He used to draw caricatures of many members, but he did not know all their names, as I did." BOMBS AND BANGS.

Walking round the crypt of Westminster Hall one Saturday afternoon, a policeman found a thing like a water rriellon wrapped in cloth. Not knowing what it was, he brought it up to the hall. A minute later it exploded. Visitors rushed to see what was the matter. "It was like another Gunpowder plot," Mr Eves related. "Almost immediately, another bomb went off, this time at the entrance to the division lobbies in line with the Government and Opposition benches which were blown up. There was a great excitement. Later in the afternoon, a third bomb exploded in the Tower

of London. This was in the time of

the Fenians, and the offenders were caught and punished. "I remember dear old Gladstone very well," he continued. "When he was Prime Minister one of my duties was to light the gas in his room. It was my custom to knock at the door before entering. But one day the policeman told me that he had gone, and I went into the room without knocking. "With nothing on but u shirt and his trousers, Gladstone was just putting on a collar! The great man was not a bit angry, and accepted my apology.

"Parliament is not half so exciting now as it used to be," he went on, re miniscently. "When I was a boy of eleven I used to play in the Westminster Hall. The old Law Courts I used to know have now gone into the Strand. These were once on the right of Palace Yard. Crowds of people who were anxious to hear the trials walked over the ground where Cromwell's statue now stands. A RED-LETTER DAY.

"A refuse barge went down the river one day, and as the wind was in a certain direction a very unpleasant smell was wafted into the House. A certain member whose favourite remarks usually began with 'Oh, dear!' caused us to rock with laughter by standing up and saying, very seriously 'Odour, what can the matter be?"

Mr Eves has seen many receptions and levees in his time, but he recalls nothing to equal in magnificance the scene when Disraeli, who had become Lord Beaconsfield, explained the Treaty of Berlin to Queen Victoria.

"Many foreign potentates were there," he explained, "amidst a bhtze of jewellery. Standing a few feet to the right of the throne 'Dizzy' read his speech in an easy manner, I shall never forget that scene. "Although Mr T. P. O'Connor is called the Father of the House," Mr Eves concluded, "I entered the Houses of Parliament fourteen years before him. But I went in by way of the cellars!" he added.