Home, Sweet Providence

In the days of yore, the good citizens of Athens filed past the urns and as they passed each one dropped a white shell or a black. If the black shells were more numerous than the white, then woe be to the man concerning whom the shells were cast, for he was ostracized and for ten years under pain of death must remain an exile from his native city.

No urns were erected in Rhode Island, no black shells were dropped therein, but nonetheless 21 of her citizens went forth, last June, into exile, saying they feared for their lives. Last week, the exiles returned, their Odyssey completed, though one had visited Erebus never to return, and another tarried with the Lottophagi--in Worcester, Mass.

The story of their going was this: The Senate of Rhode Island is composed of one man from each town in the state. Providence, with nearly 300,000 inhabitants, has one Senator. West Greenwich, with 367 inhabitants, has one Senator. The Republicans control most of the small towns. But the small towns are more numerous. At the election preceding the recent one, the Democrats gained a comparative victory. They gained 17 seats of the 39 in the Senate. They elected the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor.

With the aid of the Lieutenant Governor, Felix Toupin, a fiery little man of French descent who presided over the Senate, the Democrats began a filibuster a year ago to compel the Republicans to agree to a Constitutional Convention to do away with the "rotten borough" system. The filibuster lasted from January to June, with frequent clashes, several of which went to the point of physical violence. Finally in June, at the end of a heated session of 50 hours' duration, someone placed a bromine gas bomb behind the Lieutenant Governor's chair. The Democrats said it was a plot to kill Mr. Toupin. The Republicans said that their lives were not safe.

Of the 22 Republican Senators, 21 incontinently fled the state. They settled just across the border at Rutland, Mass. They remained there. The Bartlett House, where they were staying in the summer, found it worth while to put in steam heat to accommodate them when winter came on. One Senator died. Another, a former divine, became a lecturer at Worcester and is not expected ever to return. The others lived amicably in sun and shade at the expense of the Republican State Committee--an expense estimated at from $25,000 to $100,000.

Meanwhile the Rhode Island Senate met regularly four times a week and adjourned for lack of a quorum. No bills were passed, although it was the only legislature of Rhode Island which ever was continuously in session for an entire year. Funds failed the state. Many state employes got no salaries.

In November, an election was held. The Republicans carried the state. They defeated Mr. Toupin, who was running for Governor; they elected 67 of the 100 Representatives and 33 of the 39 Senators; 13 of the exiles stood for reelection. They did not return to their districts but were reflected nevertheless.

Last week, the legal life of the old Senate expired. It adjourned in the presence of three members--two Democrats, and the one Republican who had remained behind to make the point of no quorum. Home came the wandering Odyssei, back to their Penelopes. But they formed a club "The Exiles" to recall for later days the joys of their exile.