Riot and Revelry at the Capitol
As the legislative session in Olympia concluded, members engaged in a chaotic scramble to loot furniture and equipment from the chambers.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
It was 3:30 this morning before the two houses reported to each other that they were ready to adjourn. For three hours, while waiting for the enrollment of the bills passed during the evening, the hilarity that characterizes the closing scenes of a legislative session prevailed. At times the disorder became riotous and at adjournment the floors were littered with bills and pamphlets with which the members and spectators had stormed each other. Both houses were stripped of nearly all movable things last night and the presiding officers could scarcely find pens and ink toward the close with which to sign the enrolled bills. The Populists rivaled old party members in the scramble for spoils and most of them carried off considerable booty.
“Both houses were stripped of nearly all movable things last night and the presiding officers could scarcely find pens and ink.”
This vivid account of 'looting' office supplies by departing legislators captures a moment of institutional collapse that feels starkly unrefined compared to today's standardized legislative procedures.
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