The Finder; 31; A Day in the Life of a Page Boy

This is National Educational Television. A program produced for the Educational Television and Radio Center. Sonny Fox searches the world for interesting people, places and things. When he finds them, he brings them before his television cameras for you to see. That's why he's called The Finder. It's called The Finder. It's called The Finder. The Finder.

Hi, I've just come back from doing some very interesting finding. This looks like I'm a diplomat or something. Well, maybe that's because I've been in Washington DC. Our nation's capital where many diplomats of course are. I guess Washington DC is one of those interesting places in the entire world today. If you have never taken a trip there, why, by all means, try to see if you can't get your parents to plan to take you there. Well, if you want to be a finder and I hope you all do, I don't know of many places around the world where there's more to find out about than Washington DC. But the story I went down to find out about was a particular one.

It was about boys between the ages of 14 and 18 who work for the Congress of the United States of America and a very important part of the way that Congress has run. And they're known as congressional pages, congressional page boys. And perhaps you might think that somewhere in here there's something for you to do someday to become a congressional page. And we'll find out a little bit more how you can go about it after I tell you the story. I have some film and some things to tell you about it, but you know, that's come up in a little while. First, I came back to St. Louis to find out that an old friend of mine was back in town, and by the name of Will Holt, who sings balanced. Now, you know, ballads are probably one of the oldest kinds of songs there are. It's a ballad is a way of telling a story to music. And as a matter of fact, long before there were such things as books and typing and type, why people used to pass stories down from one to another by ballads. And Will Holt sings some mighty fine ballads or some of them sad and some of them are funny.

And some of them he calls answer back songs. You know, somebody speaks and somebody else answers back. And he has a couple of very, very amusing ones that he's carrying a sing for us today. But I think I better tell you about that first one because he keeps speaking about a hand. It's a hunting song, a hand. Now a hand up in New England is a haunt or a ghost. So when you hear him say a hand, remember he's talking about a ghost. Now that's all there is to it. From here on in, let's let Will tell us about it, huh? Get home. Your man is ill. Oh, is he ill? Give him a pill. Come on now, France. Just one more dance. Then I'll go home to my poor old man. Then I'll go home to my poor old man. Woman, we'll get home.

Your man is worse. Oh, is he worse? I'm not a nurse. Come on now, France. Just one more dance. Then I'll go home to my poor old man. Then I'll go home to my poor old man. Woman, go home. Your man is dead. Oh, is he dead? No more to be said. Come on now, France. Just one more dance. Then I'll go home to my poor old man. Then I'll go home to my poor old man. Woman, go home. The Will's to be read.

What's that you say? The Will's to be read. No, no, no, France. This is no time to dance. My poor old man, I must go eat my poor old man. So there you have the first of it. Two answer-back songs which I'm going to sing. An answer-back is one of these questions answered things. This one happened to come from Austria, where it was translated by a Jedi of Benedict. I got it from him. The second song is... Rather the same thing, except it concerns two people, a man and his wife, in New England, and now a tip for all of you is that... In New England, these... a ghost is called a hat. This is very important, as you would see. Where are you going?

When my good old man, Where are you going, honey? My love. Hunting. When will you be back, my good old man? When will you be back, oh honey? Oh, love. Saturday. Well, what do you want for supper? My good old man. What do you want for supper, honey? Oh, love. Eggs.

Well, how many? My good old man. How many do you want, oh honey? Oh, love. Oh, love. My good old man. A bushel will kill you, honey. Oh, love. I don't care. Well, what will you do then? When my good old man, What will you do then, oh honey?

Oh, love. Oh, love. Oh, love. Oh, love. Oh, love. Oh, love. Oh, love. Oh, love.

Oh, love. Which we'll hold with a couple of answer-back songs. The second one that turned out was the one about Hansen. And the first one was that very funny one about old woman who had been sick. Well, I want to tell you now about that story that I hunted up myself, Hansen. No, I guess it's Hansen, isn't it? Hunted up down in Washington DC about page boys. And I was told, when I went down there, that one of the best men to see about this story would be Representative Wright Patman of Texas. Representative Patman is one of the members who's been there longest in the House of Representatives. Do you know how long a representative has elected for incidentally? That's right, two years, you're right. And Senator is four or six years. So Representative Patman, having been a representative

for about 22 years, had been elected eleven times from Texas. He's a very important member down there. And he's pointed several pages, page boys, since he's been in Congress. So I decided that the best thing to do would be to make an appointment with Representative Patman at his office. And his office is in the House Office Building, overlooking the Capitol Dome. That's where I found him. The pages are very carefully selected. First, they must be very intelligent. In addition, they must absolutely be dependable in every way. And they must, of all things, be trustworthy. They have enormous responsibilities. In other words, they are the arm of the member of Congress. They have about 75 pages out of 435 members of the House of Representatives. We could not get along so well. We could not perform our duties so effectively

where it not for the fine work of the pages. Therefore, they are very carefully selected. We could not afford to have any other type or class, except those who are intelligent, who have good judgment, who are dependable, and loyal, and trustworthy. What about their ages, sir? Their ages must be between 14 and 18. They have terrific hours, as you know. It's really only the true and heart. I mean, the people who really determined to succeed in life stand up to the work of a page. It's a hard job. I'd like to find out a little bit more detail, exactly what the page would do through the day. Well, a page does lots of things through the day. For instance, when he goes to work, maybe he has a request there for me, or from another member, warning a certain bill, or warning to come to my office to get an important message, to go to a senator's office, clear across the capital grounds,

or do things like that. They have plenty of errands to run, and they're important errands. They're errands that the member probably would have to run himself where it not for the pages. Yes, all right, Danny. I see you have this bill here. I said for this bill, and this is one of the errands that Danny's just finished. Is he a page? He's a page, and he's a page that I recommended. He's from my district. The district I have the honor to represent, Danny Latimer. Sonny Foxtam. He is. From Mount Slesden, Texas. And then he made an outstanding record as a boy scout, and in public service work in Mount Slesden before he came here. And of course it wasn't a difficult matter to select a boy like Danny, because he'd already proven his worth, and his ability and his knowledge. And you had to get along with people. That's necessary, too. You know, one thing that people should make up their minds early in life, like Danny, that regardless of education they receive, and the opportunities they have, the important factor in life, is getting along with the people.

And pages have a good opportunity to learn that, and they must have some of it, or they'll not make good pages. Well, Danny, how do you like being a page? Oh, it's fine. It's really a great job. Well, you know, you're white. How old are you now? I'm 14. This is my first year in the freshman year. Would you like to come back someday as a congressman? Well, I don't know. I have a pretty hard job. I've really planned on being an orthodontist. Adentist? Yes. Put braces. Uh-huh. And not as a congressman? No, sir. I haven't really planned it. I might be, though, you know. I might change my mind. It's possibly a change of mind after he's up here. Well, Danny, I won't keep you now. I wonder if I can see you a little later and find out more about you today. Yes, sir. Okay. Well, I suggest if you want to find out what a page does, you follow him for one day. And I'll eventually say that you'll be plenty of tired at the end of that day. Well, I think that's a good idea. I think maybe I'll do just that. And, uh, I did follow a present representative, Wright Patman's suggestion.

As a matter of fact, I hunted up Danny Latimer, a little later that afternoon, and made arrangements to meet him the next morning, outside of his boarding house, at 6.15. That's right. I said, a quarter past six in the morning. And that's the time that he left his house to go over to school. And when I met him, the sky was still dark, except to speak a little bit with some gray light. Well, I wake up at six o'clock in the morning and do whatever I have to right then and get ready. And I leave the house at 6.15 in the morning. And I go to school in the Congressional Library. And we go to school in the third floor. The school is called Capitol Page School. And that's the Congressional Library right there, up the steps that we're climbing with some of the other pages we met. Library of the Congress of the United States. We took a little detour on the way up to his classroom, didn't Danny and I.

We went through the great hall of the Congress, of the Library of Congress. That's quite a place to be going to school, isn't it? Looks like something out of the Rabia Knights. All marble and beautifully decorated. Well, we continued on through there until we got to the elevator, which took us up to the third floor where the school rooms are. Danny's in the freshman class and takes four subjects, English, Algebra, History, and Science. The first one today was to be science. So we dropped off our coats at the lockers, went into the chemistry class where the subject for the day was sound and the telephone. And here's what Danny had to say about this class. I have general science and I seem like that. We usually have experiments and stuff. I mean, just like a regular chemistry class or something. But they don't offer in Capitol Page School. They don't offer chemistry because they're afraid that it might start a fire there in the building and it burned down all those books.

And so we cannot have chemistry. No chemistry because you're in the Library of Congress. That's one of the problems there. Well, after science, we got to the Algebra class. And that made two periods and it also made it eight o'clock in the morning. And at eight o'clock in the morning, a bell rang. And when that bell rang, there was a general stampede down to the basement of the Library of Congress where the cafeteria was because there was a 15-minute coffee break. I ate breakfast when we have our coffee period. That's at eight o'clock. It's after your first two periods and most of us eat then, most of the pages. And we eat in 15 minutes. We have to be through by 8.15 and then we start back to the rest of our school. There's an awful big rush. Sometimes the 15 minutes is up before you even get your meal. I mean, before you even get what you have ordered. And then sometimes you're put your early and you get to take it pretty slow.

Well, pretty soon it was time for us to leave. And Danny, do the pages rush back to their classrooms? Then there's not too big a rush back. I mean, they're not too anxious to get back to school. Well, now it was time to go upstairs again and to the English class this time. English, yeah, not especially, like my English period. It's okay. We have 45-minute periods, you know, and I mean, we have nice books and everything. I mean, it's just like other schools, really. When Danny turns his head and look out the window from his classroom, he can see the Capitol dome. And that's where he and the other pages head after they finished their fourth period, which in Danny's case happens to be algebra. Well, when school is finished there after that fourth period, it's about 9.30. Danny's day is just about getting underway. He's gone to four periods of school already, and now it's time for us to go over to the Capitol building

for the second part of his day. We walked, we took kind of a shortcut, I guess, as we walked from the Library of Congress to the nearby Capitol, and as we walked, we talked. At 9.45, well, we get out of school and go over to the Capitol and start our work for the day, which is, I mean, it seems like it's half the day's over, but it's really not. We just take the shortest trip there is. I mean, if there was a subway, we'd take that, but there's not, so we just cut right across the lawn anywhere. I mean, there's no keep off the grass anywhere. Wow, we arrived at the Capitol building, and Danny dropped his coat and books off at the Pages' cloakroom, and then hurried on to his first assignment, which took him onto the floor of the House of Representatives with a phone message. I couldn't follow you have to be somebody on official business to get in there. Incidentally, in the back of the House of Representatives, there are a lot of pages who sit on benches there until one of the congressmen calls for documents or to send a message.

Other pages are in the House cloakroom, where the head page parcels out assignments. And that's him over there giving out some assignments for some of the pages to carry out. This cloakroom is just off the floor of the House of Representatives. Danny went back on phone assignment when he got finished. We received calls from the congressmen secretaries or from the congressmen themselves. And we take a short message of what they want, or if they want another congressman, and we're in session, where we go look for that congressman. This call that Danny took was for some papers to be delivered to Representative Patman's office and the new House office building. And that is a long walk from the House. I mean, that long subway to the House office building. We call it just the HOB. That's when they get one like that. Well, they really do dread an HOB because that's quite a bit of walking over there. And then to the Senate too.

It's not really a subway. It's just a tunnel from the Capitol to the House office building. And they have another one also from the Senate to the Senate office building. I would say about the average of eight times you would go to either the new or the old house having HOB is what we call it. The average, I think, we were not in session about 14 miles a day sometimes, some days, 20. It seems like 40 miles. It seems like 40 miles to me that day too. Well, he finally got to Representative Patman's office and delivered the documents to his secretary. And then after that, Danny found time to drop into the Pages' cloakroom in the basement of the Capitol where he was able to spend a few minutes studying. I'm or something, or we can go down to the cloakroom and study or do whatever we have to do or read magazines, have a conversation. I was delighted to sit down with Danny for a while at this point. I was tired.

Well, Danny rested here for about 10 minutes. But for the rest of the day, Danny Lathamur congressional page was on his feet. Delivering documents, answering phones, helping the Congress of the United. And finally, anywhere from three in the afternoon to seven in the evening, it's time for Danny to walk home. The day I was with him, we left the Capitol about five in the afternoon. At the boarding house, I said goodbye to Danny Lathamur, Mount Pleasant, Texas. I was tired. I was going to go home and stretch out and relax. But I was wondering what pages did after their full day. And I asked this. I'm about to go to the picture show or do whatever they feel like doing. They're here by themselves and they're on their own. They sometimes they go cut a rug. Most of the time, what I do, I just go home and study. I mean, that's, you don't have too much time for studying, so I go home and study. Well, you've studied like that yourself sometimes, haven't you? And after being up at six o'clock in the morning,

and putting in a full day at the congressional page school, and then another full day at the house of representatives, I don't think we can blame Danny Lathamur for stretching out like he did on the sofa or on his bed right there in his room. Incidentally, the congressional pages get paid. I don't remember exactly what it was. I think it's about $240 for their time for the session. And they buy their own clothes, their own food, and they have to be pretty much on their own. So they have to be mature and pretty responsible for the job of a page at the house of representatives. Incidentally, you know, you might tell you earlier on the show might be thinking about becoming a page as you get into the 14 to 18 back. And if you're anywhere between 14 and 18 now, and of course, if you're a boy, I'm afraid girls are not yet accepted to spages over there. But if you're a boy, and you are between the ages of 14

or if you're younger, and you feel that when you do grow older, you would like to undertake that. And remember, it means living away from home for a while and being on your own. And that's a real responsibility. And especially, of course, since you're working with the Congress of the United States, you are what Representative Patman called the arm of the Congress of the United States. Well, if you're interested in becoming a congressional page, why I would suggest that you get in touch with your congressman or your senator and ask him for some information. Or you might write to the Housekeeper, not Housekeeper, or the House of Representatives, and ask him for some general information. But I would think that the best bet is to write your congressman or senator and say that you're interested. And of course, make sure that your parents know what you have in mind, because it's kind of a big thing for you to do. And remember, it's really fine, as they're looking for. Finders who can keep their eyes and ears open and be sharp and alert. Because the business of the United States Congress

is a pretty important thing. And they don't want anybody there who's not alert. And I think if you're a good finder, I think you'd make a pretty good page. So why don't you think about that, huh? And of course, you don't have to be a page boy to be a finder. You can be a finder. Well, right where you are now, around your own hometown, around your neighborhood. Incidentally, I might make a suggestion about where you can do some good finding. If there are any caves in your neighborhood, if there are any caves that are open and well lit, then I don't go hunting into caves that aren't explored yet. But if you've never done any speed-lunking, well, that's a good bet for some finding. And you know what speed-lunking is? Well, speed-lunking is a... comes from the word speed-liologist, which doesn't help you a bit, I'll bet. Well, speed-liologist is from a Greek word, meaning explorer of caves, one who explores caves. And the speed-lunker is, well, a long-head who, I guess, explores caves. Spalunker. Anyway, you'll find in caves to lactites and stalagmites and underground rivers,

and formations that took millions and millions of years to find. And I think it's something that you might look into, because some caves are still forming now. And incidentally, here's an interesting piece of information you might tuck away somewhere and someday use. A stalactite takes about 100 years to form about one cubic inch, about the size of an ice cube. That's right, 100 years to one cubic inch. So when you see a gigantic stalactite, well, you can kind of just try to figure it out, and see how many hundreds and thousands of years it took for nature to make one of these amazing formations. Well, anyway, caves are... or page boys, or song ballads, there are a lot of things to find around where you are. So keep your eyes and ears open and good hunting. I'll see you. The preceding program was produced for the educational,

television and radio center. This is National Educational Television. This is National Educational Television.