noon
`` Well , we 'll go up in the gallery . '' Looking down upon the floor and its increasing swarm of individuals , Bradley got a complete sense of its vastness and its complexity and noise . `` It makes the Iowa legislature seem like a school-room , '' he said to Radbourn . At precisely noon the gavel fell with a single sharp stroke , and the speaker called persuasively , `` The house will _ please _ be in order . '' The members rose and stood reluctantly , some of them sharpening their pencils , others reading while the chaplin prayed sonorously with many oratorical cadences , taking in all the departments of government in the swing of his generous benediction . Instantly at the word `` Amen , '' like the popping of a cork , the tumult burst out again . Hands clapped , laughter flared out , desks were slammed , papers were rattled , feet pounded , and the brazen monotonous clanging voice of the clerk sounded above it all like some new steam calliope whose sounds were words .