No, the center aisle of the Montana House of Representatives is not normally lined with spittoons–just today, in an homage to the past.

The likes of spittoons, top hats and ascots were common place 100 years ago, when the current House Chamber was first used. To celebrate, House members are trying to bring it all back. The chamber itself has been re-decorated, House members and staff are dressed in period clothing, and today’s floor session even features mock debate on bills from the 1913 session.

“This occasion only comes around every 100 years,” House Speaker Mark Blasdel (R-Somers) said in a press release. The Legislature has just returned from its transmittal break and Blasdel says the schedule was light enough to swing this re-enactment.

“We would only have had 8 bills on the floor today and none tomorrow,” Blasdel said. “So we rescheduled all the bills for tomorrow. There’s no other day on the calendar when we would have been able to take the time.”

Representative Tom Woods (D-Bozeman) was working on his Macbook Pro decked out in a bowler hat, spats, and a vest he wore in his wedding. He says it’s important to recognize the past, and to further urge togetherness among lawmakers: “(This) has started out to be a very good session in terms of relations between parties on both sides of the aisle. I think (this activity) is probably promoting that camaraderie, that civility.”

The 1913 bills being ‘discussed’ today on the House floor:

HB 94: Defining the Crime of Seduction and fixing the penalty therefore

HB 64: Defining the term Communicable Disease

Defining the term Communicable Disease HB 156: Regulate the sale of intoxicating liquor