Charles City intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa) 1864-1866, 1865-11-23
Women in the Departments.

~ iho w nStoH OnTonicie puDllSlc
sensible, racy letter from Mrs. Jan,
q. Swisshelm, on the duties of womel
in the public department, which is s,
: applicable to them and also to tn,
sterner sex, in all relations of life, tha
J we transfer it to our columns. After
. stating her claims to be heard on the
grounds that she led the advance or
the woman's rights question, at time
when it was unpopular to do so, sh,
, says
The employment of women in tn,
: Government Departments is an expert
ment 1t has not, thus far, been 81
complete success as its friends could
wish, and may possibly be yet pro
nounced failure The fault is chiefly
all OH our side of the house. Women
persevere in carrying the drawing.room
to the Office. Unless this mistake can
be corrected, the experiment mnst fail.
A fixed rule of good breeding ex-
cludes the shop from the parlor. A
man who lugs his business, habitually,
into his social hours is always a bore ;
and what should we think of one who
went to his counting or consulting
room in the balLdress Of the previous
evening? "
During business hours men require
to be released from the restraints of
the drawing-room-not certainly from
the rules of good manners or good mo-
rails, but from the etiIuettes of society.
In the social circle it is all right they
should pay all due attention to their
natural enemies" who continue to
present them with the old apple of dis
obedience but to ask them to keep up
state of chronic admiration for taper
waists, glossy ringlets, bewitching
smiles, and all the ct cetcras, is strain
upon human endurance which must
snap the cord
I'm business hours men must "mind
their own business" or the worlds
work will be left undone; and if the
presence of women among them dis
turbs the even flow of thought, the O.
men must and should get out of the
way.
ltis painfully humiliating to any low
er OF the race 10 see American women
OF education holding important places
in the grandest Government the world
ever saw, and initiating the costume
and manners of Persian grisettes.
Let any thinker watch the troops of
women stump, stump, stumping, or
rather thump, thump, humping up and
down the long, stone stairways Of our
different departments, with their feet
crushed into shoes SO tight that all
elasticity of step is gone, and the foot
comes down like an old-fashioned stick
leg, while the shoe, which, if large
enough, would last easily six months,
must burst in one let him or her look
at the spreading hoop and flashily fes-
tooncd and ornamcnted skirts which
invite attention to these poor, crushed
and crippled feet let him or her note
the jaunty hats and cunning" feath-
ers the poor hair stuffed with "rats I"
and "nnce' and bundles of buffalo
hide, which make one sick with dis
gust, and then bedizened with buds
and spangles enough to satisfy the
vanity of brace of Chippewa squaws,
| and let him say what these women are,
externally, but bad limitations of the
genuine grisette +? 1t would certainly
be better for humanity that all of this
class OF Government employees should
starve at home than they should cor
rupt public morals, and we lower the
national standard of womanly delica-
cy by recognizing their right to fill the
honorable positions many of them oc-
cupy. t... s...
l know that some, perhaps MAORI
ty, of these dress thus from misappre-
hending the situation. They fail to
see the distinction between business
and social life, and so drag the draw
ing room with them, with it's coquet-
ries, on to and into the office. Two in
cidcnts, in my own Office life, will best
illustrate my ideas of the proprieties
of that life.
A brother editor, by whose desk
mine had stood for nearly two years,
turned to me one day with a puzzled
look, and asked
is anything the matter with your
hair?"
To my answer that there was not,
he replied
"Then why do you wear that thing
on it?"
said it kept my hair out of the way,
But" he added, "do you know how
old it makes you look? A gentleman,
speaking of you but yesterday, thought
you were fifty. He was surprised
when said you could not be more
than thirty"
knew before that my toilette was a
success. One whose business with me
referred simply to the contents of the
skull could never imagine its covering
was intended to challenge admiration
That same true friend, upon my first
entrance upon public life, aided me in
"a way which commands my veneration
for his memory to-day, and showed then
a spirit ripening for near intercourse
with disembodied intelligences of that
higher order to whose society he has
long since gone.
\ 1t was necessary, one evening,
should remain in the Office until neal
midnight. As left the room where
were some eight OF ten editors, report
ers, proofreaders, and clerks, he sim
ply nodded his goodnight. A sub-ed
itor, whose wife was my friend, go,
his hat, and bowling, remarked:
Since our senior resigned his privi
lege, will you permit me to see you
safely home!"
The senior drew himself up to his
full height Of six feet four, and looking
, down at the kind little man said, stern
ly-
Q 81 want it understood that Mrs
} IS relations in this Office are pure
| ly those of business, and that wher
, she requires anything of any one in i
/ she will command his services. Sh,
has not commanded mine, aud the fac