The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1869-10-15
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Correspondence Fremont JOurnal.l

y
? 1 shall have to take up the cry for Wash
ingtOn which Horace Greedy has, at intervals,
kept up for New York city, for many a year,
, namely: Keep away from this cityl
By way of restricting to allowable spsce,
1 viii give you brief account of a portion
Of the immediate surroundings only of &
friend of mine, in justification and enforce
ment of my warning cry. You may have
it at first hand, and therefore in the first
person, the shortest way:
"Where ] take my meals the lady of the
house is as sunny and pleasant as if she
took bOarders simply for the unadulterated
enjoyment it afforded. But got behind the
curtains. The poor woman was acting, and
for the purpose of drawing a full house.
She knew that boarders, like other people,
are pleased with what is pleasant; so she
makes herself pleasant. She has about 25
boarders. OF these one is her husband Ia
2nd one) who is a gambler, another is her
step-sou, and a third is his step-son, both
thorough loafers, and all three getting board,
lodging, washing aud clothing, out of the
profits of the others. That scoundrel of
husband viii come in any time, day or night
from some excursion or carouse, with bsgful
of linen soiled in aiding to palm himself off
upon the. unwary as a gentleman; and they
must be done up again at once, no matter
what else has to suffer in consequence. And
the woman continues to toll with brain and
hands for the support of these unfeeling
wretches, and even forces herself to wear
smile over her painful sense Of the cruelty,
as a means of a more abundant accornplis sh-
ment of her self-sacrifeiug task.
''My landlady where lodge tells me that
she cannot pay her rent, because she has not
let all her spare rOoms-which are pretty
much all in the house, as she and her family
lodge in but portion of the attic.
Since her husbands death the letting of
furnished rooms is the only source of income
not only for the payment of her rent, but
for the support of all her family also.
'In the attic, besides the family of the
house, lodge woman and her daughter, both
persons, whether of refinement or not, at
least of too aristOcratic notions to resort to
any ordinary work or business for living.
Their total dependence is a share of the
Treasury salary of another daughter, who is
also the adopted daughter of man who |
occupied when living, high position, and |
on whose account the young lady is favored |
with the clerkship. She was brought up in |
elegance, aad would find the whole of her
salary little enough to replace the loss of her
former means; besides which, she has an |
affection ofthe lungs that bas already brought
upon her deduction from her salary for
loss of time, aud which will probably in
capacitate her permanently, before long.
Her steP-father left no property. She does
not live with her mother and sister, her other
associations from childhood still retaining
their hold on her; so that her slender salary
is at the disadvantage ofyhaviDg to provide
for the three in two separate households.
Last year my landlady had still another
woman a tenant in her attic. She cane to
Washington in hopes of getting Govern
ment situation. She had no money to sus-
tain herself upon, and no friends to help her
to any. Compensation for her lodging de-
pended on the contingency of her obtaining
pace-vne chance in five hundred-and
my landlady knew it; but she wouldn't turn
her out; aud food was obtained by taking
table board" one month in one place, and
when payday came round, Psrforce moving
to another. In this way she waited for
Congressmen to arrive; waited all through
the two sessions of Congress, and until the
Members had departed; and how she found
means to get away on when she finally left,
nobody here knows. Well-do you believe
it?-she turned up here again the other day,
on the same mission, aud applied to the old
quarters for accommodations sgaiDl When
my landlady told her that she couldn't afford
to take her in again, she cried, saying she
had no where to go, aud no money, and SEEM
ed so destitute and pitlable, she was taken
again; and there she is esconced for another
Congressional season. Her meals will, of
course, be picked up 'sround the Deestrict,"
as before, sf
''In the Bureau where l work was q
fourth-class clerk, sober, industrious, pro-
missing young man when be came to Wash
ingtOn, few years ago. He was dismissed
few days ago for habitual drunkenness; aud
not only he had no money saved out of his
salery 81, 800, buthe went out more than
$1,000 in debt. Another young, tho mar
ried man, in same service, is striving hard,
in conjunction with an aged mother and three
delicate sisters, who take in sewing, to
squeeze out enough for all to keep body and
soul together; but he has drunkard, who
besides severely!taxing the scant means of
all the rest. is destroying their peace and life
IN grief He is victim Of the lOaterism of
Washington, where, as a rule, if a man fails
of Government employment there is nothing
for him but to wait for an opening!
"Fhess are some ofmy immediate suroun-
dings."
The first steps towards the organisation OF
very important society were taken last Sat
urday night in Washington-impOrtant by
its objects and by the guaranty of the ac-
complisment of those objects to a most
gratifying and beneficial extent afforded in
the attainments, ability, and eminence of
those interested in it's foundation. II is a
society for the advancement and diffusion of
knowledge and art. A committee was ap-
pointed Saturday evening to draw plan of
organization and submit the next Monday |
evening. The names OF the committee will |
help to an estimate of the personel of the
project, and ofthe aotualigatiOn of the socie-
y; 5r
Judge T. ". BARLEY; Judge Casey. of
Court Of Claims; Chief Justice Chase; b.
D. Cooke, Banker; John D. Defrees, ex-GOvt
Printer W D. Gallagher. Journalist and
Litteretur; Minor K, Kellogg Artist; s. L.
Looms, Prof. of Chemistry; theo. POssche,
PrOf.hf Philology; Press Sampson of Co
Iumbia College; A. R. Spofford, COngressiOn
al Librarian; and C. O. stansbury'
Atty Gen. Hoar, 10 whom Gen. Sherman
(Secy of War referred the matter, has given
an opinion adverse 10 the exclusion of claim
Agents from prosecuting cases in the War
Department by the Sec1etary's order, hol-
ding that they cannot be so exclude d.
Henry SIS. Vanderbilt, who has lately