Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1869-05-22
The CoPsican Brothers.

The Swamp Douglass, Lewis HI. Douglass,
Not Fred. Douglass, Jr.
Stick.
He Will Ne, Bulge Until Kicked Out.
The Denver Union Business.
He is not o Rejected Applicant There.
Outside Of Washington and, indeed. in state
ly circles here. the big, many -windowed brick
building or II street is known as The Gov
ernment Printing ONCE" but it is designated
familiarly by almost everybody in Washing
ton as ''TGe swamp" How it got that name,
whether as a contraction Of the territorial des.
lgnation Of .'Swampoodle,' or from some such
untraceeble cause as that which fathers the
same title upon the leather dealers quarter IN
New York city, it is not our purpose now 70
inquire Suffice il to say, d" he swamp Is
the current name of tie Office, and that the
name is Just now in everybody's mouth,
through the difficulty among the printers N
conseq uence of the employment there of the
colored printer Douglass.
"rhe Swamp is big hive Of human in.
dustry. Fully bali the printers employed in
the District are engaged there, and they have
usually the controlling power in the Columbia
Typographical Union. And we have scarce
ever known a time when some kinky ques-
tion in regard to printers rights or wrongs
was not being raised by the busy bees and
busy brains of the Swamp to keep things
lively in the Union. Now the Swamp has
willingly or unwittingly furnished a topic
for discussion that will apparently keep af-
fairs from stagnatIng In the Union tor some
time 70 come.
great zeal has been said and written about
this difnculty, but there have been so many
discrepancies Of statement that the public must
be puzzled TO make head or tail Of the matter.
So we concluded to bring . little SrAR.light to
bear upon the business, and with q view to this,
sought our informanon At the fountain. head
the Swamp itself. And to begin at the be-
ginning we commenced with the colored man,
whose advent at the Swamp has caused such
haobub throughout the length and breadth Of
the land. Mounting the narrow steps TO the
great composing room we found our man at
the nearest case to the landing, as IL the Swamp
folks were rather proud Of him and had
placed him in position where visitors would
be sure to see him. He is a medium sized
young man, alert IN movement lacking sems.
thing Of the printers stoop, perhaps, from
soldieriy habits, and with something OF the
look Of grave intelligence that marks his
fathers face, though his features are not as
decided.
Is this Mr.. Douglassl
My name is Douglass.
I am connected with the STAR newspaper,
and as you are now somewhat famous per
sonage, perhaps, you will not object TO being
interviewed" for q short timel
Mr.. ID. smiled consent.
You are the son Of Fred Douglassl
Yes.
saw your father last at the White House
where he had the famous "Moses'' talk with
President johnson, and he told the President
he would 60 from him to the people.
Yes, was with my father at that interview
as Secretary Of the delegation. i remember
that the STAR had q verbatim account Of what
took place there and that it was copied all over
the country.
Yes. and Andrew johnson got 50 much the
v orse of the argument with your father, and
appeared to SO much disad vantage that he was
afterwards very shy Of having his converse.
tons reported unless ..revised" at the White
House.
BY the way, Mr.. Douglass, see it stated that
you are tired Of the contest with the Printers
Unions and are seeking an appointment in Reg.
lister VOLTS Office.
No. There must be some mistake.
Well, the correspondence is in the STAR to.
day. The application to the Register is signed
by Fred Douglass, jr, who says that in conse.
quence Of combinations entered into by Print
er's Unions throughout the country he is un.
able to obtain employment at his trade and
asks an appointment as clerk.
Oh, that's my brother. My name is Lewis H.
Douglass.
Older or younger than you!
He is about %. / am %.
You do not propose then to leave this Office
to seek other employment
Certainly not. ! shall stay here until 1 am
kicked out.
Mr.. Douglas, see that you know how to dis.
tribute. (He was distributing type, while
talking, with the facility Of an old hand.) Are
you equally expert in setting up!
ought to be; was brought up in q printing
office. For seventeen years have been most
Of the time engaged, either in setting type or
keeping books, in printing Office.
Your fathers Office!
Yes.
His paper was called aThe North Star"
Yes. at first; afterwards "Fred. Douglass
Paper"
1t Is not published nowl
No. TWAS discontinued in 1863; the abolition
Of slavery having done away with its mission.
Mr.. Douglas, it has been stated that you ap.
Piled for admission to the Denver Union, and
-
That is not so. 1 expressed q desire to join
the Denver Union 70 the foreman of the Gazette
oflice, but he declined to present an application
fer me on the ground that he did not wish to
incur the odium ofso doing. made no formal
application, and there was, consequently, no
refusal. ! worked setting type only about
three weeks in Denver, and was DISCHARGED
because white compositsr there objected to
working with "a nigger.''
(This same compositor we believe is now em.
ployed at the Swamp
This ended our conservation with Douglass.
From others In fhe room We learned that he
ranks we'll as compositor, or in the words
given us, She sets as good proof n any In the
building" We also learned that some years
ago he applied for admission to the Ro.
chester Union, but was declared ineligible ON
account Of being under age. This may have
been the true cause or may have been subter.
fuge, but 1t II evident that the drawback
throughout has been his color, and that he
might have been banded about ~from pillar
TO post" Indefinitely had not the Judgement ef.
f0cfed nv him At fha Govern o0Soa 49,,