The national Republican. [volume] (Washington City [D.C.]) 1866-1870, 1869-07-24
The French Atlantic Cabls-0peniss
OF the Line.

" tee
PLYMOUTH, MASS, July r. The steamers
Chiltem and Soanteria, with the French cable,
came to anchor this evening OF nxxbury. II
Is thought that arrangements will be complete
for landing the shore end tomorrow. The
land line to Boston is not yet completed, but
the once will be opened tonight.
Defense OF the women Clerks AZ
Washington.
Tho following Is an extract from tho At
ldniic Monthly on the women clerks In tho
departments at Washington,
A stranger will not be long In Washing
ton before the rumor reaches him that mem
bers have discovered q way Of quartering
their mlstresses upon the Government. Some
striker, Gas conjccture,) male or female,
who wanted q clerkship, awaited himself or
herself OF this report, and cndeayored by
putting II In print to create vacancies In the
department which employs the greatest num-
Der of women. II Ia q common trick with
people who want places to get letters aud
paragraphs inserted In newspapers complain
ing that a certain department or bureau Is
full OF fogies or fossils or Andy johnson
men, or ancient sires who have been In office
since the time Of Jackson. Hannah Tyler
wrote to the New York Independent remon.
STRANGE against the employment Of bad
women In the Treasury Department, pre-
tended to be herself employed therein.
"'We,' wrote the virtuous Hannah, ought
not to be insulted by having the paramours
and mlstrcsscs Of members Of Congress
forced upon us, and be obliged to tolerate
their society day by day. Let Mr.. Boutwell,
clean out tho rifr.raG and pollution Of his
Department. Let him appoint moral and
competent women She said also that the
Departments were crowded with females
who were Of no use whatever, aud yet could
not be got rid OF by their official chiefs be-
cause members Of Congress kept them In.
She declared she could mention names Of
scores and scores Of such. This last assor-
ton alone ought 10 render the reading Of the
epistle incredulous, for there are very few
persons In the whole world who can call to
mind scores and scores OF Names There
arc about three hundred members OF Con-
gross In all, and very large number OF
them are elderly, married men, fathers Of
families, known TO be strictly moral In their
lives. A person really acquainted with
Washington, aud not morbidly credulous Of
evil, could not easily be convinced that,
from the beginning OF the Government to
the present day, there ever have been, at the
same time, five members Of Congress who
had mistrcsses. II Is not an American Gus.
tom. We do our share Of the human races
sum total Of sin chiefly In other ways. Mis-.
tresscs are kept In countries where there lie
large class Of rich young men, which Is
not yet the case with us. We arc generally
poor from twenty to thirty Ave, and by the
time we are rich enough to indulge In ex-
pensirc vices most Of ne have learned what
a disappointing, ridiculous, low delusion
vice Is. We have grown past II and above
1t. Some members OF Congress do worse
things, but very few keep mistresses.
Tho Treasury building, too, Is open TO
the public, and one can walk over Ii, and
enter all the rooms except those In which
the national money Is made. A fev days
after. first hearing Of the terrible state Of
morals In tho Departments, visited the
Treasury, and was permitted to 60 even into
the apartments consecrated TO tho manu-
facture, redemption and destruction Of
greenbacks and stamps. I passed some
hours there, and kept looking out for tho
paramours and mstresses. ! saw no woman
that was not earning her livelihood by hard,
steady and not very agreeable work. Is It
like kept mistress to labor eight hours q
day In building In the construction Of
which everything was thought Of except the
health and dignity Of those who were to
work In 1T There are single stones In that
enormous edlace which, in cheap times,
cost $4,000 In gold, and thousand hu-
man lives are daily shortened there by bad
air. Every face almost In that endless
basement is pale, and many are haggard and
pallld with disease. Is II the custom of mis-
tresses TO go to such place, hang up their
hoop-skirts on the same peg with their bon
nets and shawls, cover their hair with u
paper cap, and stand all day at one Of those
presses performing an unchanging move
menti Our money Is counted S3 times be-
fore 1t Is packed into boxes and handed over
to the Treasurer. Perhaps those swift-iln-
gercd ladies, so respectable In appearance,
so intent on their work, who do this count
Ing, are thus expiating an improper way of
life. Or, possibly, members station the
misses In the upper rooms, where they sit
very close together, copying and doing sums.
If these things are so, then may America
boast that her very 'riI.raG and pollution
are as industrious, as decorous, aud as use
full as the most yirtuous women In the
'down-trodden nations Of the old world.'
"But the charges have since been care
fully investigated on the spot, particularly
by the worthy and able editor Of the Ohio
| (Columbus) State Journal, who was In
Washington when the letter was published.
He ascertalncd that there was no such name
as Hannah Tyler upon the books Of the De-
partment, and that every statement In the
letter rejecting upon the character Of the
ladies was no better than o strikers lie.
And yet there were two grains Of truth In
It.. II Is true that members urge the ap-
pointment of too many of their constituents,
and that pretty face or pretty foot will
occasionally get an appointment due only to
good handwriting and q capacity for
adding up columns Of figures. This Is
wrong, of course. The whole system Of ap-
pol Itments and removals Ia thoroughly
wrong. | am coming to that by and by.
But In order to get, II possible, a more IA
yorablc hearing then, begin by showing
that Congress is not tho body Of reprobates
and robbers which It is tho occupation Of
some mon to represent 1t.
A MOST ANOTHER TRAPEzE TRAdEDr.-
The Rlzarelli brothers met with another ac-