The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-23

Tor themselves in all those fields that have
hitherto been enjoyed solely by men. In the
camp the court and the grove the lawyers
Office, in the physicians reception room, on the
lecturers platform they are making them
selves heard, and have even entered the realm
of manly sports and asserted that their muscles
are as certainly to be calculated upon as those
of the men are. In another century we shall
have women transacting all the duties which are
now transacted by men; and which are not i'm
possible on account of the nature of femininity
itself. Look at the boat race they had at Pitts
burg the other day, and the similar one that
was got up at Hoboken. A Mayors daughter
shared in one of them, and each of them was
participated in by some of the most respectable
young women of the place. Beside these put
the feminine swimming match that, came off
yesterday at one of the bathing-houses in this
city, the one situated at the foot of Charles
street, North River, A large audience of ladies'
and gentlemen vas present, and the match came
off between set of well-developed and we'll
behaved girls, mostly between the ages of
fifteen and eighteen. The race was an exciting
one. 1t is not often that the public has the op-
portunity of enjoying display of muscular
Christianity in that peculiar form. The match
included contest In swimming, diving, and
fancy-foating figures. The sports began at about
half-past three in the afternoon, and were con-
Quoted under the supervision of the lady-super-
intendent who has been busy the past few
months in teaching the girls and women how to
swim. The matches that were swum, and the
other exercises that were INDUCED in, prove
that the lady-superintendent's time has been
proitably employed. The first feature in the
programme was a race for O silver castor, the
distance to be swum being seven hundred feet.
Mary Jane Hale and Susan Waters were the
contestants and Nary Jane uained tho rriza
The fancy-foating figures were the most inter-
esting features that were interpreted. Several
young women, lying in the water upon their
backs, formed a certain figure by various
dispositions of their limbs and bodies, and
maintaining these dispositions foated around
and around to the great interest and applause of
the audience. Then came swimming under
water and jumping from the roof into the
water, distance of twenty feet. l presume
these entertainments were given 10 view of the
fact that next week the bathing-houses close for
the season. One of the most singular charac-
teristics of yesterdays swimming match was
the fact that one of the successful contestants
made speech at its close. Speech-making bids
fair to be as sedulously and artfully cultivated
by American women as it ever has been by Ame-
rican men, and If womans tongue in public
gets to be incapable of fatigue as it is said to
be in private, Heaven help the hearers who are
condemned to listen to it.
Theatrical SquabbIes.
1t is getting to be troublesome thing nova
days to be theatrical critic and to write what
one believes to be the truth. For instance a
dramatic editor of this city was attacked yes
terday in one of the lobbies under the Metro
politan Hotel by Mr.. James A. Oates the hus-
band of the burlesque actress who is playing at
the Olympic Theatre. Upon the same day, at
the same place, Ben Lowell, dramatic agent,
and Sherry Corlyn, California manager, had a
falling out. And managers do not seem to
agree with one another to a greater extent
than critics and actresses husbands do.
You have, of course, heard, ere this, of the
fist encounter between Fisk and Maret-
eek. Which got the worst of that
encounter it is not easy to say. Certainly each
combatant received q black eye, which he took
good pains to have concealed by paint and
powder by the time it became necessary to show
himself in the evening. Mr.. Maretzek, in his
version of the affair, makes the very interesting
announcement that Mr.. Fisk during the re-
hearsal of lie Petit Faust, was in the habit of
parading through the lobbies with Madlle
Celine Montaland, the prima donna, greatly to
the annoyance of the leader of the orchestra,
and to the delay of the rehearsals. How Mr..
Fisk has managed to pay court to that lady,
seeing that he don't speak French and she don't
speak English am unable to say. presume
that the language of love, like that of music, is
universal, and is not dependent upon the use
of foreign idioms any more than it is upon that
of the vernacular.
The East River Bridge.
The first step has been taken, and we'll taken,
towards the building of the great East River
Bridge, of which SO much has been written and
so little known. The caisson is slowly settling
upon its submarine bed, having been foated
into position upon the Sd of last May. Not
single accident or mishap has yet marred an
enterprise in which, from its very nature,
accidents and mishaps must occasionally
be looked for. Four steam-engines are
kept constantly working in order
to supply the caisson with air and to
hoist the debris from the bed of the river. Two
gangs of workmen are constantly employed,
and, between them, perform sixteen hours of
labor in every twenty-four. Nearly five hun
dred men are employed, collectively, on the
caisson, the mason work and steam engines, and
the stoneyard of the bridge company. The
average amount of wages is two dollars per day,
though some of the men get only $1'75. The
caisson sinks about three inches per day, and
during the process encounters heavy boulders
which have to be blasted, and the tedious pro-
cess of blasting necesstates delays.
ALI BABA.