The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-20

dnloTe. We do not refer TO the long-exist1ng
corps of lady correspondents, whose old mo-
tions of grave propriety are voted obsolete by
this newer and more aspiring band. One Of
these last, we are told, went lntely to lady
whose story has become historic, and, repre-
senting herself as q long-lost cousin, was ad-
mitted to her confidence and dressing-room,
and the next day sent off to her New York
employer budget of Bonaparte family gos-
sip, and a full description OF the undraped
arms and shoulders of the too confding dame.
Here are the very aesthetics of impudence.
Jenkins can but admire and be silent.
But the point to which we wish to call at
tention is the introduction into our literature
of a new style by these ladies. It is all their
own. All subjects from Santo Domingo to
the hair of new Senator, weigh alike in the
alembic of their brains, and come back to us
marked feminine food forever. Politics,
finance, the fishery question, undergo the
same treatment at their fair hands; are mil
linerized, so to speak, are befrilled and fur
beloved with tags of school girl sentiment,
and dance down the stage upon us with as
amazing Stiffness and shippers as the three
conspirators in La Grdnde Duchesse. One
leading political lady writer suggests that
the difficult present question of annexa-
ton be cooked as national pie, and calls
plaintively on ''the coming woman to blot out
at once Mason and Dixon's line, Danish North,
South, East, and West, and convert the ma
ton into a conglomerate whole, huge gla-
cier, or q mountain bowlder." Are these pro-
phetic hints ? When women rule, are all Cor
dian knots, political and religious, over which
our statesmen have wrangled themselves grey,
to be shipped thus delcately by their pocket
scissors Are problems of moral and social
science to be draped in infantine sentiment,
and points in international policy illustrated
in Congress debates, not by gibes or the lie
given, but by apt quotations from Mrs. He
mans and l.. E. L.. 1t is dream of Already.
We rejoice in that sweet femininity which
already begins to soften and blush through
mans ruder work. If this is the dawn, what
may we not look for in the perfect day?
Meanwhile, as questions of state are not
yet submitted to the manipulation of these
lady writers, they have laid the soft violence
of their hands upon individuals. Their
touch confers swift apotheosis on each other;
a lady candidate for the Presidency becomes
'full- ll-armed Minerva leaping out of the head
of the democratic Jove;" one public woman
is the smyth of Una" whatever that may be,
and another the 'Apostle John of the Con-
tagious Disease Discussion" Now, this sweet
gush, like schoolgirls kissing, is very win
ming and attractive, when it is confined to
each other. But we would suggest that
rougher man must be acclimated by degrees
to drenching in rose-water before it is COM
Portable. A Congressman may be used to any
amount of petting and dedication from his
wife over his pipe at home. But when he is
proclaimed on the housetops to be ''babe-
like Jupiter" does he like it? Why should
the country be not only told that certain
retiring Senator "has saved millions of dol
lars to the Treasury" but invited to hear his
sobs over his wife, dead years ago? How
does Judge Welker relish being held up to
the people as "made of colors that will wash,
with the faith of many men and women
pinned to him?"
New and peculiar effects suddenly open
upon lis in Congress. While Mr.. ONeill, of
Philadelphia, ''slips back into calm waters"
Mr. Ralney has "fallen into a seat noiselessly
as a snowflake" Goldfish and cotton, Mas
sachusetts- and South Carolina, are repre-
sented by one man in an inky covering and
shadowy halo of romance" The jaws of an
other gentleman "close with the force of two
hundred years of bondage" A new colored
member will naturally be subjected to keen
criticism from men until, by his votes or
speeches, he has proved his rank both in cul-
ture and native strength; but the feminine eye
has swifter means of decision. "Ahandkerchief
of pineapple origin peeping from the pocket
of this Representative, photographs the ex-
quisite gentleman" That is settled. Regard
ing the mulattoes, she exclaims ecstaticalIy:-
''Black men? Mo- White men? No! But
tinted a shade the Eternal only knows how to
mix" But, "Alas! alas. what of all this?"
she walls; civilian B. Allison is no longer in
his seat! Never again will the large brown
eyes wander from floor to ceiling, seeking
some soft receptive spot whereon to languish
and to die" his is effective treatment. The
only question is, when the Salic law is re-
versed, is it to become universal? Is there no
way by which handsome Congressman can
secure title-deed to himself before he is torn
limb from limb and held up to the gaze of the
admiring public?