New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-02-20

be the unclean rocks and ravens of the lobby
Where the rayenOus and vulturOus attorney
host Cone Shutting carbon afar in the
pureus Of other lObbies, and cawing before
distant Courts Of Claims and new tribunals OF
adjudication. Where would be the pilgrim
host 2 The legiOns of pretty but unauthentic
womenP The myriad boresR The receding
files Of disappointed Oflice-seekers, curslng
their luck and their Congressman Conc
Vanished into the air like shadows, leaving
behind them silence and vacant edliices, ruined
landlords, and many houses to let.
This is contingency not to be contem-
plated with equanimily. We don't want the
glorious traditions and memories of the Capitol
to SGT in such Il starcss night as this, even
though tho turbulent and Oyerbearing West
force the timid and yielding East to render
over to her the seal Of empire and authority.
In view of this possible event, we suggest
that Washington be given TO the women.
They want to legislate and govern there are
the tools. Let them have them. Let them
elect Congress of women, with a female
President, fill the departments with hounces
and fuTbelOws, the Cabinet with turbans and
false fronts, and try their hand at the business
of ruling 1t would be neither necessary nor
desirable that these procedures should issue
in results. They would merely have an
arena in which they could, with dignity and
with imposing forms and ceremOnals, play at
government. They could make long speeches,
and bring in resolutions, and move the
previous question, and lay obnoxious persons
or papers on the table, without inter
fering with the serious business of the
country, and doubtless to their own
great relief and comfort. They could hold
their lcvces and their Cabinet sessions,
inteIspersing the discourse of society and busl-
ness with discussions az to the pattern Of pap
boats, and the relative becOmingness OF point
lace and Vaenciennes. Concerning the elgi-
bility of men to admission even within the
walls of the city the subject should be left
wholly to the ladies themselves. Under some
Oriental precautions, it is possible that they
might be admitted without imperilng the STA
bility of the Government. There are, indeed,
some understood TO be OF the ruder gender who
could not well be excluded. The vigorous and
clever Butler has recently attested his claim
to be received by the feminine Sanhedrim
with eminent honors and distinctions. They
do not often get so burly and efficient re-
cruit, and they will doubtless keep his ser
vices in grateful memory. 1t is possible that
George Francis Trains brilliant and signal
services in behalf of The ReU0tutioR may en-
title him to be occasionally admitted to the coun-
ellis of the fair and the combinations OF the
lovely. There are others of equal merit-but we
need not name them. We merely interpOse
word of caution to the ladies to keep the reins
in their own hands, and not let their male parti-
sans persuade them into the surrender of any
portion of their authority. Vigilance is the
price of lberty-and distrust of men is the
only safeguard of the female politician. Half
Il dozen plausible and ambitious masculine in
trguers would be to their government what
the wooden horse was to Troy. If men are to
be admitted at all, it should be under such
grave and vigilant precautions as attend their
occasional admission to nunDcries, and they
should be turned out as promptly as possible.
In no other way can peace he preserved among
the pettIcoats, and the great experiment which
we have outlined carried to a successful issue.