Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1874-01-15

Chastity i'm Washington.


Influences of immediate surroundlngs,
people are about the sane the world
over But / am prepared to maintain
that there are more influences about
the National Capitol to make people
had. and fewer influences to make bad
people good, than is the case anywhere
else on the continent, if not in the
world. When / use the word bad,
don't meaniin all cases depraved and IN
but few cases criminal, but rather TO
imply asort of general moral laxity,
chronic recklessness, and an all-perVa-
ding spirit of cussedness that L have
never encountered anywhere else.
This state of things Is due to q vari-
ETY. of causes, which may be enumera-
ted briefly:
First, there is no healthy industry in
Washington, and no business except
that which directly or indirectly per-
tains to or depends upon the Govern
ment. Everything here goes by favor,
all gain partakes more or less OF the ma
ture of grab, and all profit Is, in one
, -waysor another, perquisite. The most
subtle courier wins the biggest fayors,
the adroitest intriguer gets the richest
grabs, the most artful plotter gains the
latest perquisites. Thus the highest
premium is set on the least manly quail
ities, and the best and noblest nature is
at the most paltry discount.
Secondly, the habit of being insin-
cere, which in politics becomes dema-
goguery, in religion hypocrisy, in trade
dishonesty, in state-craft diplomacy
and i'm society filtration, reaches its
acme in Washington. Everything is
de conUe,aance, nothing is for the sake
of truth. The loves of Washington are
based upon Eligibility and the hates
upon expediency. A sudden conflict
of gross material interests turns your
bosom friend of yesterday into your
sullen and dangerous enemy Of to-day.
The Congressman who was last session
betrothed to the rel gning belle is dis
carded this session, because he did not
get votes enough to rs-elect him, while
his bride that was-tI-be may now be
lavishing her smilee Ipon his successor.
The banker, who WIS at the head OF
the lobby and the 'cstch' of last season,
whose reputed wealth had won the
heart (?) and promise of the hand OF a
Cabinet officers protege, must now sub
NIT to an indefinite postponement OF
the nuptials because there was panic
last fall, and miIlionaires are not as
plenty as they were.
These two causes operate no further
than to undermine and destroy the
higher qualities OF people to blur and
blot the more exalted types of virtue.
The third cause of social demoraliza-
: ton in Washington is one that re-
quires greater tsct and delicacy in its
discussion-the more especially as this
letter is addressed to the lady readers
0f pnnrrhlinon Aud hafnrn nnfar-
= ing upon discussion of this branch of
our subject, / must be permitted to
rise to personal explanation, after the
manner of my friend Matt Carpenter.
If the subjoined comments should be
too intimate and suggest too practical
knowledge of the subject matter on the
part of the writer, the undersigned begs
leave to say, for instance, by way of il
: lustration, that IL there were no dis
secting rooms, no Subjects and no
midnight raids upon graveyards, there
would be no science of medicine nor
art of surgery. Medicine and surgery
are philanthropies, but the means
? whereby they are made Of practical
value are in many instances clandes-
tine AMI in some instances criminal.
The force of the illustration is obvious.
Thus reach the assertion that the
average of chastity in Washington is
terribly low. This is a hard thing to
b say, but it is just, and it is truth,
without the utterance of which, and
without explanation OF the causes of
which, no disquisition upon the state
of society would be complete. l pre-
sumo the Rib epithet of slanderer will
be the reward / shall get tor the above
sweeping statement from the lips of
whatsoever WashingtOnian may chance
to read these few lines. And venture
to say that the epithet will be applied
lOudest by those in whose inner con-
sciousness the knowledge of the truth
fulness of the statement is most vivid
and most personal.
There are two reasons for this state
of facts. One rests in the fact that there
is here a greater proportion of men
who are both inclined toward and quail
ified for the role of libertine than there
Is anywhere else. The other is that
there is here greater proportion of
women who are candidates for tempta-
tion and whole in wait to be betrayed
than there is anywhere else. Seven
out of ten men in Washington have
influence in some direction or other
that is valuable. And at least five out
of every ten women seek the benefit
of this Influence either for themselves
or for their friends. The rest of the
story tells itself. do not mean to say
that in all cases when a woman be-
comes a lobbyist she is made thereby a
courtesan; far from it. But / believe
such result is reached sooner or later
in the vast majority of cases.
Then there is another circumstance:
A large number of the employees of
the Government are young men with
young wives and limited salaries.
There is rage here, greater than any,
where else, to keep rp appearances
Those who set the fashions and mould
the styles here pay for the precedence
they maintain roundly. 1t takes a
long purse to meet the bills of Wash
ington establishment that reaches any
social rank, and social rank has become
an important condition, and, under the
ruling influences, is fast becoming a
sine qua non of political preferment.
Thus the beautiful young wife of the
poor and struggling department clerk
is beSet with two-fOld ambition to
keep up appearances and to maintain
Der social position. To accomplish this
there must be certain expenses incur
red in beautifying the exterior, which
become extravagauces when measured
against the legitimate income of the
household. One incentive to the young
wife's ambition is the natural desire of
womankind to dress as VI ell and be So
ciaily rated as high as anybody. The
other incentive t. her ambition is that
upon her own social success is likely to
be dependent, in great degree, her
husbands political DrRfsrttlent IDiti-
mately she could not afford to occupy
the station she docs. Her wardrobe for
a, single season might inventory her
husbands salary for two years. There
Is no defalcation in the husbands ac-
counts; no rich unele has recently died,
having remembered her in his will.
Ruf tine vftilan xrifa L. IN, aftrantin,, -