Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1876-08-17
4 WOman's Letter From Washington.

have not told you how much think
the House of Representatives changed.
This change extends to the very cham
Der itself. The pale blue faded carpet
on the floor is about as soiled as a sta
ble-fioor. walked through it, when it |
was empty. the other morning, and was |
astonished, not at the number of spit |
toons. for | had been accustomed to |
them. but at the fact that they had |
rarely been used; that tobacco-quids
stained the delicate tints of the carpet
and that piles of debris had been swept
into the coraers. A nastier place in
which respectable people congregate 1t
would be impossible to imagine. Sever
al Swedish gentlemen of distinction
visited Washington last week, and they
expressed establishment over nothing
but the free-and-easy fashion in which
the public servants executed their work
and the number of spittOons they did
not use. Even the outside porticOs and
steps are furnished with these detesta-
BILE receptables in vain, while the entire
surface of the steps of the great marble
wings are disgrace to the nation. The
snowy marble reeks with tobacco ex-
cresences from beginning to end and is
discolored from top to bottom. Such
sight is unknown in the Parliament
Houses of f ngland. and it is no won
der that it, fills the mind of refined for
eigners with wonder and the most I'M
mitigated disgust.
The gentlemanly
at. at least, two doOrs-the only ones
with which am acquainted. From
morning till night they sit wedged in
their easy chairs beside the door. over
immense spittoons reeking with tobac-
co juice, challenging the ladies and adj
hitting the unwashed. The "Virgin-
ia gentleman" who presides over the
spittoon at the first door refused me a
private seat i'm which. bv official cOurte
sv. had sat for ten years. with the pO-
| lite assurance that, ''1f had sat in it
so long had occupied it long enough;
that neither the card of the Speaker of
the House nor of the President of the
United States would induce him to al
low a person not of a members family
to enter it." With perfect written
right to enter, but no disposition to
pass words with boor, passed to the
next door,
Il say the Ladies' Gallery is over on
the other side of the House?" said the
man from the next spittoon.
This gallery, next to the Diplomatic
Gallery, is small one, facing the Re-
publican side of the House, that has
been especially devoted to ladies for
many years. Gentlemen rarely enter
ed it unaccomponied by ladies. Offici-
ally it is as much theirs as it ever was.
Yet found in it two men, extended at
/ full length on the cushioned seats. All
the best seats were occupied by men,
though one entire side of the House
Gallery is devoted to their especial use.
| Four men in the front and second seats
were discussing politics in such loud
tones that not word could be heard
from below. They made the entire
place SO uncomfortable that no lady could
long retain her self respect and remain.
But the galleries
have not degenerated more in appear
ance than has the House. Below, dirt,
disorder and a devil-may care abandon
everywhere prevails. A certain rude
force is certainly apparent, but the
| graces of life flourish elsewhere. Ii
seems strange to see the faces of Gar
! field, Hoar, Pierce, Seelye and a few
other old familiar ones, set amid these
rushing and roaring strangers. These
alcne recall the past of the House.
Many another here recalls the past; but
it is the past of bitterness, disunion,
battle-of arrogance and brute force.
I'VE have made an entering wedge, :"
said Georgian lady to me the other
day, land it cannot be long now before
again we shall be the prevailing power.
OF one thing you cannot accuse us, !"
she went on. ''Southerners never have
stolen the public funds to enrich them
selves, as Northern politicians have
done. | don't recollect of any Southern
man who ever took anything but John
Floyd"
Yes, but that was for has country
said another by her side, land what a
man takes to serve his country that is
patriotism, said the Southern woman,
proudly.
His country" that she talked about
in her sweet, infantile way, is the
country of every Southern member
of the House. His country, is the only
country in the South. The Northerner
though he may treat him kindly and in
every way admire him, is to the South
erner forever foreigner and a strang-
er. How to get the better of him and
by some means reign over him, is the
very kernel of his desire and purpose.
One has but to study .he aspect aud an
linus of this House of Representatives
to shrink, almost with a sense of horror,
from the thought of possible Democrat
ic and Southern ascendency in Congress
and in the Government.-N. Y. hide
pendent.