River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1877-11-15
Washington Gossip.

Correspondence Chicago Times
"Where is Butlergn is tho first ques-
ton strangers ask in the house.
A young girl saw trying TO adjust her
opera glasses to bear upon the gentleman
from Massachusetts,. do you see himr
asked her escort looking admiringly at
the slender kidded hands and the charity
dangle. that hung loosely from her slim
uplifted wrists. II can only see the top
of his head, that looks like big frozen
pond, flat and slick. q good place TO
Skate Why, nearly all the heads are
bald. Why is it that professional
men lose their locks2n Turning her
glasses in surprise around the floor of the
house,-"The house of representatives
looks like big skating rink. The heads
not bald are white, like patches of Sow.
A frozen, dreary. wintry, national cram
ium." Then as she saw pair of brown
eyes looking up at her admiringly, from
one of the members chairs, she puts her
| pretty hand to her head, smoothed the
\ golden French waves over her forehead,
/ and frightened the invisible net that held
| them in place, bit her lips scarlet, and
began Irritation with the young man
at her side, while she showed her dimples
and animated face to the enraptured
member, and threw him OCCASIONALLY
glance down from the gallery from eyes
| blue as indigo. Butler for the time was
orgotten. The member sent up note
by the page. The lady blushed and sent
/ him her name. In this informal manner
acquaintance are often begun in Wash
ington, and of course end disastrously.
The member has a wife; know her we'll.
She is now in her distant home, keeping
| the hearth-fire bright, hearing her chill
dren's prayers, bidding them say, "God
bless dear papa, and keep him SAFE He
meantime is running with the boys,
FLIRTING BOLDLY WITH PRETTY Girls,
and making of the halls of congress a
meeting place for his fair frieds. All the
legislation he will accomplish you can
put in your eye.
The wife cannot GENE to Washington;
Home is her place; everything would run
down; the children must be taken care
of So, after she tucks the little ones in
bed, and gives them their goodnight
kiss for their absent father as we'll rs her
self, she sits down in the stiffness
and reads the Washington news, and
wonders how Washington looks; tries TO
picture the great capital building, the
house where, day after day, her husband
sits. She tries TO see how the gay Penn
sylvania avenue seems when all the crowds
are surging to and fro from the capital.
She reads that her husband, among other
distinguished guests, paid his respects to
the president. She pictures the presi-
dent in the white house, and wonders If
it is really an elegant home, or shabby as
some say; thinks with warm heart of the
sensible, plain Mrs. Hayes and the little
children, Fanny and Scott, and wishes
she could see them-could see all the
wonders of Washington. She could if it
were not for those babies. Then, fright
ened at her own thoughts, she goes to
look at them in their sleep, traces their
fathers features in each tiny face, and
thankfully falls to sleep beside them. In
some cases it is impossible for a wife TO
accompany her husband to Wa. hington.
I In such cases it is the least that the hus-
band can do to
HONOR BOTH HIMSELF ANp WIFE,
! 10y behaving decently. In four cases out
I of five the wife can as well be here as
at home. 1t is only the mans selfishness
and meanness that prevents her from
coming. She must economic, that he
may have more money for his designations.
| She must be nursery maid and cook, that
he may make the wine flow, and the hot
| glow come on fair foolish cheeks. She
must give up society, all pleasures of femr-
mime taste, that he may srlurge and not
! be bothered with those young ones" l
| have seen fiirtations too disgraceful to re-
peat. Not only are the entrances TO the
capitol thronged by brazen creatures who
have lost all womanly modisty, but there
are girls, scarcely past childhood, leaning
on senator's arms listening TO compli-
ments paid them by great men in the
corners of the corridors, eating with them
in the restaurant, and unsuspectingly and
innocently being the subject of winks be
tween congressman. They-high minded
! legislators-will leave their seats any
time, no matter how urgent the subject in
debate, to answer the card of an attractive
woman. The language used between
themselves, and in the hearing of the boys
and attaches of the building, is shameful.
4 little fellow, applying for a pageship
to man whose gray hairs and grandchil-
dren one might suppose would entitle him
to be considered pas the foolishness OF
youth, received the reply to go away until
the next day, as he couldn't attend TO him
then. He then told his clerk that he was
going to see a lady at her residence,
winking as he spoke. The two men
laughed heartily. "Tell any ladies who
may call that | will see them any time
after midnight"
Then, after another coarse laugh, the
great man left to make his call. The in
nocent little fellow, coming back disap-
pointed and fearful to his widowed mo-
Tiers room, asked her if - o'clock
wasn't very late for ladies to be out.
"Whyl" said the mother. because Mr..
- have a notion to give the
blackguard's whole name. but for the
sake OF the feelings of his good old wife
will not.-"told his clerk TO tell the
ladies who came he would see them after
midnight, the boy repeated talk which
he overheard, talk so low, that printers
ink, used to all kinds of badness, might
we'll blush, and set the type marks in red
instead of black, for very shame at
chronicling the language Of congress
man.