The Washington critic., 1885-10-31
WASHINGTON, D. O., OCT 81, 1885
"NoT AT HOME"


ing public positions or their advocates. On
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during
that month, from 10 to If o'clock In the mur1.
ing he will receive such other persons as call
on strictly public business, aud on the same
days, at 1880 In the afternoon, he will meet
those who merely desire To pay their respects.
on all other days and times during that month
he Will receive only Cabinet officers and heads
of Departments.
The idea of n Democratic President
shutting himself up in this way and
leaving the great Democratic party on
the outside shivering in the cold, chilly
winds of November with fifteen hun
dred or more Presidential postoilices to
fill, to say nothing of land offices, In
dian agencies, district attorneyships,
revenue collcctorships. and other soft
places too nunerous to mention--the
idea, we say, strikes tic average poll
tician as an altogether prcposterous
proceeding, without warrant in law or
gospel, platform or precedent.
What under the sun is Democratic
President for, we are asked, if it is not
TO look out for the interests of the pco.
pie who spent their time and money to
elect him? What business, growl5
another, has he to surround himself
with a Chinese wall against his own
friends, as though 1t were they who
owed him something for conscntng to
run for President, instead of his owing
them good deal more for conscnting
to support him2 And how will he
justify himself before the country, adds
another metaphorical complainant, by
thus crawling into q hole and taking
the hole in with him? Is public Office
that sort of public trust that it must
be kept locked up in a safe of which
even Sergeant Dinsmore doesn't know
the combination
THE CRITIC is very sorry for such Of
its Democratic friends as feel thus
sorely disgruntled, but the President has
set his foot down, and nothing short
of another civil war can make him take
it up. Our advice is to wait patiently
upon the Executive pleasure. 1t is
unwise to despair. The President has
good deal to do between now and
the 1st Monday in December, which,
if left undone, would be quite as great
n misfortune to the country as the
failure to capture another postolllcc or
territorial governorship.
Besides we are notquie so sure but
what the new order will have the effect
of facilitating rather than retarding the
distribution of the spoils, Heretofore
it has been all talk and no cider, so to
speak. 1t may be that the President
being relieved of the one will now have
time to draw little more of the other.
MIR. O'REILLY AND THE LADIES
John Boyle O'Reilly of Boston, poet
and patriot, has been tackling the
question of Woman's Suffrage and
writing lecture about it. lie is at
times gushing; again he approaches the
subject gingerly, and still again-if we
may be allowed the somewhat ungra-
cious Xpression-takes his theme bold
ly by the horns.
lie thinks that woman suffrage "is
the dream of a spiritual realm unsuited
to coarse, material, masculine civil-
cation" Mr.. O'Reilly always was a
gallant gentleman, and like every true
IIishman has "a bit of blarney for the fair
sex. Here is more Of the same sort:
"Women are better than men," but
why should Mr.. O'Reilly insert a dash
after the word "men" and add this:
t''and weaker" He thinks they ought
TO rule but at the same time tells them
they cannot. Every woman knows
that when Mr.. OReilly says, as he
does, that she would make ideal laws
he tells the exact truth; and the major
ity of women know by experience that
when he says the men would break
those laws ruthle:sly he is still pinning
himself down to solid facts.
There is no young lady in this land
who has reached that interesting period
in her life of "being engaged" who
has not laid down the law to the young
man who is the party of the second
part that he must not play billiards or
smoke cigars. And there is no such
interesting young lady who has not de-
tected occasional chalk on the young
mans clothes and more or less the
odor of tobacco lurking in the left lap
pei of his coat where she is wont 10
rest her head. And what married lady
is there who has not fixed 10 o'clock
as the out at night limit for her hus-
band, but to find him taking an exten-
sion of time without unanimous con
sent to one o clock the next morning?
Mr.. O'Reilly next takes the bull by
the horns, and says that it is the men
who are intellectual Truly he Is
bold man. Where are Miss Susan b.
Anthony, Miss Phoebe Couzins and
the fascinating Mrs. Lille Devereux
Blake? We fear that the caramels
which he gives the ladies will not con.
stitute absolution for that statement;
neither for this utterance: "In our
present intellectual and spiritual con
dition woman suffrage is a humbug,
hypocrisy, q sentimental disease.
In the following, however, Mr..
O'Reilly retieyes little; "Women at
present, or at least those who want TO
vote, are as unfit to vote as men are. "
That's slap at American manhood.
The accomplished writer seems to be
getting himself into hot water all the
while, with only an occasional shower
bath of more pleasant temperature, the
procurative agent Of which is talfy.
The winding up of the letter is no