The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-12
WASHINGTON LIFE.
WOMEN WHO MAKE MIsOGYNIsTs
OF THE CONGRESsMEN.

They Want Offices for Themselves or
Their Relations, and They Are Co
ing to Wait Until They Get Them.
Vain Efforts of congressman to
Escape Them-The Regulars
Washington Letter in New York Sun.
If a man wishes to retain his high IDEAL
OF woman and to avoid becoming a con-
firmed misogynst, he should refrain from
entering Congress. No bachelor could be
expected to marry after one term in Con-
gress and any married man of a suf-
GENTLY susceptible nature to endanger his
wife's peace of mind viii have his wan
dering proclivities cured after he has rep
resented his constituency for a few
months. Wives are frequently heard to
deplore the entrance of their husbands
into public life because of the temptations,
the snares and pitfalls by which they will
be encompassed. That is unnecessary.
Any wise wife who wishes her husband
to think that she is the one desirable wo-
man in the world and that the rest of
her sex are pretty nearly all unbearable
pests, will urge her husband to run for
Congress, and do everything in her power
to get him elected. He may not want
second term, but she viii never again
have cause for Jealousy, for he will ever
after turn pale at the frou-frou of a silken
skirt, and cling to his wife with an ardor
equalling that of ante-nuptlal days.
The man who seeks an appointment
through his congressman is often a ter
Tor, but the woman who seeks an office
for herself, her husband, her brother, her
nephew or niece, second or third cousin is
a daily recurring horror as impossible to
shake off as the Ola Man Of the Sea, a un-
tamabie as a hurricane, as irritating as a
Jersey mosquito, and as persistent as a
small boy with a question to ask. The
women who haunt congressman never con-
slider the fact whe her he is their particu-
lar representative; they viii tackle any
congressman from anywhere and labor
with him until, in desperation he prom
ises to say or do something in their be-
half which both he and they know Is per-
fectly absurd, but which only serves TO
give the haunting woman another excuse
for following him up with even greater in
sistence.
In that part of Statuary Hall in The
capitol set aside for women visitors of
congressman, tableauX are enacted daily
that bring tears OF sympathy TO the eyes
of those who know what the poor victim
lied representatives are undergoing The
NOlHtb WHO COtlC lileIC Qdy aItCE DAY are
rarely fitted in any way for the offices
| they are seeking, and their claims for rel
atives or friends are not entitled to much
weight in any quarter The women who
are entitled to something and get il do
so through other channels; they do not
| spend their time sitting around the recep-
| ton rooms seeking whom they may de-
| YOUR. After several visits to this recep-
ton room you get to know a number of
| the regulars, as the pages call them, by
| sight They are of all kinds and condi-
| tons as to size. coloring and dress but the
! same grim determination to let no guilty
| congressman escape glitters in the eve of
! all, the same glibness of tongue. the same
| imperviousness to snubs, are noticeable in
| all the sitters. After their cards go in
| il is of little use for a congressman to send
| word tht he Is engaged or out. They know
| all those tricks well, and calmly wait
around until they catch him going in or
out, very often with friends whom he
does not wish to have detained, while the
| woman holds his coat-sleeve in a vise-lilIe
| grip. Short of leaving his coat in her pos
| session and going or his way in his shirt
| sleeves, which is said to be the way one
| worn out Western representative served a
| too persistent woman. he can do nothing
| but listen. II is on the whole. easier and
| better to come out and see them in the
| reception room and get it over for one
day; and so, hour after hour, The chairs
| and couches are occupied by depressed
wretched looking congressman under a
! sharp fire of reasons. petitions, persua-
| sons and reproaches. Argument is use
| less, so the congressman listens in silence,
| and that silence is ingeniously construed
| into assent TO all that is said and the I'M
| fortunate man finds himself entering on
| those entangling alliances against which
he has been warned by the Father of his
| Country
| A woman from certain state may be
| told by her representative that he would
| do something for her, but the quota of his
| state is filled-if she can be credited to
some other state and get support from
| there he can then help her. He thinks
| this will settle the matter, but he little
| knows the chronic woman ofticer-seeker.
| She starts in on congressman from some
! state that is entitled TO a little more pat
| rouage, and they begin to hate their bro
| Their representative who fastened her in
| them. The older the woman generally the
| more persistent she Is. There is one daily
| visitor at the capitol who Is past 90 years,
| and very remindful Of a crow both as to
| the deepnoes Of her mourning garb and
| the unmusical quality of her voice. 1t