Year: 1876

sessions Of Congress for a dozen years
past She is one Of the ablest and most
reliable Of the Washington correspond
ents She has not spared Republicans,
or the Republican party, when guilty of
wrong. But in letter to the n. Y. In
dependent n short time ago, she gives
her opinion Of the rebel Democracy, as
follows:


/ have not yet told you how much
think the House of Representatives
changed. This change extends to the
very chamber itself The pale blue faded
carpet on the floor is about as soiled as
stable floor. walked through it, when
/ it was empty, the other morning, and
was astonished, not at the number Of the
/ spittoons for / had become accustomed
to them, but at the fact that they had
rarely been used; that tobacco guilds
stained the delicate tints of the carpet
and that piles of debris had been swept
into the corners. A. nastier place in
which respectable people congregate it
would be difficult 10 imagine. Several
Swedish gentlemen Of distinction visited
Washington last week, and they express
ed astonishment over nothing except the





lie servants executed their work and the
great number of spittoons which they
did not use. Even the outside porticos-
and steps are furnished with these de-
testable receptacles in vain, while the
entire surface of the steps of the great
marble wings are a disgrace to the ma
tion. The snowy marble reeks with to-
bacco excresences from beginning to end
and is discolored from top to bottom
Such a sight is unknown in the Parlia-
ment Houses of England, and it is no
wonder that it fills the mind of the refin-
ed foreigner with wonder and disgust.
The steps, porticos, and doors of the
American Capitol are beautiful in the
extreme. That a people could execute
and possess them, and then so deface
and disgrace them, is indeed marvel
and shame. If Congress with few
gentlemanly exceptions) were not such
filthy set, there would long ago have
been law passed prohibiting this defile-
ment of its pure, exquisite marbles. As
it is, do not see how any refined Amer
lean can ever enter or leave the Capitol
without sense Of shame. This condi-
tion Of things always existed in some de-
gree; but it is absolutely true that year
by year it becomes worse. / do not re-
member ever before yesterday seeing
members on the floor of the House smok-
ing A smoking room is provided for
them, into which they used to have the
grace to retreat; but yesterday / saw
four members smoking in one part of the
House, their tobacco smoke ascending
through the sitting air, gracefully curl
ing up into the faces of the ladies sitting
in their gallery. / saw man in his seat,
with feet in the air, in a dTessing-gown,
tied round the waist. Surely, the Swed-
ish gentlemen could not have seen any
thing more free and easy than this in the
most private chamber. The gentleman
ly doorkeepers of old are replaced by
Doors 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 tobacco
juice, challenging ladies and admitting
the unwashed. The Virginia gentle
man" who presides over the spittoon at
the first door refused me private seat
in which, by official courtesy, l had sat
for ten years, with the polite assurance
that "if had sat in it so long | had oc-
cupied 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 allow a person not of a
members family to enter it" With a
perfect written right to enter, but no dis
position to pass words with a boor, /
passed to the next door.


81 say the Ladies Gallery is over on
the other side of the House !" cried the
man from the next spittoon.


This gallery, next to the Diplomatic
Gallery, is a small one, facing the Repub-
Iican side of the House, that has been
especially devoted to ladies for many
years. Gentlemen rarely entered it un-
accompanied by ladies. Officially it is as
much theirs to-day 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 dis
cussing politics in such loud tones that
not a word could be heard from below.
| They made the entire place so unendur-
able no lady could long retain her self
respect and remain. / have a great aver
sion to the other side of the House and
never sat there and, as / am driven
from my longtime haunts by the sweet
manners of Virginia gentlemen" where
| may be able to ensconse myself here
after, for your benefit, my Independent,
fate only knows ] have heard myself
called "a brave woman" but | never yet
was brave enough to deliberately face a
boor above a spittoon.


But the galleries have not degenerated
more in appearance than has the House


Below, dirt, disorder, and a devilmay
care abandon everywhere prevails. A
certain rude force is certainly apparent


but the graces OF life flourish elsewhere
] IL ooarns stranga tO soc tho faces of Gar


field, HoaT, Pierce, Seelye and few 9th


er old familiar ones set amid these rush


ing and roaring strangers. These alone


recall the past of the House. Many an
other here recalls the past; but it is thu