The Olivia Letters: Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper CorrespondentBriggs, Emily Edson
History
The Olivia Letters: Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper Correspondent
Briggs, Emily Edson
United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1933; Washington (D.C.) -- History
Come back to the Senators that cluster around the Speaker! All new
men except Allison, of Iowa, one of the most polite and genial men to
be found. Out of courtesy, alone, if nothing else, he listens to the
maiden speech of his peer irrespective of the fact of his politics.
The first man that heads the list is Wallace, of Pennsylvania,
whom the gods have blessed with a fine face but a finer form, and
yet it is evident that the Creator took no special pains with his
construction; for he has thickly sprinkled just such men in every
town of the State, cities of course excepted. Senator Wallace has
reached the Senate chamber in the noon of life. The sun is stationary
over his head. His face is not the kind that tells its own story.
The tempest of passion has swept over it, but left no signs of the
tornado in its track. If he has had deep thoughts they have ploughed
no furrows. In his battle with time so far he has won. As he has
never tried his wings, it is too soon to pronounce him a senatorial
eagle, but as he hails from Pennsylvania he may turn out an honest
bird of prey.
To the right of Senator Wallace may be seen B. K. Bruce, of
Mississippi, a handsome man, whom the Creator cast in bronze.
Darker by far than Douglass or Pinchback, but superior to either
so far as beauty is concerned. Below the colossal, but above the
average size, with a pure type of the Anglo-Saxon features, thin
quivering nostrils, and a mouth such as the colored women are known
to admire. His mahogany person is every day swathed in the finest
linen and broadcloth, ornaments, diamond shirt-studs. The day he was
elected the members of the legislature of Mississippi owned great
quantities of scrip, worth less than sixty cents on the dollar. But
on that auspicious day some speculator bought the scrip and paid
for it at par; but Senator Bruce had nothing to do with it, because
he is a very rich man, and only white men have been known to bribe
legislatures. Senator Bruce says he intends to stand by the civil
rights bill, and proves it by employing white men to wait on him,
and furthermore declares that he has no objection to Mrs. Bruce
associating with the wives of white Senators so long as their moral
characters are above reproach, and they have committed no more
serious crimes than Rev. Henry Ward Beecher.
And now we come to General Burnside, whose fine person bears
the brand of the military aristocracy, just as the blue-blooded
Englishman is sometimes stamped duke; just the right size for a
general, and with plenty of intellect to represent so small a State
as Rhode Island. His graceful whiskers are festooned on his dainty
cheeks and curl like the tendrils of the grape on the wall. As a man
among men he is the same as a banana among fruits. The frost of time
has sweetened and brought him to the highest state of perfection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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