The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1875-02-23
THE CHIEF OF THE LOBBY.

MIMI ONCE
HIS PHOTOGRAPH AS GIVEN BY GEORGE AL
FRED TOWNS END-soME FAMILIAR FEA-
TUREs IN THIS srRIKINGLY ACCURATE WORK
OF ART.
Mr. G. A. Townsend, "LaerLes," writes to
the New York Graphic very entertaining
sketch of a man of some notoriety at the
present time in connection with the Pacific
Mail investigation: They call Sam Ward
the king OF the lobby. He is merely the
cock of the lobby. To dine somebody and
talk about his wines. and cabbage few hun
dreds or thousands, is the extent of Sam
ification of some smattering culture; and
whoever heard of a successful lobbyist
with any such boyishness? Your Wikoffs
and Durants, who strike the eagle high
in air, are mere pretenders to literature
and science they use incidentally. He who
has tasted of the Pierian Spring always con-
ceals a blush OF sensibility for the rest of
his life, aud from Ssni Ward to Lord Bacon
the litterateurs have been poor lobbyists
always found out at last. What is worst,
they are prosecuted through all fame for it.
We speak of Raleigh as the mould
of chfvalry, whereas he was an Emma
Mine and Credit Mobilier man, sub
sisting between piracy and pyrotech
MICS, and singing so Unexpectedly
because, as George Calvert might have re-
marked to him: "You know how it is your
selt." II you take up Taylor's (EpiscopaD
"History of Ireland you will see how Sir
Walter behaves TO the poor kerHs and gen.
tlemen OF that inoffensive kingdom. Still
he strides in velvets down the grooves of
time, while poor Bacon, for a little "knock
ing down. in Office, is smirched even by the
Herald's young man, who mildly asks. Ibid
he write Shakspeare?" What an imputa-
toni Bacon-and green's! The king of the
lobby is he who hires for the most in it, and
Is a large merchant in the compatibility
of congressman and officials. Sir
a kind OF WellbOrn putting it up on Giles;
and Sam Ward is merely Greedy, the justice
and gourmand. Bill King, affirm. without
fear of contradiction, has made me - money
than any go-between in Washington. He has
made very nearly one million dollars. a
keen, comprehensive business man, Injured
! to fatigue, tried to necessity, taking chances
with diminishing nerve-for the lobby is the
hall of conscience, where all that walk so
| boldly are only Disgusting cowardice-Bin
| King moved on the upper level of life. He
threw himself and his money to elect other
men, and, if he had nothing, would
BORROW FOR CANDIDATE
rather than not create an obligation in bis
breast. Equally formidable and persever-
ing as an enemy, he stamped out Ignatius
Donnelly to raise up Billy Window, and in
the Fort Smelling steal, the Northern Pacific
Credit Mobilier, the Sioux massacre claims,
the st. Anthony Improvement, and the
Pacific Mail, he was wholesale merchant
driving on the box. "You can't put down
King" said the commissioner of pensions to
me a month ago. up in our state he is
recognized as tireless business man, ready
with his money, going it strong. He
puts mp more money in politics than
any ten men in the state. He always
has the support of our whole delegation"
To look at Bill King he is a fattish, soft,
| ill-favored man, with cast in his blush
| gray eyes, a nervous look Of alertness, and a
rather sensual, indulgent, coarse type OF
features. He is, say, forty-eight to fifty-two
years old, and raised in the interior OF New
York, where he was bankrupt sixteen
years ago. Striving to be resuscitated as an
Insurance agent, his cheek was hardened,
his plausibi)ity kept in practice, and he
| learned hard lessons of life and riches.
Finally he removed to Minneapolis, young
city at the falls OF the Mississippi, and
started a newspaper. His wife boarded the
compositors and willingly shaved for him.
The newspaper, in course Of time, made him
postmaster of tia House of Repre-
sentatives-an humble Office, but in the
minds of rnen supremacy great, the post
office is mightier than the Senate. For
years looked at Bill King a mere polit-
ical mental on $500 year. In 1869 he
came to my house on Capitol Hill and
asked me If Lmeant to oppose his election
he said he had so understood. L told him
that did not even know what state he rep
resented, and If he had been bad egg,
should not have said so after the pains he
had taken. 1t always occurred to me thai
he was poor, semi deserving person until
visited st. Paul in 1872. Then i found
letter anticipating my arrival asking me tc
drive over to Minneapolis, six miles, and bt
/ |, so< Oh ha ar In In inn
IFoUND BILL KING
more widely known person than either o.
the Minnesota senators. Governor Ramsey
drove me over the prairies to his city. Their,
his little newspaper had become a large
daily, edited by young man named Grow
Foot, whose indiscretion was the bane oil
Bill Kings existence. He always put bis
crow foot into it whenever he opened his
mouth.
"That fellow" says Bill, ''is an heredi.
tary niEcompoop. He's antagonizing man
kind on me, and you know my exposed
frontier, Laortes?"
"What is il, Billy"
"Why," said he, "I'm developing the
West-a. its own expense. Pm negotiating
great enterprises-for a consideration. Its
my interest not to offend. except in the way
of desperation. That fellow thinks he's a
} poet and a thinker, and he'll bring my bald
hairs with sorrow 10 the grave. But come!
1 want to show you my stock"
From the suburbs of Minneapolis far Out
into the country, the land ranging in value
from $500 to $1,000 per acre, there was prop
erty OF Bill Kings always in sight. He
owned bluffs and hollows, prairies and lakes
building lots, race course, stone quarries
and cataracts. His stock farm would make
Belmont or a Sanford praise with envy.
: Bulls worth SIC, 0O0-every calf from whose
royal loins was worth a hundred-bent
down their wrinlSled heads, the burrows
showing the exasperaticu of such procrea-