The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1876-02-24
The Female Lobbyist in Her Weeds of
Woe.

Within the Capitol, the countless
widows are encountered at every turn.
Here, as elsewhere in this country, the
widows half-mourning garb of woe is
safe passport almost anywhere. 1t is
the subdued and gracefully relieved
garb of woe, l suppose, that passes so
many of them to the Speakers room,
where they wait while their cards are
sent to members in the House-hall and
where the alcoves by the windows, half
hidden blythe rich curtains, afford de-
lightful hooks for a tete-a-tete. The
new Doorkeepers haven't yet fully mas
tered the sum of their duties, however,
and betimes keep the fair creatures
waiting at the entrance of the corridor
leading to the Speakers room. Pass
ing in a few days since, noticed,
among those they kept waiting, one of
the most charming of them. Arrayed
in an exquisite suit of the garb of grief
softened by time, she waited while the
Cerberus at the door was deliberately
making up his mind whether she should
be admitted or not. Plump as peach,
with lustrous black eyes of wondrous
depth, the sOftest olive complexion,
through which the warmest coloring
stole to her cheeks, with lips pouting
like rosebud, dashing retrOuSSe nose,
and the prettiest infantile dimpleS in
her face, she was one of the most superb
brunettes of the finer type /
ever stole a glance at. Nearly
a half-hour later l passed out the
same door, and there was the beauty
still waiting on Cerberus, and impatient
ly tapping the tesselated floor, the while,
with the tip of the daintiest kid gaiter.
Full an hour later, returned from my
lunch, and, passing from the outer en-
trance through the. open door of the
Speakers room, caught glimpse of
her in one of the window recesses, en-
gagged in animated conversation with a
well known Honorable. Curiosity
who isn't curious about a handsome
woman?-prompted me to find out who
this ravishing beauty was. Widow?
Oh! the deceitfulness of that garb of
grief subdued by time. Perhaps it were
better for the man who, full of high
hope, led her to the altar not many years
since, and who now, worse than wild
owed, seeks to drown in his cups the re-
membrance of his wife's infidelity, and
hides himself from those who knew him
perhaps for him it were better that
she were a widow. The claim in behalf
of which she was lobbying with the
member aforesaid was one in which she
had but a contingent fee. And all that
wealth of beauty of hers is, in blunt
phrase, but so much northumberland
and remarkably costly, it is true, in
which respect alone it differs from other
merchandise of that sort upon the mar
ket.
Sorrier yet are the spectacles one may
witness about the War-Claims Commit
tee room, where congregate the elder
females, like so many harpies, with
their pretty daughters, or somebody
else's pretty daughters taken into part
nership for the job as efficient auxili-
aries. One can see it any day; it seems
to be an established course of proceed
ure. do not wonder, on beholding it,
that Ex-Governor Eden, Chairman of
that Committee, who is a straightfor-
ward, honorable gentlemen, is, as l
hear, moved to disgust with his posi-
ton; and, though he doesn't swear, on
at least one occasion fired off what were
very like cuss words at one of the
widows accompanied by a pretty
daughter to reinforce her claim, and
abruptly bowed them Washington
Correspondence Chicago Tribune.