Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-12-07
LEADERS OF THE LOBBY.
SOME CT WASHINGTON'S FANfIII-
lar FACES DONE IN INK.
MiIliOnaires Seedy and Threadbare, but
Their Agents Flashy and WeIl-Kempt-
Ex-secretary BelkDap One of the Kings
Capt. Cowden and His Pet Scheme for
the Mississippi.

MilliOnaires Seedy and Threadbare, but
Their Agents Flashy and WeIl-Kempt-
Ex-secretary BeIknap One of the Kings
Capt. Cowden and His Pet Scheme for
the Mississippi.
Correspondence of the Aornin0 Mems.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 5.-The return Of
Congress brings back many familiar
faces in the lobby. Every season, when
the session begins, they come, and as it
ends they disappear. When it comes
again they come, the light Of hope 1e-
kIndled in the eyes, some with the same
old threadbare suits of last year and the
season before, others well dressed and
brisk. Your lobbyist who represents his
own claim is usually badly dressed. he
who represents somebody else with mil
lions is well dressed and we'll fed. Some
live at the best hotels in the city and ride
to the capitol in their carriages, others
live in garrets and hobble to the doors of
Congress on crutches or are carried there
on beds from which they have
not risen for months or years.
One woman is to be seen at
the capitol occasionally, brought there on
a bed, who has not been able to walk or
rise from her bed for seventeen years,
having lost her health in service as a
nurse in the army. There are women
asking pensions for services performed as
nurses and as spies and in cases where
they served in mems clothing performing
mems duties. These are persons, as a
rule, who lobby only in their own behalf.
The most prominent lobbyists are those
employed for others or who have great en-
terpr1ses on foot which they see fit to
come here and advocate before commit
tees and members. "The way of the
lobby has greatly changed in the past ten
or twenty years. said a veteran OBJ
lobbyists to be men who went about
bribiDg members to vote for the measures
they advocated. They do it differently
nowadays. OF course there are men here
who operate on the old-time basis. There is
an old-time lobbyist here-the creature of
HuntingdOn-whOI have no doubt, would
follow the old practices if he had Oppor-
tunity. The majority of them, however,
operate in a much more legitimate man.
ner. Take such men as Eads, and Capt.
Cowden and eX-Congressman Dunnell,
and dozens of others who might be named.
They operate in a respectable, and gen
orally speaking at least, in a proper way.
| suppose they would, perhaps, feel in
suited to be classed as lobbyist but that
is about the size of it. don't believe that
with this class of men any
money is paid to members. l don't
mean to say that money is not used by
them to influence members, but where it
is it is generally through some third
party. 1t is so easy to the shrewd man
to find some way of reaching the member
indirectly, that the habits of this class
have very much changed. The lobbyist
of to-day is not the lobbyist of 20 years
ago. Then he operated upon his member
direct, now he does so only in small mat
tiers. If he has an important matter in
hand he hunts up the members antece-
dents, sees who are his friends, and
quietly interests them in the matter.
Often the member is influenced to vote
for a measure without his own knowledge
or without suspecting that he has been
the subject of careful attention by the
lobbyist"