Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-01-13
THE POWER OF THE LOBBY
INFLUENCE OF THE THIRD
HOUSE NOW AND FORMERLY.
THc Methods Of Uncle sam Ward and
Zoe stewart-rOm Scott, Huntington
and Jay Gould ~ The Yarns About
Beautiful Female Lobbyists.

Tho Methods of Uncle sam Ward and
Zoe stewart-Tom Scott, Huntington
and Jay Gould - The Yarns About
Beautiful Female Lobbyists.
Ne,o YORK. 7saea-
The business Of lobbying }as greatly
changed since 1872 and Is -. Before that
date men Of social and Icli; cal influence
were employed 10 looked after business
DendiUg i'm Congress. JFcle sam Ward
was proud of this title. Rex Nestibuli.
But tn reality SAM was only a genial. en-
iOyabrc old man who entertained heud-
sOmeIv IN q variety of ways. He studied
the ruculiagities OF fae leading men in
both Houses. and if they had any 'yhims
and notions that could be legitimately
gratificd the old mar H. de it his business
10 crafty them. Some We're fonS OF the
table and Uncle sam fed then. Occa-
si0ually few we're literary in their
tastes and here the many-sided old man
was strongest. # they loved rare books
he furnished them through his friend
Bernard Quar- -ch, Of London. He could
tickle the fancy and please me vanity Of
The p0cticalF 18th neat-turneL compliment
tary verses. The lovers Of fine liquors
1hc wine biF Ders, the andy drinkers,
and whisky guZZIeTs-SaR could cater TO
after a fR hiOn that would bring him
right into their very heart of hearts.
that he LETT 10 the common herd. He ap-
pealed not TO ayarice or cupidlty, but 10
the braiys or stomach. He was an ac-
completed gentleman. experienced IN the
practical affairs Of ife. He had been
brought up to trade IN his youth, had
Travelled and wandered everywhere in
mature life. The best story Uncle Sam
ever told me about himself was how he
learned ia three weeks 10 speak an Indian
dialect. He was the owner of ferry in
California, as ! gecOllect, running il him
self He made bet with miner that he
could learn any Indian speech ia three
weeks. An old Indian chief living near
Sans cabin knew all the dialects of the
California tribes. OF course he was
fond Of tire-water. Sam supplied MIN In
limited quantities., or Just sufficient 70
warm mp his old heart and loose his
tongue, and then piled him with cues
lions. lit was Just question of memory
and AeXibIlity of tongue" said ncle
sam. In less than three weeks / could
have made myself understood by any
Indian in California"
THE Oh MANS STRONG POM
was his intimacy with leading Senators.
There were some of them who loved royal
good brandy, and the very best that could
be found in the world Uncle sam would
provide. lie was not lavish with it. He
kutFf LDD a. utu 10 WASTE euCu i4 CClOLo
stuff even on the two brandy epicUres OF
the Senate. He reserved the choicest ar
ticle TO warm their Obdurate hearts when
he wanted particularly To get their atten-
ton. He always studied carefully the
subject he wanted to interest them in,
and made his points in a terse, epigram-
matte way that would interest and
amuse them. On one occasion a friend of
mine was fortunate enough tc be pre-
scented with a couple Of bottles of old
honOngahela whisky bottled in 1910. The
legend was that the rye from which il
was made grew on the hIllsides Of West
ern Pennsylvania in 1920. lie gave I'm
Gle sam "a taste Of one bottle. and after
shipping the oily liquid and sm8cking his
lips "a few times he made my FREUD tell
him where and how he got the stuff. Moth
ing would do but he must have the un-
opened bottle. A few weeks afterward
my friend received two cases Of choice
old Madeira, with note from Uncle sam,
saying: That bottle OF old rye got me the
two votes needed in the Senate"
JOE STEWART, WHO WAS LONG THE BIG
BOSS
Of the lobby, was very different sort of
a fellow. He was physical giant-mOre
than feet in height, measuring 81 inch
es about the chest, and weighing fully 260
pounds. He was the most conspicuous
man on the streets, in hotel Hobbies, or
about the corridors of the capitol. He
was "a strong man Intellectually, but I'M
cultured and unaccOmplished in any way.
He was a bold and reckless gambler in
gold and stocks in the exciting days Of
1851. One lay he would be rich and
the next week without a dollar. He
made $4,000 by one operation in gold,
and bought carriage and pair for one Of
nls friends, paying $1,000 for the outfit.
'NHs. .H-a IA.
this TREND to put up as margin on anOth-
er venture. His greatest operation was
the management of the Old PaWnee and
LeavenwOrth Railroad bill-the precursor
and pioneer OF the Mon Pacific The
projectors of the latter had to deal with
Joe, and the deal was to exchange their
government guaranteed bonds for the old
issues of Pawnee and Leavenworth 1t
was these securities that brought the I'm
ion Pacitic's subsidy through Congress,
and Zoe made most of the bargains.
There was very little diplomacy about
Stewart. He Was what might be aptly
termed the Sullivan Of lobbyists.
He was not bad lawyer. He had the
faculty of what, in slang parlance. is
termed catching on to the weak points
in a case. He was in the habit of drop
ping into the Supreme Court room and
listening to arguments. On more than
100000
which yielded him something handsome.
1t was in this way that he got the idea
that the heirs of Jumel living in France
were entitled to the property the old
Frenchman had LETT in New York. He
took in with him the Marquis de Cham
brun, who went to France, hunted up the
heirs, and made contracts with them. A
queer story could be told about this litlga-
ton, which has recently been settled.
SAID THE BUSINESS
OF the lobby had greatly changed since
she seventies. So it has. | remember
well during the Credit MObilier investi-
cation, when it was popularity believed
that all the crooked Congressman were
scared to death, and that a measure the
least bit suspicious couldn't get vote III
the House, sam Randall said to me one
day, triumphantly, after Van Trump, of
Ohio, had made q raid on a ceT,ain
scheme, "All we have to do is to wave the
black Sag at them and they take to their
heels" And yet at this very time the
Pacific Aail subsidy was quietly going
through. John W. FOrney was d;ckering
with Dick Irwin, not exactly for Raudalrs
vote, but to keep him from voting at all.
Fortunately for Randalf5 fame he did not
vote and against the bill. But FOrney got
$4,000 Tor his supposed services. There
was. however. a very small fraction Of
the $4,000 spent by Irwin to get the
subsidy. PAID To men on the outside. For
ney and Dom Piatt, Lyman Gilmore
and all the outside strikers, cot less than
100000. At least $j0N,0o0 went directly
60 C0ngressmen-tO representative and
Senators. 1t was, moreover, disbuTsed
by Congressman. Irwin knew nothing
more than he told. He made his bargains
and paid tae money. but where il went he
never knew. OF course he had his suspi-
ciOns. He knew what votes were changed.
The committee that investigated the
scandal got as far as the Third National
Bank. where the checks were cashed, but
there the scent grew cold. The cashier
could not remember who the men were.
who identified Bill King. There were
two members of the House. and King was
not much more than the stakeholder. Of
course he got some Of the money, but only
faiT commission.
ALL OF HUNTINGTON'S OPERATIONS
in Washington were conducted by him
self. The Central Pacific Railroad has
always retained at an annual salary an
agent at Washington. 1t paid Dick
FranchOt, eX-member of Cons ress from
New York State, a salary Of $4,000 a
year. He was a bright. capable, and
shrewd man, but his business was sim
ply to find out and report 10 Huntington.
He could attend to routine matters in the