The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-04-13
GlDDY AND GRAY
The Old and Young Who Haunt
the Capitol.
NOTED LADIES IN THE CAPITOL
a Woman With Whip-F Female Lobbyists
Women With Claims and Hew
They Press Them.

WASHINGTON, April 10, 1S90-TSpecial
correspondence of THE HERALD. Within
the past few weeks the women of the capt.
tol have jumped into prominence. The
House of Representatives has taken away
the reception room which they have had
from time immemorial and they wander at
viii about the Hobbies. The experiment of
caging them behind the cold marble figures
Of Statuary Hall was unsuccessful The
grayhaired messenger who sends their
cards into the statesmen took cold and the
giddy girls were not satisfied with the
backs of the stone efigies of Ethan Ellen,
Lewis Cass and James A. Garfield. Many
of them now wander at viii from door to
door and fewer cards are sent to members
than ever before.
HOW WOMEN TROUBLE coNGKEssMEN.
The old ladies' reception room was during
the first three months of the season packed
with female lobbyists. Some of them had
claims on Congress and not few had
claims on the statesmen. Every day or so
an alteration would take place as to these
claims, and Dame Rumor says that some of
the language used in that reception room
would not bear publication. The room
itself is a sort OF hall filed with great pill
lars. Around its walls were sofas cush-
toned in red leather and every afternoon
these sofas would be filed with women of
all ages from the sweet rosy checked Con-
CHEESEMAN'S daughter TO the grayhaired
claimant OF seventy. The majority of the
characters were respectable but a few were
no nd II Of
fact that the committee of ways and means
demanded the room. When man calls on
d Congressman his card is taken in by one
OF the door keepers. When a woman
wishes to see a member Of the House her
card IS carried in by a page, and it first has
to go through this grayhaired messengers
hands. Many times Congressman do not
wish TO see the women who send in the
cards. In SUCH cases they tell the pages to
report that they are not in, and the result
is that the woman, if she be as sharp as the
ordinary female goes up to the gallery and
looks She sees the man she wants in his
seat and comes down and charges the boy
with lying. Most congressman pay their
board bills but should they be in arrears it
is not an uncommon thing for their land
ladies' TO come here and demand a settle
ment. Last session enc of the bachelors
wounded the affections of d rather lovely
young LADY OF Washington to whom he had
DCCU tldN1DE dbLBDIlOQS. Deil6VH she
said he had made rather sighting remarks
about her character, and she came to the
House door with cowhide under her seal
skin sacque and demanded to see him The
messenger seeing the fire in her eve told
her she would have TO send in her card.
This she refused to do and attempted to go
m. They held her back and the result was
that she showed her whip, and was warned
by the police of the capitol to leave.
FEMALE LOBBYISTS.
The female lobby of the capitol has al
ways been exaggerated. Some lobbying is
done here by women, but as for profes-
sional female lobbyists they are scarcer
than hen-teeth. You meet numerous
women with claims in the capitol corridors
and there are a couple of old ladies who
have been here for a generation awaiting
the settlement of a cotton claim. The
claim is probably just one but Congress
does not get at it and they will be in their
graves before it is settled. Their faces
were fresh when they came here. !. They
are wrinkled now, and there are crows
feet at their eyes. They bring their knit
ting with them and sit together in the gal
leries waiting and watching, and watching
and waiting session in and session out
Dr. Mary Walker has business of
one kind or another with Congressman
every year. She is a weazen, dried I'D lit
and she always wears the newest of gentle
mems clothes cut to fit and of the latest
style. She has black silk hat Oh her head
and her straight black. Indian like hair
Hell-oiled, hangs down from the brim of
this. / have seen her talking to Judge Hol-
man leaning upon dainty black cane while
she poured her tale of woe into his grand
fatherly ears. A new lobbyist this session
is red faced woman with blue eyes and
rakish straw hat. She seems to be crazy
and imacines that it IS her mission to catch
Silcott She addresses Congressman
wherever she meets them. and they usually
treat her well. A number of the women
lobbyists are working for their own cases.
Not a few widows in black are anxious to
see pension bills put through Many of
these women are well educated They are
ladies OF rehneft ent, are the wives of Off
GERS and their claims are just The Senate
reception room always has a number of
ladies on its comfortable sofas and not in
frequently half dozen Senators are seated
beside the fair ones discussing their cases.
This room IS one Of the beautiful rooms of
the capitol and the claimants do considera-
bic work in it. Most of the Senator's are
very KIND to women and the only thing
that angers them is the professional book
agent who calls them out with an engraved
card and then asks them to buy ten dollar
volume Of pictures from the Holy Lands
FEMALE CRANES
The capitol building is the resort of all
the female cranks of the country. and Won
may mo one or more here any day of all
classes, from Charlotte Smith who repre-
sents the Working Women's iJeague. down
TO the crazy woman who is known as the
Witch OF Endor. Charlotte Smith is a