The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-02-05
THE FEMALE LOBBYIST.
Scranton Woman Who Wants $4,000
for Some Statuary-Mrs. Starkey Inter
viewed by Ia pittsburg Rennrter

From Pittsburg Commercial Gazette.
Harrisburg, Pa, Feb. AIRS. George
Starkey is the one lone female lobbyist
at this session. She wants $25, 900 ap-
propriated for group of statuary, en-
titled Strength and Beauty" This
gray-haired, blue-eyed, sweet-faced
woman has been here before on the
same mission. Once she was success
full in the senate, but she blames Gov.
Pattison for defeating her cause in the
house. Mrs. Starkey thinks her pros
poets for getting the statuary in the
capitol buildings are good.
Mrs. Starkey is the wife Of sculptor
of Scranton, who died few years ago.
The last work he did was this piece,
Strength and Beauty" On his death
bed he asked his wife to make it the
aim OF her life to have the statuary
| placed in the capitol buildings in Itali-
an marble.
Mrs. Starkey came here with the
opening of the session and she is pre-
pared to camp in the town until ad-
journment, if it is necessary. Each
day she makes her rounds Of the house
and senate. She knows most of the
members of the legisla ture and they
are acquainted with her. For some
reason the representatives and senators
| do not like to devote much time TO her
pet measure and try to avoid her as
much as possible.
The writer found Mrs. Starkey at her
quarters today and she was eager TO
talk of her plan to add to the art collec-
| ton of the state. The woman started
| her story by telling of her husband s
| death, and the tears trickled down her
cheeks. She wiped away the briny flow
and plunged into a description of
Strength and Beauty"
Mrs. Starkey produced several photo
graphs of the models. Both Strength"
and Beauty" We're a little short on
clothes, but the group would be very
pretty in Italian marble. Il think,
said Mrs. Starkey, 1.-The state will not
allow the life's aim of such a noted
sculptor as George Starkey to crumble
away for the sake of a few miserable
thousand dollars.
THE group under consideration
names itself on sight Strength and
Beauty'-the attributes that are So
potent in modern civilization; and con-
ssts of two figures of heroic proper
tions-the male being #. 4 in. and the
female #. 6 in.
The male figure is represented sit
ting upon a rough-hewn rock, at the
base of which is an anvil, and under the
extended foot is broken Roman sword
forcibly conveying the idea that the
brutality of arms has passed away, and
by the significant grasp of the left hand
upon the lever of a modern steam en-
gine, we interpret the power and force
of the age in which We live. In his eX'
tended right hand is globe, held, not
as a conqueror, but as a master, con-
scious of the divinity of mind over mat
ter
BY the side of the male figure the fe'
male is represented standing in easy
grace and tenderness, and with the gen
tie touch upon the shoulder with one
hand, she crowns the effort of a world
subdued by intellectual supremacy, by
wreathing the globe with flowers with
the other, casting into the composition
the element of beauty without which
mere strength is incomplete and harsh
By her side are the accessories OF
feminine usefulness, the work-baske
and distaff."