The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1895-02-06
FEMALE LOBBYISTS.
THE WORK OF THESE PEOPLE ON
CONGRESS.
The Southern Type. The Claims of Mrs
POulIain. Tom Reeds Gallantry.

The Southern Type. The Claims of Mrs
PoulIain. Tom Reeds Gallantry.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 4.-While the
female lobbyist as class is usually an
Objectionable and troublesome person,
vet there are around the capitol aud In
the corridors women working for private
bills who have been prominent in their
sections in the past, and who are still!
prominent social leaders. Then again
there is a type of lobbyist here which
the public seldom sees or recognizes on
account of their quiet demeanor, unoo'
trusive manner and apparent gentility
and refinement. This class of lobbyists
generally comes from the south, is COM
posed almost altogether of widows seek :
ing to have some claim establish for war
seizures. There are number of cotton
claims which have been denied for over
thirty years fer the reason that they
have never beea allowed to go before the
Courts of Claims. Those pressing them
have either passed away or been pressed
from pillar to post until hope in almost
every instance has fed. Some of the
most pathetic figures are those of these
old southern gentlemen and gentlewo-
men, striving to secure that which
is theirs by right and law, but which is
denied them through congressional
dilatoriness and general northern Gus
sedness. IL most instances these cases
have even been given up by the lawyers
and professional lobbyists, and it de-
wolves upon the claimants themselves,
whose claims represent their all, and
who are as hopeful as the claimants
which Dickens has made celebrated in
in his Bleak House, to press them in
person al and legal way.
A PROMINENT GEORGIA LADY's CLAIM.
The Georgia congressman are bu'ying
themselves with the claim of Georgia
woman who was, in her younger days,
the belle of the state and in after years
one of its celebrated ,matrons. She is
true type of the aged southern gentle
woman one runs across in the corridors
talking gently and timidly to anyone
whose heart is still fresh. Her high-bred
face and her exquisite gentle maners
have not failed to attract the attention
of many of the most prominent men in
public life. With the weeds of the
widow and the white hair of age she has
won attention, where others more beau
tiful in fin de steele sense and more
gaudily dressed have failed. She is Mrs.
Mildred Sanford Poullain, the wife of
the late Dr. T. N. Poullain, a family of
Middle Georgia people who have been
been famous for century. Her brothers
and sisters, like her husband, have died
and she alone is left to wage the bitter
congressional war, alDng with the horde
of rich and poor who are continually
knocking at the treasury door. Those
who have examined Mrs. Poullain's
claim say that it is perfectly just one;
yet, since Joshua Hill, the republican
senator from Georgia in! reconstruction
days, first introduced it in the senate, it
has been anguishing in committee
rooms and upon the desks of the speaker
and Vice President. Many times have
congressional committees put their seal
of approval upon this bill, but there has
never been sufficient influence behind it
to secure its consideration. This claim
like SO many others from the south
relates to cotton seized by federal SOL
diers after peace had been declared at
Appomattox One hundred and fifty
nine bales we're confscated when cotton
was worth 40 cents per pound. In a
round sum Mrs. Poullain's claim amounts
to $4,000. 1t represents to her every
thing that she has any hope of possess
ing.
TOM REEDS GALLANTRY.
Congress like any other collection of