The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-04-16
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Passing Of the Lobby oueens-Plaee af
the Railroad-The Hopkins L.
brary OF Railway Books.
Especial Correspondence.1 /

lSpeclRl correspondence
The Capital City is favorite field for
the professional adventures, but not
such rich field as it once was, how
ever, when the lobby queens were in
their glory and held senators and states
men of the highest degree at the beck
of their finger. The last of the lobby
queens disappeared about dozen years
ago. Her memory has been preserved in
the traditions of the capital. It was the
last time she was ever seen around her
favorite haunt, the lobby of the senate
chamber. She met the sergeant. alarms
as he was passing the senate restaurant
She was dressed in tho remnants of by
gone finery. She was we'll past youth.
Colonel, F" she cried, 81 am hungry,
and want some money to get some
thing to eat''
A tall senator came along, and he
listened to her with interest. He told
her to sit down and ordered the best
that tho restaurant afforded. Just as she
was finishing, the senator dropped in to
light cigar. Flushed with champagne
and full of terrapin. she rose majestical-
~ and summoned the senator to her
side with wave Of her hand
Her Power Gone.
Senator, she said, with all of that
old time fattery, "you have great deal
of influence in the senate. Now, have
a bill here which contains all have or
hope for in this world. Iwant you to
help me have it passed."
She cast upon him one of those be-
witching smiles which might have
forced declaration of peace or war
When she was in the height of her pros
perity. The senator, however, answered
her coldly that he could not mix himself
in anything Of that kind There was n
great flash Of fire in those faded eyes of
the lobby queen. She swept her arm
proudly as she cried, with mournful de-
fiance:
Very we'll! Very we'll! But if 1 was
ten years younger I'd have that bill
through in week. "
The Place of the Railroad:
One Of the most important questions
confronting civilization today is the re-
lation Of the transportation industries
to the public. The true place of the rail
road company in the commonwealth has
not yet been arrived at and can only be
determined by minds considering the
subject. having full information on it,
but not involved in its direct issues. To
render such an investigation possible by
making collection which would con-
tain all the works bearing on railways
that have ever been published i'll any
language was the idea of Timothy Hop
kins i'll establishing the Hopkins Rail
way library at Stanford university, in
California, and that library has, am
told, larger number of books OH rail
ways than our National library in Wash
ington.
Berlin's Railway Library
The largest collection of railway books
i'll Europe is that in the library of the
department. of public works at Berlin.
This department has, in addition to
other duties, the supervision of the rail
ways of the German empire, and lite
work is facilitated by the publication of
several Journals of great value, one of
which is devoted to railroads exclusive
ly and one to Observation-Disclosures
railways, tranways, etc.-the natural
result being that i'll time the department
has found itself i'll possession of some
1000 books and pamphlets on various
subjects connected with railways. 1t
does not appear that they have ever
made direct efforts to supply deficiencies
or to make the collection complete.
Many Small Collections.
When the library of gentleman who
had been sufficiently interested in rail
roads to gather about $50 volumes ON
tho subject was offered for sale, leading
critical journals in New York spoke of
the collection as unique" The books
were all i'm English. Such library is
indeed worth considering, when the
Harvard university library, with its
guy, 600 Volumes, can only show about
soo items IN its railway collection.
There are many collections scattered
over tho country of n few hruirad items
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