Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1921-03-05
Vamps Even in Congress.

Congress in an aggregation Of
men. Which is to say, it's made to
order for "vamps."
Congressman are presumed to have
reached the age of discretion and
to have cut some wisdom teeth Ell
Ttute. But any woman will tell
you that any man puts reverse Eng
lish on such business, and gets less
discreet as he grows oider-at least,
so far as pretty women are con-
cerned.
Well, anyway, the unwritten rec
ord holds many story of how the
siren lure Of women was exerted on
members of congress for the purpose
of influencing legislation.
There was the Purple Woman for
instance. She was SO called be-
cause purple and lavender always
dominated the color scheme OF her
clothes. Anybody who sat through
the long treaty debates will remem-
Der the Purple Woman. She was
what is known in the vernacular as
"a pippin." Young enough to be
able to make herself look 10 years
younger, old enough to make the
wisest serpent look like born i'm
beetle, charming to her fingertips,
and possessed of a wardrobe that
put her in the bad graces of all the
women about the senate, the Purple
Woman made a mighty stir. She
ought to have been barred under the
rule against disturbance in the sem
ate galleries. She was no mere
disturbance, however; she was a
seismic upheaval. When she en-
tered the gallery, as she did every
day at half afternoon, a certain per-
centage of senators lost all interest
in the fate of nations, and concentra-
tead for the rest of the day on catch
ing the tiny, imperative signal that
meant "Come to me-"
The Purple Woman got $500 n
week and unlimited expense money
from a coterie of men who for rea-
sons of their own wanted the treaty
ratified. The Purple Woman was
admittedly skillful, but she made
a mistake. Never mind what. 1t had
to do with party, dinner as she
called it, in her apartment. OF
course she would have failed any
way. because you can vamp sena-
tor just so far and not bit farth-
err, when Article X is concerned.
Perhaps, if the treaty comes again
to the senate, we shall see once
more the Purple Woman in all her
glory.
There was Minnehaha, so called
because OF her laughter. Gosh but
that woman could laugh. Ripples and
thrills and everything, and just at
the right time. Her laughter echo
ed although senate corridors. The
echoes of 1t are there yet, because
Miss Laughing Waters was deeply
| interested in a bill recently disposed
Of by the senate, and not yet acted
on by the house.
Minnehaha had clothes, too. They
conformed to all fashions DEGREES
as to highness and lowness, and her
stockings were silk and cobwebby.
and expensive. Over her curly bob
bed hair she wore a big red hat, so
that some called her the Girl in the
Red Hat. But it was as Minnehaha
she was known best.
She was called in after q host OF
male lobbyists had failed to stem the
tide OF approval for the bill. She
worked fast, She was an encyclo-
pedia of economic facts, and she dis
tributed them lavishly, punctuated
with laughs. But she too made a mis-
take. The trouble with Minnehaha
was, she talked too much. Senators
had to stop and listen when they
just wanted to look. So she's gone
away, wherever vamps go.
Both these vamps failed. No com
ment as to the obvious virtue of
senators is needed.
Darrell Young was in town this
week from Glenns Ferry.