Year: 1867

Mrs. Ames, in her last Washington letter
to the New York Independent, describes
some OF the female lobbyists and their ways.
Inc following sketch is thrillingly interest
ing:


Leaning back in a deep chair. no one near
her' you see fair woman, whose beautiful
presence seems at variance with the many
anxious and angular and the few course
women around her. The calmness of
assured position, the serene satisfaction of
conscious beauty, envelope her and float
from her like an atmosphere. We feel it
even here. Pale plumes droop above her
lovely forehead, velvet draperies fall about
her graceful form. We catch glimpse of
aliurlng laces, the gleam of Jewels glittering
on dlmpled ungloved hands Look long
into this face; its splendor of tint and per-
lection OF outline can bear the closest scru-
tiny. Look long, and then say if soul
sanity as well as serene looks out from
under those penciled arches, through the
dilating irises of those beguiling eyes,
Look and the unveiled gaze which meets
yours will tell you as plainly as gaze can tell,
that adultation is the life of its life, and
seduction the secret of its spell. This beauty
would not blanch before the profanest
sight; it is the beauty of one who tunes her
tongue to honeyed accents, and lifts up her
eyelids to lead men astray. She comes and
goes in a snowy carriage. She glides through
the corridors, haunts the galleries and the
anterooms of the capitol-everywh con.
spicuous in her beauty. All who behold
her, inquire: Who is that beautiful
woman ?'' Nobody seems quite sure
Doubt and mystery envelope her like a
cloud. F." She is a rich and beautiful
widow" " She is unmarried ~ She is
visiting the city with her husband. y
Every gazer has a different answer.


There are a few deep in the secrets of
diplomacy, of legislative venality, of govern
ment prostitution. who can tell you that she
is one of the most subtle and most dangerous
of lobbyists. She is but one of class
always beautiful aud always successful
She playes for large stakes but che always
wins. The man who says to her, secure my
appointment, make sure my promotion, and
will pay you so many thousands. Does she
wait like a suppliant? Not at ALL She sits
like an empress waiting to give audience.
viii she receive her subjects in promi, cuous
assemblages? No. If you wait long
enough, you see her glide over these tasse-
lated floors not alone. Far from the
crowd, in some anteroom sumptuous enough





nature and art can make her. will dazzle
the sight of half demented and wholly be-
wildered magnate, and then tells him what
she wants. With alluring eyes and beguil.
ing voice, she will besiege his will through
the outwork of his senses. and so charm him
on to do her pleasure. He promises her his
influence, he promises her his power, her
favorite shall have the boon he demands
Thus some of the highest prizes in the gov.
ernment are won. Inscriptions men pay
willy women to touch the subtlest and surest
springs of influence, and thus open secret
way to their public success. No longer the
question is, shall women participate in poll
tics; shall they form a controlling element
in the government? But, as there are
women who will and do exert this power,
shall it remain covert, equivocal, demoraliz-
ing, base? or shall it be brave and pure, and
open as the sun ?'