Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1875-05-20
WHAT WOMEN CAN DO.

WHAT WOMEN CAN DO.
1hs Washington correspondent Of the
Albany Jda6sal gives some interesting
infognation concerning woman employ
u n the bureaus Of the Government.
1he writer speaking Of the clsrks Of the
interior says: ss.. a.ssa.s
The blsck-syed musical voiced beau-
~ whom y0u see eonversing with the
|Iead Of bureau u one.o .of those crea-
Itnres you have often rsad about and
|Doper JET sen, Who, in the warmth and
80 1hpo1 znnsrio 1hniv
- - j 19zS6nt. and vas then, dieoWned,
osfracised This was her freak. She
had spent . year or more in travelling
over Europe with her father, who was
. wealthy New York merchant. She
was tutored in the best culture and
walked in the social path Of her parents,
but under too strict surveillance. The
only man she came in close contact with
outside of her relatives was her fathers
coachman. He was young and fine
looking, as servants often are.
Her heart was captured, and the
coachman, though fortunately man Of
conscience, could not resist the oppor.
tunity. They were married and the
bride was bsnished from her home to
the humble level Of her husband. But
she accepted her fate, girded up her
courage, made most Of her talents and
went to teaching and writing. Finally
she secured employment under the gov
ernment in preparing official reports,
etc, and she not only holds that posi-
tion now, but is literally paid contri-
butor to periodical literature. Her
love for her husband has never grown
cold; but he does what work he can;
though her mother and brother still
live Cher father is dead) in opulence in
New York, she has never been called
home nor forgiven.
At that desk stands the mother of
five children, two of whom are dead,
one lives in New Mexico, and the other
two are supported by her own efforts.
Her age is 81. In her girlhood her pa
rents moved from Massachusetts, to
Kansas in the days that tried mems
souls. There she married a young prin-
ter about the time Of the Pixies Peak
gold fever, and they took for their bri-
dal trip journey to that delusive sum-
mit-a distance Of over eleven hundred
miles. According to her published ac-
count Of the journey at the time, she
was arrayed in calico pants and dress
of the same material, reaching to the
knees, Indian moccasius and hat.
She travelled ON foot much of the
way, Walking from four to ten miles a
day, aimiring the endless varieties of
flowers at their feet, and was charmed
with the wild solitude of the uninhabi-
ted plains. She is doubtless the first
woman who ever made bridal trip in
such travelling suit. The adventur-
ers actually followed Fremont's foot
steps nearly to the top Of that famous
peak where he heard the bee sing
From Pixies peak they journeyed into
New Mexico, and during her stay there
she became o mother.
Longing to return to civilization and
friends, the couple returned. The war
was then in progress, and they entered
the work educating the negroes in the
Southwest. From there they drifted to
Washington. The husband secured a
clerkship, and the wife commenced writ
ing for q press. Like too many prin-
ters, the husband was bound to be poor,
he would keep "tramping," lost his
clerkship and became contaminated
with free love. Poverty and destitu-
ton crept closer and closer to the fami-
", a long sickness overlook the wife,
and in dire misfortune her husband
abandoned her and disappeared down the
malstrom of free love. The wife re-
covered, gained q small clerkship, and
contributed to the press, though it was
q constant struggle to make both ends
meet.
Serving as photographer in q pri-
vate Office is another unfortunate wife,
whose home was for time in Ohio
She married very young Her husband,
she says, proved to be tyrannical and
cruel. She fed from him and emerged
into what seemed by contrast q heaven
the struggle of lone weak woman
for bread. The husband obtained q
divorce, not ON ground Of desertion,
but on false and slanderous charges,
and this, too, without the knowledge Of
the wife. But SO glad was she on
learning she was free, that she never
thought to correct the record. She was
not, however, to be crushed. She com.
menced canvassing for pictures and
studying short hand, and in an incred-
ible short period was able to command
. living in the practice of the latter
art.
On G. street is the daughter Of q
millionaire, and the recent holder of a
small position in the green-back print
ing bureau, butwho to-day doesn't know
where she can get her breakfast on New
Years day. Her father was Philadel.
phia manufacturer, and, retiring from
business, the possesser of great wealth,
he purchased . beautiful site in ST.
Mary's county, Maryland, just before
the war. In the convulsions of those
days adversity overlook him, and also
political persecution. III health finally
followed, sweeping away the entire
family except the daughter But now,
alas j! she 10 one Of the three hundred
Who were discharged from the print
ing bureau last Saturday, in order that
the work might Be given to . New
York monopolst.