Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1875-10-27
Lady Clerks I'm London.

The chief establishment in which we
find ladies working as clerks is in the
Prudential Life Assurance Company,
Ludgate Hill. Here there are between
sixty and seventy female clerks en-
pioyed upon work of a purely clerical
nature. The staff is attached to what
is known as the Industrial branch of
the Office, and is engaged to great ex-
tent in copying out letters and other
documents, and in writing dockets con-
nected with the life policies issued to
the poorer classes. at the rate of n pen
ny a week and upward, with which the
industrial department has chiefly to
deal. These dOckets average 10000
week, we are told, so that there is no
small amount of work to he performed
by the lady clerks in the Prudential
Assurance Office. Besides this. some
of the more experienced of the female
clerks are engaged in correspondence,
the gist of the letter being given on
slip of paper, or noted in the corner of
the letter to which it may be a reply,
and these clerks have to enlarge upon
it in proper terms, and write the fair
copy for signature. There is but one
uniform scale of salaries. which COM
mences with E32 year and rises to
f62. This is very low, but it is of
course, the object of a company of this
kind To keep the salaries as low as pos
sible, an object which, in a Govern
ment department, is not fully recog-
nized. There may be an idea with some
that female clerks employed in an Of
fee of this kind are not very select,
but in the present instance the very re-
verse is the case. The very mode by
which an appointment of this kind is
obtained secures this end, for. besides
a fair education. it is required that all
candidates fathers are or have been
professional men, or men holding good
positions in life. There is hard and
fast barriermade at tradesmens' 'daugh-
tprs far thoy arc in no oaso ad.aitted
to situations in the Prudential Life
Office; by this means the class of fe-
male clerks working there is kept most
select, and that it is so may be gathered
from the fact that ut the present time
there are employed among the other
clerks the daughter of a Judge, and
several clergymen's daughters. As re-
CARDS the results of the experiment IN
this office, they have been most fruit
full. Mr.. Lancaster, the Secretary, to
whom we are much indebted for the
information on the subject as regards
his office he very kindly placed at our
SUITES iiiut hafN
proved eminently successful i'm the ca
pacity in which they are made use of
by the Prudential, which is principally
to supply the place of junior clerks, of
whom, it appears, there is at present a
great dearth, at least of those whose
services are of any value. Female
clerks are being pretty extensively en-
ployed in law-cOpying and law sta
TONERS Offices at Miss Lemins', No. 12
Portugal street, Lincoln's Inn, a good
number are engaged, chiefly, we be-
lieve in copying work, and they have
the opportunity of earning from los
to 80 week. Lawyers themselves
are beginning to make use of their
services in copying, and renumerate
them with salaries ranging from $50 to
$50 a year. We also learn that in
some country railway offices ladies
are being employed as clerks, and are
paid on an average from eco to ESQ
year.-Fra-er's Mdgd=ine.