The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-03-05
AN INFAMOUS SYSTEM.
How the Spells System Affects
Women in the Government
Offices.

"Oh, deaII WHAT shall 1 dol
Whas shall | do?" she sobbed, al.
most falling at my feet.
/ tried TO calm her, and led bel
aside t. friendly doorway. | had
known he: for an honest girl these
TWO years, aud the only dependence
of a widowed and foolish mother,
who bad recently been laid away in
the grave. The father had died in
office, and was buried az the expense
OF fellow clerks The widow got
IN place by selling her honor to her
late husbands friend. who represents
a populous distriot in congress. she
Teured TO advance her daughter, then
just budding into W manhood. From
that hour THE came member of
con, rees has logged Ibe daughter,
and has sought by gradual advances
To eject her ruin. Tne mother died /.
Lhe daughter anticipated her salary
to pay funeral expenses. Today she
wsS discharged from Office.
Young, handsome, educated. pen
niles", homeless, iriendless-pursued
by reckless libertipe of wealth and
nigh political position! Thick of
it mothers!
Il am discharged" she sobbed,
What shall | de?'
Now, Pm q married. man and I'll
tell you what | did. | looked around
rather nervously. for fear some pase
ing friend would observe and over
hear the applications of this un-
happy creature. You see ara just
as blg fool as the rest OF the world
Then / asked her if she had any
friends OF influence.
"Only one," she said, and l could
see her vince as she said it. But
he she stopped and buried her face
ia her handkerchief.
Nv ell-sud her"
Then she told me- how that same
"irlend" had followed her. There
was no question in her mind es to bis
motives. She knew he could pro-
vide for her, but she dared not 60 10
him. She had asked him to have
her retained and received his ultima
tum. From her story of bis relations
with her chief OF bnreau | made up
my mind that this congressional
scoundrel bad purposely permitted
her discharge. believing she must
inevitably tall into bis hands. Now,
| am no saint. but it made my blood
/ oil to see this scheme sgainst q
helpless young girl / would that |
could PRINT bis name in glazing head
lines IN every newspaper in the
bat nobody would believe it.
You would not dare suggest such an
infsmy of such man. The sequel
of this story is to come.
Few readers appreciate the situa-
ton of these departmental women
suddenly deprived OF place. In other
walks OF lite one drops out here and
there and is not noticed. A shop
girl discharged goes to another shop.
Here are several hundred women
thrown out at once without warning.
There is no other shop to go TO.
Most OF them are from dista ut states,
are widows and orphans aud beads
OF families. Some oil them have
been long in Office, one place or an
other, and have lived frugal lives
and are well-to-do. The great major
ity of them are living from hand to
mouth, either from necessity or
choice. As rule they are honest,
intelligent. and virtuous. 1t is ter
rible thing for one of these unfortu-
nate dependents to lose her place.
There are nearly 400 OF them marked
for dismissal Monday in the census
bureau alone.
While the reader is taking in this
article there will be some 800 OF these
400 clustering around the doorwsys
of the census bureau, crying about
the halls, and sobbing over their
empty desks-theirs no longer-and
besieging and beseeching congressman
all over the city for their influence.
There will be many poor girls in
straightened circumstances. who
have been honest and virtuous all
their lives, who will, probably for the
fret time, calmly contemplate the
contingency of shsms-who will
even make voluntary overt1res to
those whom they believe all powerful
to aid them. There will be many
who will boldly face the world in the
renewed fight for bread, who would
die before they would ever think of
such q thing. And there will be q
flock of male harpies crewdiDg about
the more desperate women of this
throng. &c catch them in the hour OF
their desperation, and bear them
away to life of gilded siu. It is
almost too siokening to contemplate.
But it is q sight which Washington
often witnesses; so often that We have
grown cslloused and hard of heart.
While clerk in the treasury, several
years ago, l saw many OF these
Wholesale discharges. at one time
there were 600 women driven out of
the treasury in one day. It was a
frantic mob. Women tainted in the
halls and lore their hair, and cursed
thir superiors and wept in the streets
about the building, az if the gigantic
columns would pity them and restore
them to their places. From all I
have seen it is clear to me that the
employment of women in the Gov