Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1883-11-17
WOMAN WORKERS.
The Field They Have In Washington
Some of Their Triumphs.

WASHINGTON, ID. C.-This is the one
place in the universe for women--the
happy hunting grounds where the beau
sece have won recognition, and COM
pete fairly with sterner stuff in every
profession of life.
The first woman admitted to practice
before the bar of the Supreme Court is
a resident of this city, and the very
judges of this, our highest tribunal, look
like a coterie of old dowagers in solemn
black silk tea gowns, purring and primp-
ing at kettledrum. Here the women
are acknowledged physicians, lawyers
and claim-agents. They are engaged
in all branches OF journalism. They
are bookeepers in banks and breweries.
They keep hotels and cafes, besides con-
trolling the great monopoly of manu-
featuring hash. They are engaged in
telegraphy, telephoning, shorthand and
type-writing. They are as necessary to
the press printer in the bureau as his
press, and the light touch of women's
fingers and her quick mind are of far
more importance in the monetary system
of the government than the figure-head
OF Secretary of the Treasury.
Women are employed by the hundreds
in the varied details of the Government
Printing Office, and although not men,
bers of the union, should they strike
during session of Congress the times
would be out of joint. For then the
maiden speeches of members could not
be embalmed in ink for the benefit Of
their admiring constituents. The three
beaten paths, or ruts, rather-the needle,
a school or clearinghouse, one of which
educated and refined women were COM
PEELED to choose in order to merely exist
quarter of a century ago-have widened
out into hundreds of pleasant and diver
sified roads of independence and pros
perity.
Women are interested in scientific OBJ
servation at the Smithsonian. They are
busy investigating nature under other
phases in the Agricultural Department.
They are rapt students of form and
color at the Corcoran Gallery. At the
propagating garden winsome woman
arranges the flowers that grace the tables
of the highest officials.
There are talented, patient lawyers
among the ladies employed in that
branch of the Interior Department, and
there are women as thorough and well
up in the rulings of the Pension Office
as any man serving under Commissioner
Dudley.
All honor to those women who are
now social queens and make public
opinion who were once working women
and earned their bread. The wives of
two distinguished Senators were school
teachers and they are proud to avow it
-one in New England and the other in
Ohio. The wife of the most popular
Speaker of the House of Representatives
worked in a Lowell cotton mill, and
often said should misfortune ever bring
want to her door she was sure she could
obtain employment in the same place
again. Mrs. Costin, the widow of the
inventor of signals bearing his name, is
Q remarkable woman and an indefati-
gable worker. She has visited all the
commercial countries of Europe, and
these signals have become international
by adoption. She has been received by
the Emperor of Russia and Napoleon
ILL.,, when France owned him as ruler.
The United States navy have purchased
the right to manufacture the signals for
its own use. While she retains the
right to make them outside, the royalty
for their manufacture gives her SPLEEN
did income. She is regal-appearing
woman, pre-eminently social and great
favorite. From that much maligned de-
partment, the Treasury, has come the
most brilliant woman socially, and gifted
mentally. One of the most elegant of
women, the wife OF Cabinet officer
under Hayes regime, earned her living
ii that department. But woman's
weakness cropped out in the fact that
she tried to ignore even having been
there. The most affable and pleasant
woman of the Cabinet of the present
administration, the daughter OF former
Secretary of the Treasury, resigned to
become the wife of one of the rising
lawyers of Philadelphia. One of the
best of women, because it is only noble
to be good, left the Treasury, where she
worked to support a step-mother and her
children, to become the wife OF wealthy
nobleman in the diplomatic service in
Belgium. She is now the happy mother
of great brood of children. When
friends from this side of the sea visit
her in grand chateau, where she is
housed like queen, it is with happy
thoughts that she speaks of early trials
thatwere merged in such grand triumphs,
because it was in her power to do so
much more for those she loved.
The wives of the editors of the two
morning papers-the Post and the Re
pIbAc0n-were formerly clerks in that
department, and might go on enumer-
ating those who have achieved other dis
tinctions than rank, riches and social
position, who were esteemed for their
individual work when earnest workers
in that busy hive and belonged to that
guild which the world of false ideas
sneeringly called Treasury girls.
The grand old department, like gen.
erous friend, has helped women to
broader fields; women of genius, who
are to-day successful in the drama; as
artists in literature, as singers and mu-
sicians; women who glorify their talents
and are proud to acknowledge where
their industry and perseverance first won
its reward. There are many, very many
others, that the great world will never