The Press., 1885-06-25
WASHINGTON LETTER.

The capital has been rather quiet dur ing the week Of course there have been a number of changes Ill clerical aud official life. A sufficient proportion of these oc- cur each day to keep department circles in a state of suspense and excitement which began three and half months ago. As the current fiscal year draws to close, the anxiety of government employees in- creases, for there is wide spread belief among them that the lst of Jnly, the be- ginning of the new fiscal year, will wit ness innumerable additions 10 the caravan of dismissed republicans.
 There ls no relaxation in the demand for places under the new powers. Heads of departments and bureau chiefs find their time almost wholly occupied in con- si.lering applications for appointments. l The order excluding visitors from cabinet offices on Saturdays was matter of self defense. These officials found that they had to exclude everybody, at least one day in the week, in order to transact the nec- essary routine business of their respective offices.
 Thel is much anxiety among the women employed in the government offices here The impression gained ground among l them long since that the new civil service | such matters woman reasons mainly from her fears. Now it is not so much civil service reform as the old, democratic, southern. idea of woman's proper sphere, which makes them feel that the employ ment of women in the government service IS doomed. The failure of Secretary La mar to appoint any women in the newest bureau of the government, that of labor statistics, which he recently fitted mp, con- hrmed their fears, and when some promi- nent women demonstrated with him for ignoring their sex, and begged that he give the women chance, he met them with chivalric compliments.
 It has long been the fashion to calumni- ate the employees in the executive depart ments here, who are without means of de- fense. Reprehenslble people have been selected as types of the whole, and male and female clerks have been subjected to the severest censure, when most of them are deserving of praise for the idelity with which they execute their trusts and for the exactness of their daily lines. Un- worthy persons have crept into the depart ments as they do everywhere, but the men and women who have come here from all the states and territories have ranked above the average for intelligence, educa- ton and circumspection of conduct. Then there are many widows and orphans of distinguished citizens of the country, left ill needy circumstances, who have sought employment under the government. There is no reason for chasing these people with the few who turn ont to be dishonest and immoral. The political cry of ''turn the rascals out gave many people throughout the country the impression that vice stalk ed the streets of Washington unrebuked, and that nefarious dealing was the rule in all branches of the government service. Yet, with eyes open to the political advan- tages that would accrue from the discovery of illegitimate parctices, and with desire to fill the offices with democrats, the new administration has found the departments we'll managed, the employees attentive to their duties and efficient in the perform ance of them This was necessarily sur prise after all that had been said in the heat of the campaign concerning corrup. tion in the service here. Of course there were some errors to be corrected, some rascals there may have been who should have been turned out, for the bad are to be found with the good everywhere. But it would be difficult to find class of peo- pie who, as whole, more conscientiously j perform the duties assigned them, who are more correct in their social relations, or who are more upright in all that per tains to general conduct than the much l abused government clerks