Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-07-19
WOMEN IN THE DEPARTMENTS.

2
There are 1000 in the Government
departments at Washington. and some
of the best-looking ami most intelligent
ladies of the Capital are so employed.
They come rs Il rule, from good fami-
lies. Many of them are the widows of
noted Generals. the daughters of ex-
Governors and eX-COngresSmen. and
now and then you will find the relative
of President or Cabinet Minister.
Many of them have Travelled widely. and
the great majority are educated and re-
fined ladies' They do al kinds of work
and receive salaries ranging from 1920
to 81. 800. As money counters they are
much more expert than men, and the
rapidity with which they count thou
sands upon thousands of dollars with
out mistake makes your brain whirl
as you watch them. These money
counters get about S75 month, and they
count millions of dollars every month.
At one side of each one on the table lie
great piles of greenbacks, done in pack
ages as they come from the press. | am
speaking now of the Redemption Bureau
of the Treasury. These bills are old
and dirty. The strip of paper around
each package of 100 bills states where
they came from, and who counted them
in the country. The young lady takes
this off, and moistening her fingers with
n wet sponge in front of her. she counts
the bills like lightning, and, if the pack
age is not right, she reports SO to the
chief, and tie banks from which the
bills come must stand the loss. The
girls seldom make a mistake, and if
they do SO, or pass a counterfeit without
noticing it, they must make the mistake
good, and the amount is taken out of
their salary. They can tell. however,
bad bill simply by feeling it, and
bank cashier will make hundred mis-
takes where they make one.
Not long ago one of these young lady
counters was engaged upon a lot of
800 notes. She had been dropping the
scraps on the floor beside her in pile,
after verifying the count While she
was counting n package she would lay
this scrap, marked with the name of the
bank which sent it, on the table beside
her. At last she came to package that
contained only ninety-nine notes, and
on looking for the scrap was terrified to
find that it had fallen among the others
She was sure she knew the name of the
bank, but she could not prove it. The
bank was notified and refused to
acknowledge the mistake, and the poor
girl was forced to pay the 500.
Both sexes of clerks at Washington
work in tie same department, and it is
often the case that young men and
young women have desks side by side.
There is no restriction as to their social
intercourse, and it is a matter of sur
prise to outsiders that so few marriages
occur among the clerks. 1t is not that
the girls are good-looking nor that they
are not good, neat and intelligent. And
it is not that the men are not noble and
attractive. Washington living, however,
is expensive, and it is contrary to the
rules of the department that two men,
bers of the same family should hold po-
sitions under the Government. The
ladies i'll the department earn enough to
keep them respectfully and they do not
care to marry man who has no larger
income than themselves, and have in
the end not as much pocket money as
before. Many of the marriages which
do take place are with men outside of
the departments, and it is not an I'M
common thing here for good-looking
clerk to marry a Congressman, Sena-
tor or a newspaper correspondent.
Mrs. Theaker, who is to be Stanley
Matthews wife, was a Government
clerk when she met and married Judge
Theaker, former Commissioner of
Patents. Stephen A. Douglas married
a department clerk, and Attorney Cen
eral Brewster's wife, although she was
Robert j. Walkers daughter, was work
ing in the departments when he fell in
love with her.