The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-12-21

EFFICIENCY OF THE FAIR SEX IN THE
GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT.

Women Make the. Best Clerks in the
service-saIaries of Clerks - Women
Who Work by the Day-Outside of Gov
eminent Employ.
Washington is noted for its brainy men.
II ought TO be more noted for its brainy
women. Our national capital has more
sharp, business, money-making females in
proportion to its size than perhaps any
city in the world. It's women get better
salaries, do higher classes of work, and are
further advanced in all the attributes Of
modern civilization than those of any other
city. In the government departments
alone between 1000 and ), 900 women are
employed, and these do the work which
two decades ago was considered only pos
sible for men. Some of these women are
translatOrs in the state departments.
Some are examiners in the patent Office,
and large number hold other positions
where the work requires good education,
a bright intellect, and a careful judgment.
Many of them have to answer letters, in
which they must judge as TO the legality
of pension cases brought before them, and
others have responsible positions in the
treasury and postotfice departments.
Women make the best clerks in many
They are more prompt in their attendance
than men, and are, as a rule, more con-
scientiOus in doing their work. As copy
lists and amanuenses they are usually neat
and exact and as type-writers they surpass
the other sex. As counters of money and
counterfeit GetectOrs they are far superior
to men They can count faster than men,
and the most expert among them can tell
II bad bill by feeling it with her eyes shut.
Quite number of women in the treasury
and there are about 400 employed here
have berry responsible positions. One is
a law clerk in the internal revenue de
partment, and she can prepare brief
equal to that of almost any lawyer of the
capital In the navy department there
are women who do drafting in the draw
ing of the plants of ships, and the major
part of the dead letter office business is
done by women's fingers.
SALARIES OF WOMEN CLERKS
The highest salary received 10y a women
clerk in Washington is 81 800 a year, and
one of these is the law clerk of whom l
have just spoken. Less than a score re
ceive 81, 500 per annum, but larger num-
Der get 81 POO, and hundreds are paid
81 900 a year. Mere cOpyists receive often
as low as $120. and there is large class of
women who work by piecework, and who
do the class of labor that would be re
quired in a factory. The Salaried clerks
work from o'clock until 4, with a short
recess at noon for lunch They have all
of their evenings 10 themselves, and never
take any work home with them. They get
their pay regularly at the 18th and 3Oth
of every month, and each of them
has a months vacation every year
with fun pay during the time They are
treated politely, are free from worry, and
ia 10
desirable ones.
The women of the government printing
office are paid as rule by the piece or
by the day. Those on piece work make
81. 80 a day, and there are over LOCO women
so employed. They stitch pamphlets, run
numbering machines fold and paste for
the bindery, and they do in fact nearly
every class of work done in the govern
ment printing office. Some of them set
type, and these receive 35 cents an hour,
and their average salaries are so month.
A large number Of guides are employed at
the bureau of engraving and printing,
and these are nearly all women. An army
of sweepers and scrubbers is employed to
clean out the treasury department every
day, and the woman who presides over
them gets about $500 year. These sweep
ers and scrubbers of the various depart
ments form another class of the working
women of Washington, and connected
with them is a class who sew carpets in
the treasury for the government build
ings all over the country. Then there is
the colony of washerwOmen, who wash
the thousands of towels used in each de-
partment, and the numerous women who
supply the clerks with food in the restau-
rants Of these great buildings.
THOUSANDS OF BRIGHT WOMEN.
Outside of the government employ there
are thousands of bright women who make
good hvings at the national capital The
pension and patent lawyers employ hun
dTeds as typewriters, stenOgrapher5, and
clerks, and going into the bureaus of some
these offices is like going into one of the
largest rooms of a great government de-
partment The majority of the clerks of
the dry goods and notion stores of WASH
ingtOn are women and the cashiers in
many cases are of the same sex. A num-
Der of women own stores in Washington,
and the finest ice creams and CONNECTIONS
for the White House dinners for years
past have been supplied by little old
French woman, who | am told has made
a fortune at the business.
You can count the WSmen lawyers and
of Washington upon your
fingers, but there is a number of noted
persons among the few. Belva Lockwood,
lIS well hllONn pI0SI'ltHlltl CttIlIlltltLe,
is the most noted of the lawyers, and Mrs.
DR.. Winslow, who attended Chief Justice
White during his late sickness, and who
was called in now and then to see Presi-
dent Arthur, is the most noted of the doc
tors.
Washington is a great educational cen
ter and it abounds in private teachers,
female seminaries, and little schools.
These are manipulated almost wholly by
women and the teachers of the charitable
and public schools of the city, are made |
up of some colored girls as well as some
y hite ones.
There is a class of women here engaged /
IL literary work, and this embraces book /
writers, magazine writers.
The women correspondents Of Washing /
ton are as bright, brainy, and busy a set of /
ladies as you will find on /
this side of the Atlantic. The yearly /
profits Of some of them run into the thou /
sands of dollars.-Frank O. Carpenter in /
Cleveland Leader