Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1886-03-25
WOMEN In OFFICE.
THE KIND OF WORK THEY DO
FOR THE GOVERNMENT.
Responsible Posts in the Treasury
Department. the Patent and the
Dead Letter Offices, and Else
where Their Pay.

occupations, many of which are compare
lively new to women. The greatest
number are employed in the treasury,
which was the first department to make
use Of their services. The occasion arose
during the late civil war, and was en-
tirely question of expediency and
even necessity, in order to fill the large
number of vacancies made by the en-
listment Of the employees.
Women were first employed as coun-
ters of currency and soon afterward as
clerks, copyists, etc. As counters of
money-work requiring chiefly quick
ness Of sight and deftness Of hand
women have always excelled and
have been uniformly preferred
to men. There are ] 1869 women
employees in the treasury depart
ment including the $50 in the bureau of
engraving and printing. They are
employed as corresponding clerks, ac-
countants, stenographcrs, copyists, coun-
ters, Librarians, and in some few instances
as chiefs in charge Of sections, the.r du-
ties being supervisory. Some of the
books kept by women are models of beauty
and accuracy. The annual report of the
controller Of the currency, with its bewil-
dering columns Of statistics, is almost ex-
clusively the work of women clerks. In
some of the aud d'tors' offices the women
are obliged to havea knowledge of bank
ing as well as Of mathematics.
The difficult and responsible work Of
the redemption agency is done entirely
by women. This division is devoted ex-
clusively to identifying burned and mu-
tilated money, which is brought here
under all sorts Of strange and remarkable
circumstances, from every part of the
country, to be redeemed. Sometimes it is
so badly defaced as to seem almost to defy
Identification. The most successful ex-
pert in this work has been here for twen-
ty years, and has in that time saved many
millions of dollars. A quick, bright, in
telligent woman is she, who, upon being
asked what applicances were used in the
difficult processes of her work, replied !:
"Only thin knife and patience The
difficulty of identifying national bank
notes is much greater than those of legal
tender, as not only the denomination but
the title of the bank must be deciphered.
A few years ago package of
$4,000 was brought here by
Adams Express Company, which, by
the burning Of a railway train, had been
reduced to charred, coal-bIack mass.
Three days after SO, 900 was identified
and redeemed by the women experts of
this division. In another case, after a
man had been buried many months, a
will was found which stated that in an
/ inner pocket of coat-the same be had
| been buried in, would be found a large
sum of money in bank notes. The body
was exhumed, and the Shiny, discolored
money, with the cdor Of the grave about
it, was sent here for Identification. An
other instance, Illustrating how cupidity
sometimes overreaches itself, was that of
miser who had buried his savings, to
the amount Of nearly $50, 900, in an
sarthen jar After an interval of sew
sral months he went one day to add a
few hundred dollars to his treasure, and
found the whole an undistinguishable
heap Of moldering paper Although
living in the far West, he had heard of
the skill of the women of the redemp-
ton agency, and lost no time in assign
'ng his precious jar to their care. The
money, with the exception Of about $500,
was identified and returned to him in
fresh new bank notes, to his infinite sat
isfaction.
Another conspicuous example Of abil-
ity, and also in quite new line, is that
Of woman employed in the law divi-
sion of this bureau, and who prepares the
briefs for the solicitor Of internal rev
enue in the various cases arising out Of
violation Of internal revenue laws. She
is considered one of the best law clerks
in the bureau, and is engaged upon the
most difficult and complicated compro-
mise cases.
The interior department employs 61S
women as examiners Of applications for
patents, clerks, stenographers, type
writer's, account nts, tracers Of drawings,
copyists, pastors, etc.
The postoffice department employs 1874
women, principally in clerical work, but
some branches of this work are of diff
cult nature and require peculiar fitness
and class Of qualifications. A knowledge
0 the modern languages and a complete
and minute familiarity with localities are
requisite in many of the departments. A
lady in the dead letter division is the
most skilled expert in deciphering mis-
directed and illegible letters in this coun-
try and as illustrating her peculiar
powers in this field she is called in the
departments the blind reader Four
women in the foreign department Of the
dead letter office return all foreign letters
to the countries from which they have
been sent.
The state, war, and navy departments
have fewer women in their employ than
any Of the others. A few women are en-
ployed as translators, but in this work,
which, according to popular ideas, would
be especially suited to the requirements
and taste Or women, few women succeed
There are tifty-five women employed il