Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1888-06-28

| the table into his boot without his no
| ticing it. He recounted the bonds, and
there was 81 900 short. His white hair
| stood up like the quilts of the porcu-
pine, and with bloodshOt eyes he sought
the chief. The department was in an
uproar until the evening shades began
to fall, when the Anticipated clerk
thought he would put on his boots and
found the bond.
The Treasury is the largest de-
| partment at Washington. 1t contains
| between 5000 and 4, ZOO employees, and
| it looks like a tomb. Somber and
massive, with many columns of dirty
white stone, the doors which enter its
| basement look like the holes of cave,
| and one almost looks for the letters
over Dante's Inferno:
'An hope abandon We who enter here"
These words ought to be written
over the doors of every Government
! department.
The Washington streets are alive at
four o'clock every day. 1t is at this
| time that the departments are dis
missed, and great streams of humanity
pour out of the doors of the tomblike
buildings. 1t is interesting to stand
! and watch the characters. Fresh
young girls, with baskets in their
hands and with jaunty spring bonnets
| over their blonde or raven curls, walk
beside dudes with high collars, check
| suits, and wide pantaloons, and mixed
up with these are fine looking old
ladies and plainly dressed women, who
may keep whole families on the two or
three dollars a day which they make
by copying papers year in and year
| out. There are many widows in
mourning, and there are cultured-look-
| ing old men, with faces as rosy as the
setting sun and hair as white as silver.
There are broken down men that seem
to have lost their last friend, and bluff,
bullying clerks who look like bad men
| from Bitter Creek. There are men
| with histories, and there is stately
old man in stock and an old-style hat,
| who probably went into the depart
ments under Van Buren, and who sticks
| to his old-style dress still. There are
many cultivated men among these
clerks, and many highlybred and
really beautiful women.
Civil-Service Commission about them
yesterday, and he told me that many
| applicants for positions were the
| daughters of statesmen and Generals,
and that the average of purity and cult
ure among the applicants was high.
He told me that One-third of the
persons applying to the Civil-Service
Commission were women, but that the
| demand for women clerks was less than
that for men, and that out of the
clerks SO far appointed though the
commission only one-seventh were
women. Since the Civil-Service Com
mission has been in operation only
1854 clerks have been appointed to
how great the demand for appoint
ments is SO, 900 persons have been ex-
amined, and over 10000 of these have
passed the examinations.
Do Government clerks marry?
Not as q rule, and until recently
man and his wife had no right to each
hold a position in the departments.
Secretary Villas, when he was Post
master-General, made different ruling,
and he told his clerks that they could
marry if they pleased, and that they
need not fear dismissal from him on
account of their cooling and lovemaking.
Secretary Whitney, however, decided
that lady clerk must lose her job if
she married a fellow-clerk, and 1 am
told that instances have been where
clerks have married and kept the mar
riage q secret in order to retain their
situations. When Acknowledgement
Brewster was in office one of his best
clerks fell in love and she presented
her case to the Acknowledgement. He
told her there was no reason why the
department should lose a good clerk
simply because she wanted a hush and,
and he retained both clerks in Office.
AS a rule, however, Government clerks
do not marry. Many of the lady clerks
support families out of their earnings,
and as for the young men they con-
tract expensive habits of living, and
they can not understand the philosophy
of the theory that two can live on the
same amount as one and live better.
1t is the same with clerks here as
elsewhere. Some are always hard up
and some are always flush. There are
professional borrowers in each depart
ment who borrow from their friends
whenever they can and pay when they
have to, and every payday these cred
itors are rushing around to get their
money, and the borrowers in many in
stances are trying to elude them.
Some clerks borrow of note-shavers,
and we have some men here who do
nothing but lend money to Government
clerks. They get as high as ten per
cent a month, and often renew their
notes every month. / have heard of a
clerk who borrowed 800 in 1870 of one
of these note-shavers, and who has
! paid that broker ten dollars every