Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-09-19
DEPARTMENT WOMEN.
GOVERNMENT CLERKS WHO DO
NOT LEAD HAPPY LIVES.

| " nat 1t MeanS TO be FurlOuSueo-Aue
Disease of Discomfort.
In the weary women and tired eyed
| girls who enter the cars one can easily
discern the government employees. If
one could see into the history of these
women who are left seated here, pages of
light and shadow would unfold them
selves before ones wondering eyes. If
| one could follow these women to their
desks in the morning, watch them as
they eat their hurried mathematician
| brought in napkin from the uninviting
boarding house table, and eaten sitting at
| their desks or consisting of roll, washed
down with cup of coffee or saucer Of
| unsubstantiai cream at some OF the many
| luncheon rooms in the neighborhood of
all the departments-Sit by their side
during the dragging afternoon. and when
the hour of release strikes 90 with them
back to their tiny hall rooms in boarding
| houses, and see the nerveless, wearied
look with which they throw themselves
down to rest-ah, surely one would then
know better than now what endurance
and patience woman must possess to be
a good government clerk.
Scarcely a room in all these depart
/ )
sitting with bowed head, writing at this
desk-her stern, white features siIhouet-
ted against the dark screen behind her
chair, and the July sun shining full on
her shabby black GOWNS woman who
was in her youth the naughty daughter
of a proud and wealthy family in a
southern state Stories are still told
there of her extravaganza, her arrogance,
bnp avo11ic;ta onS bar bao, fri
entertainments Married in her early
youth to a brave and loyal gentleman who
aGored her and had the means to crafty
every caprice, the name Of her country
home was O SYNONYM for gracious hospi-
tally He died with his affairs involved,
long lawsuit swallowed up all that re-
manned to her, and now, at nearly 60
years Of age, she trudges through snow
and heat to work for her bread, submits
mcekly to reproof if she is FIVE minutes
late, and goes to her little home in the
afternoon too tired to do anything but
slip on a wrapper, drop on lounge and
try to rest.
There across the way sits a sweet faced,
faded looking woman. She is anxious and
tired, though she brightens into a smile
as she speaks, but no one fathoms the
depths of her burdened heart. Her
thoughts are far down in AN old Virginia
farm house. where her two little mother
less nieces are running wild, destitute of
education or refining influences, and with
out any too much clothing Their old in
firm grandfather sits helpless by the fire.
side in winter and on the vine covered
porch in summer, and in dreaming of long
past days forgets the little maidens at his
feet The best blood of Virginia runs in
these childrens veins, but blood, no mat
ter how blue it may be, does not feed Or
ciothe or warm one, and this aunty in
Washington is their sole supporter and
protector. If her means kept pace with
the generous instincts of her warm and
loving heart how royalty would those yell
low haired nieccs be lodged and fed and
clad. But on the bare 5000 year, out
Of which must come board and laundry
bills and clothing and street car, what can
she do? Yet by noble self denial she
has managed to save something out of
this pittance, and is hoping in the autumn
to bring these neglected lassies to the
the city and place them in good school,
when in the midst Of these happy plans
she receives notice that on account of the
failure of the passage of the appropria-
ton bill necessary to carry on the work Of
the room in which her work lies she and
many of the other clerks will be fur
loughed.
Do you know what that means?
1t means her position is abolished, her
occupation gone, and her cherished little
hoard Of earnings must be used to pay for
the bread to keep her alive.
Il would not mind for myself" she
says; Il can find work somewhere surely,
but"-and tears come into the patient
eyes-"those babies down in the country,
what will become of them? | can't sleep
at night for thinking"
In another room. not far from where
this wcmans work has been, is seated the
only daughter of a man who once counted
his wealth by the thousands. Not
pretty woman, though once it would have
been thought heresy to say that in the
little northern town where she grew UP
to happy womanhood. And one can now
understand what dainty charm might
surround her if she were dressed in some
dark rich color that would throw her deli
cate tints into high relief. If that slender
foot were thrust into shapely bronze
slipper, deep hued tortoise shell pins held
those faxen locks in place on the little
head, and that milk white throat rose
above the folds OF a wine red velvet gown.
can you not see what a piquant picture it
would be2
After leaving school she went abroad
and studied for four years, met charming
acquaintance and stored her heart and
memory full OF pleasant experiences.
which still are fund of delight to her IN
these evil days upon which she has fallen.
The deaths of her two brothers, quickly
followed By the crash of her fathers fall
ing fortunes and his paralysis, called her
back TO this country and to a new and
different life Friends had not gone with
fortune and through their efforts a well
paying clerkship was secured and here at
her desk she sits and works with simple
bravery and conscious heroism, going
home in the afternoon TO nurse with ten
derest care the helpless old father, TO
whom her coming is as a ray of sunshine
The bright visions of her youth have van
ished with her girlish bloom, but a cheer
full soul smiles out of her worn face, and
an interest in books, art and friends keeps
her young st heart.
And this IS somewhat unusual, for the
fatal disease in these departments is dis
content. Hardly one woman out Of every
hundred is at all satisfied, and all seem
striving for promotion and larger salaries.
The woman vino saw salvation IN six
hundred place now longs for one that
pays thousand and the woman who re
ceives a thousand dollars sees no reason
why she should not be promoted 10 q
twelve or fourteen hundred dollar place.
and so it goes.
Without doubt admitting women to
these places has been godsend to many
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