Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-03-29
TREASURY GIRLS.
FEMALE employees OF THE
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
They Number Five Thousand and
Come From All Parts Of the
Country - Their Positions
Are Not Sinecures.

Are Not Sinecures.
There are 5000 of the brightest women
in the United States employed in the
great Government departments at Wash
ington. They come from all parts of the
country, and they are of all ages from
sweet sixteen to gray haired seventy FIVE.
They do all sorts of work and get all sorts
of salaries. They form an army in them
selves, and they are among the most curl
Gus of Uncle Sans daughters
Lots of them are widows. Hundreds
of them are old maids and several thou
sand are sweet, manageable girls with
pretty faces, good hearts and a high grade
of culture and education. Many of them
have had Governors and Generals for
fathe s, not a few are the widows of noted
soldiers and statesmen, and all are far above
the average of their sex the United States
over.
Fully one-third of this army are under
the command of the Secretary of the
Treasury. One thousand of them march
every day up the great stone steps of the
United States Treasury, and remain upon
duty until A. They do all sorts of work
and they receive all kinds of salaries.
The highest priced of them get $500 a
year and there are three ladies who re-
ceive this salary. One is Miss J. NJ.
Seavey, of Tennessee, and another is Miss
Van Vranken, of New York
The third $500 clerk is Miss Ada
Tanner, the daughter of the Corporal
who acts as confidential clerk of the
Treasury. She came into office when her
father went out. Only five women in
the Treasury get $1,000 year, thirty-one
receive S1400, and 12S get 800 a month.
Ninety -one receive $1,000 year, and 366
receive $500. Among the thousand odd
who receive less than this are those who
get the pay of laborers and messengers,
and Others running down to the chaI-
women, who receive $40 a month FOR
sweeping and scrubbing. One of the
most interesting sights of the Treasury
Department is the paying out of these
moneys, which always occurs at the lest
of the month.
From all parts of the building the men
and women troop to the discussing Of
fees, and they receive their cash in crisp,
new bills which rustic like four dollar
black silk when they pass through the
counters hands. l stood the other day
and watched them get their money
Through grated window in line stood
II,,b Smith +ba no4ad au+bor nf fha como,
known as "Listen TO My Tale of Woe, "
and it was he who, acting at this time for
Secretary Window, was paying out the
cash to the girls.
These girls all earn their salaries.
The money counters of the Treasury are
numbered by the hundreds, and these
girls go through thousands upon thou
sands every day, and count millions a
month while working fol salaries of S75.
asked one of them yesterday if she did
not covet the money she counted. She
replied she did, and that her feelings
of the ragged boy who presses his nose
against the candy window and gloats
upon the sweets within and thinks what
he would do if he had them
These girls are adopts as counterfeit
detectors. Their fingers get so sensitive
that they can tell counterfeit if it
touches them, and if they pass a counter
felt the amount of the bill is taken out of
their salaries. 1t is the same thing if
they make mistake, and their position
is very critical one. The bills from the
National banks from all over the coun-
try are sent here for redemption. These
bills come in packages of 100 and they
are counted by the banks which send
them. If there is any mistake in the
package the girl who counts it reports it
to the chief, and the bank from which
the bills come must stand the loss. There
is paper strap around each set of bills,
and upon this is the amount of the pack
age and the name of the bank from
which it comes.
A few weeks ago one of these young
lady counters was engaged upon lot of
800 notes. She had laid the straps on
the desk beside her as she counted each
package, and after verifying the account
had swept them all into a waste-basket.
As she was rapidly counting one package
she found that it contained but ninety
nine notes. She looked for the strap
containing the memorandum giving the
name of the bank from which it came and
was Mortified to find that it had dropped
from the table and into the basket She
remembered the name of the bank, but
there was no way in which she could
prove that she was right. The bank was
notified, but the cashier refused to &C
knowledge the mistake and the girl had
to pay 800
notice that these girls never wet thelr
fingers in their mouths as they count THE
bills. Each has sponge beside her and
she gets her moisture from this There is
great danger of disease in handling ban
notes and no one can tell as to whethec
the last holder has had the smallpox or
the measles. The notes themselves are
green and the green comes from arsenic
used IN coloring. A sponge after day s
use turns black with the arsenic which
comes from the bills, and some girls con-
tract sores on the arms and wrists from
this counting. The sponges are changed
every day, but if the skin is the least
scratched and the arsenic of the note
happens to get under the flesh sore is
very likely to appear day or two after
wards. The position is by no means a
sinecure, and these Government clerks
have to work mighty hard for every cent