Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-08-16

~ THE lst and on the 18th OF each
iES month the little branch post Office near
the Treasury Department is crowded
HV with women, some young and fresh
~ looking, some old-old beyond their
years-snd worn by the everlasting grind Of
care and responsibility.
This branch Office is chiefly for the conven-
fence Of the uptown departments-the Treas
ury, the War. State and Navy. the Agricul-
tural and all the outlying bureaus. These
semi-mSnthly vistations Of women are from
the departments. The women workers in the de-
partments. some OF them drawing good salaries,
some picking up the pittance they paid for
sweeping up the dust and scrubbing the floors
of the great government workshops, go 10 this
Office as soon as they have drawn their pay TO
send off registered letters, postal notes or
money orders to distant dependents. The
same scene is repeated at the city post
Office, where go the women employees OF the
Post Office and Interior departments and
the Census Office. The amount for which the
money orders are drawn is a large proportion
of the salaries earned by these hard-worked
women. Around the postal window are assem-
bled women and girls who send out seeds from
the Agricultural Department. who feed the
presses IN the Bureau of Engraving and Print
ing. who scrub the floors in the Treasury De-
partment. count money all day long or occupy
important desks in the departments. Away OF
in their old homes they have, perhaps, an aged
parent. an invalid sister or brother, or orphan
children left as dependents upon them.
SHARING THEIR SALARIES.
They work hard from week to week. and. TAX
ing from their earnings only that part which is
necessary for an economical existence for them
selves in this city, they send off the rest 10
4l.rna 4 LII.
semi-monthly letter from Washington to pay
their bills at the corner grocery store and the
butcher shop. There is no more self-sacrlfclng
heroism in the world than is to be found
among the women in the government depart
ments at Washington. Those people who are
so fond Of speaking lightly Of the lady clerks"
describing their rich dresses and dashing ways
should spend half an hour at the little branch
post Office on + street during the afternoon of
pay days There may be women In the de-
partments who spend more money than they
earn and who are dashlng and dress elegantly;
but there are five hundred hard-worked. SELF
sacrificing women there to one Of these. There
are some beautiful women in the departments.
some fresh and pretty young girls, but few re-
tain long that beauty which il remarked upon,
and most of them have traded off the beauty
of freshness and youth for that Of patience and
| amiabiity. which does not attract general at
tention. There are many remarkably tine-look-
! ing women in the departments. but they are not
the glddy. Haunting. flirting set imaginative
writers and gossps delight 10 describe.
You may go through the departments for
days and never see a woman who is not becoul-
ingly and neatly dressed But this is not because
| they spend large sums OF money in dress, but
because necessity has taught them economy
| and good taste.
sELF-sAcRIFIcE.
What was said before the committee investi-
| eating the civil service few DAYS ago is apt TO
I'll.
| tation of many honest women who work IN the
| government service. In one of the very divi-
| sions referred to is a woman who has given up
! the romance of her younger days, refused all
opportunities of marriage-the aim, il seems.
of woman's lfe-and devoted herself to the
| support and education of four children left de-
pendent to her care by the death OF her brother.
She might have been married, with home and
| children OF her own, but she gave that dream
up because she could not and would not burden
| poor man with the four dependent upon her
and she would not forsHke them. These orphan
children are clothed, fed educated and loved
| as If they had a mother. Can any man cast a
| slur upon such a woman?
| Yet she Is but one OF many hundred in the
| departments who have given up all their pros
poets i'll life and sacrificed themselves to others
| The women III the government service usuall,
| work hard, and the Class of work they do II
| such could not be done as well by men
| They are put at tedious tasks which impatient
| man could MT do, and they labor hour after
| hour persistentiy and sklllfully. In all of tn,
| departments there are some very responsible,
| positions which are held by women and ad
| minstered successfully where men would fail
There arc some designing and some frail and
| foolish women in the departments but they
are in a very small minority, and at the worst
| they are trying to earn an honest living by
pretty hard work.
| POKER AT THE CAPITOL.
| Between the visitors in the galleries, the groe
in the restaurant and gambling in the commit
tee rooms, the Capitol is about as well stocked
with the ordinary everyday vices as could be
| desired by the most exacting. The seductive
game of poker is not only breaking quorum
| in the House two or three times a week, but, il
| reports are true, is breaking" some member,
| also. These games III the committee rooms are
played nearly every day, Ii is said, and before
| going into one OF them members draw four
| five or six hundred dollars from the sergeant
| alarms. The curious feature of it is that " hat
| many members take out of one safe is replaced
| by corresponding amount left by one mem
Der in another safe in big envelope. which
has now grown to great proportions. The pos
| SCISSOR of the enveiop. is a popular man from
the west, who is SAID TO be the most amiablt
man and the best poker player in the House
| The other parties to the game do not keep al
| envelope.
THE PERPLEXITY OF AN AMIABLE MAN.
A certain Congressman who has a reputation
among his colleagues for good nature Wal
found by a STAR reporter the other day
greatly perploxed and annoyed over ,
letter he was trying to write. He threw
down his pen as the reporter tool
u seat beside him. This Is prett,
state OF things" he exclaimed, Il am trying x
write an apology and have no EXCISE TO pu
into it. 1t is TO Mrs. Wilkins of NV district
She used to be of my district at some time Of
other, and now she is in one of the depart
ments. She came here for me to get her
| place. She is rather advanced in years. and
exerted myself to get her as comfortable a pc
| sitlon under the government as 1 could. There
| was no especial reason. by long acquaintance
or strong influence, why / should have exerteC
myself for her particularly, but got her
good place. She had not been il
it long before she sent fol-
her son and / was asked Il
get him pione, which did Then she asked
me to do sSHething for some other relative
which i was glad to do. By that time she
wanted an increase OF pay. She got II. Their
her sons family had increased and she wanted
his salary to increase accordingly. That wa,
fixed. L thought that was about enough. Well
yesterday got letter from Mrs Wilkins ask
| ing what evening would be at home. that she
wanted to see me on important business and
| expressing the opinion that there would be nc
improperly in her calling to see me, as she
knew my wife. who is now with me. The let
ter was all right enough. only did not think
could get any more public favors for Mrs
| Wilkins am afraid wrote her q very SHARP
| raplv told her that any business abe fniph IA