The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-03-02
sheets and she does this for nine or ter
hours 4 stretch.

sheets and she does this for nine or ten
hours 4 stretch.
BOTH SEXES WORKING TOGETHER
But do both sexes work together in the
same Office!
OF course they do. American girls
can take care of themselves any place and
these maidens are by no means spring
chickens. Not many Of them are on the
marry, though every now and then We
hear Of one dropping of the pay rolls
with good husband. The late Attorney
General Brewster got wife in this
treasury department. She was The daugh
ter of an ex-secretary of the treasury and
she was one of the prettiest women that
Washington has ever known. Brewster
saw her as he went through the depart
ment one day on some legal business long
before he was attorney general and he
said to friend:
what pretty womanl''
She overheard and replied in a stage
whisper: what an ugly manl'' and
Brewster you know was ugly enough TO
stop clock. His face had been burnt all
out OF shape when he was a baby by his
falling into the fire or by his attempting
to save his little sister from burning Both
stories are told and | don't know which is
correct. At any rate he overheard the
remark of the pretty treasury clerk He
met her the same night at a reception and
she found Mr.. Brewster as entertaining
as he was ugly. After few months no
proposed TO her and she accepted him and
got a hrst-class husband. Stephen 4
Douglas married q department clerk and
many of the ladies of the department go
into the best OF Washington society. 1t
is an unwritten Law in some of the depart
ments that Il husband and his wife shall
not be on the pay-rolls at the same time
and when two department clerks marry
one is expected TO leave. Postmaster
General Villas, however, objected to this
theory and a number OF the cabinet
officers now allow their clerks to marry if
they choose One of the prettiest girls
in the pension Office was married the other
day to a very accomplished young clerk
who worked beside her. Their field of
wori, however was changed in order that
no remark might be caused by the
marriage and they now have posi-
tons in New York. Not a few
clerks are married secretly and their names
appear on the payroll of the department as
single after they have been married. 1t is
q great deal easier to live in Washington
on 3, 600 a year than 81 900 year and cupid
gets along much better when both husband
and wife can keep their salaries.
FLIRTING AMONG CLERKS.
There is of course considerable flirting
among the clerks. II you put one woman
with three men anywhere in the world she
must be an extraordinary female if she
does otthrow coquettish chances TO at least
one OF the three and the men are not hu-
man If they do not look at her. | happen
TO know however, that three-fourths of
these treasury girls could be married if
they wished husbands. They get good sal
aries and as one OF them said TO me the
other day: 1--WE have so much experience
with men here that we are afraid to trust
them. We are like Diogenes with his Ian
tern. We can't find the honest man.
When woman gets 800 month she
doesn't care to divide this amount with II
husband and I can tell you l propose TO
stick TO my salary as long as / can The
heads of departments froWn upon all fiirt-
ing and there is no better way for female
clerk 10 lose her position than by falling
in love. There are lots OF chances for
| quiet conversations, however, in this big
nearly two acres and the length of the cor
rldors IN each story is nearly quarter OF
a mile loag. As there are four stories we
have mile of corridors and there are little
hooks and corners where a man might
! whisper sweet nothing in laGy's ear ii
1t were not for messenger who is holding
down a chair outside OF some big olicial s
door and who is not infrequently ready &c
report anything out of the way.
THE GIRLS OF THE ATTIC.
Some of the queerest work of the treas
ury department is done in the attic and ir
the basement. You can nave no idea of the
varieties of business which is carried or
inside these great walls | stood for tel
minutes yesterday aud watched about fifty
women sewing on carpets in the top loft OF
the treasury. The carpet was stretchet
on frames like carpenters saw horses an(
the girls were having a kind of quilting
bee in joining the widths together. All tn,
carpets of the government the country
over are sewed here and if Custom 3ust
at Cleveland or New York wants carpe
it sends a diagram of its room to the secre
tary of the treasury and the carpet is her
made and shipped These giddy girls d,
the sewing for a considerat ton. The char
women of the treasury take charge of tn
building after the clerks have gone ava,
and for an ho,r or so they turu the depart
ment inside OUT.
''They wash the windows
They scrub the doors,
And tney polish UP the knobs
OF the big front doors"
They are under the charge of a hea,
chairwoman who receives a good rouul
salary for watching them scrub, and the,
get their S240 year for the business
number OF the girls OF the basement sor
waste-paper, and it takes quite regimen
to attend to this business.
All OF the old envelopes, wrappers ant
scraps of paper which accumulate durini
the day are saved and are shovelcd dow
into the waste paper room. This looks liil
i great country cellar. It's walls are white
washed, aud one-half OF the room is divide,
: into three great bins which are filed wit
three kinds OF paper The girls are care
fully watched, and they sometimes find i'm
, portant documents, and instances hay
. been known of money coming down t
this room. One OF the most exciting time
, in the department occurred some time arc
from man dropping a bond into his boot
He had corns, and his desk being in an al
cove he had taken OFF his boot while h
, was counting some 81 600 BONDS. at tn
close of his count he was Mortified to fin
! one missing and this was some hours aft.
. he bad been engaged in making up his talh
He went in his slippers to the chief OF hi
. bureau and announced the loss The wbol
= treasury was in an uprOar, and this waste
. paper room was worked from one end to TIL
other to see il the 81 ,GO0 bond had not fla
4 len into the waste-paper basket and bee
= carried out SO it went on for the rest {
: the afternoon until the clerk, preparing
: leave the department. thrust bis right fot
4 into the long leg OF his boot and found til
: rusttng Sl,000 bond at the bottom. Il
! was the happiest mau in Washington fl
l the next ten minutes, for had he not foun
the security he would have been respons
bic for its loss.
: THE wAsHERwoMEN Of THE TREASURY.
s 1t takes 800 towels day to supply til
t treasury department, and last mont in in tt
S neighborhood OF fifteen thousand towe
t were used. a great part of the treasur