The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-12-26
IN SEARCH OF AN OFFICE.
A Woman Asks Private Secretary Haifort
H. aha Shoula Nax S.aa>aa liz

A Woman Asks Private Secretary HaIford
why She Should Not Succeed Him.
Pauline Pry. in Washington Post.
If you are the crank or egotist to-day,
when you have failed to unload your mis-
sion on the President as he shook your
hand with a few hundred others inside of
fifteen minutes during the regular public
reception at the White House, you inform
q doorkeeper that you wish to see Private
Secretary Halford. You are Didden freely
to walk right up ~stairs.n Following this
suggestion you land on the second floor in
q broad corridor OF the east end of the
house.
four turn arrived, without the formality
Of a card preceding. you enter the office OF
the private secretary. 1t is q large. bright
room, nondescriptly furnished. At the
further end of the room Private Secretary
Halford greets you. How he greets you
depends chiefly on elective ~afinities and
his instructive perception of the character
of your errand. He is popularity known
among press representatives and seekers
after political plums as the man with q
marble heart" However, he tells me that
since election he is figuring only in the one
role-a receding ray of the setting sun.
1t was a difficult thing to confess to him
that | was looking after his shoes. But 1T
must be done and l dad it. begging him to
inform me with the wisdom of his expert
in the Office why President-elect Cleveland
should not appoint q woman as bis private
secretary.
Though he instantly recovered himself.
could see that Mr.. Halford experienced
the momentary twinge which even q just
man feels on first entertaining the idea
that his particular success is measurable
by q N However, he said, speaking
seriously and thoughtfully, There is alb
solutely 40 reason, so far as my experience
goes, why Mr.. Cleveland should not OPP
point 8 woman private secretary If he
~rantc 20 Thn nv o,lur nf onnh n
venture would depend entirely on the
woman and her relations with the Presi-
dent. Here. as every where. the man
or woman makes the office. The question
matter any further than it does into the
work of q woman in journalism, law, or
medicine. / can even see where the in
tuItive quality of the feminine mind might
make the right woman more valuable than
q man-as the Presidents confidential ad-
wiser. Then the virtue which only women
and cardinals possess to a supreme degree
of tact would economically grace the
private secretary's office. On the whole.
/ can not find q single obstacle in the way
the President. gwen always. as L
nave said, the right woman in con.
junction with the right President"
He might have added. though 1 do not
nation, the right Presidents wife. The
fact of the matter is that wives. however
advanced their views on other points. have
@ common doctrine of the sphere of woman
with reference to the particular woman
who is their husbands assistant In busl-
ness. They believe with one mind that.
properly. she should be washing dishes or
nursing babies. The relation of O man and
his private secretary brings the latter so
far within the family that o Presidents
wife might readily prove an important
factor in the success of his woman private
secretary. Whether it 10 this or the dis
franchieed state of woman which has here
tofore prevented o suggestion of her value
in this capacity, / cannot say. But IL IN
worthy of note that despite the now genera
| employment of women In clerical md
confidential business relations with men.
not only no President. but 10 mem Der OF
Congress-. no Senator. no Cabinet officer
and but one United States minister abroad
has undertaken q woman secretary. When
this minister and his family and his pri-
vate secretary departed on their mission.
Quoth q clubman prophet. Mari my
words-either the minister's wife or his
private secretary returns TO this country
inside OF 9 year."
And she did-the secretary. But it was
not romsntic. The wife only tried to prac-
tice the wife theory concerning husbands
woman secretaries. and insisted on the girl
tending the diplomatic baby when she was
not receiving diplomatic condolences or
working tho diplomatic ty pc writer. Hence
the denouemenr.
However. private secretary Halford'l
shoes are before yor. and / have done whai
| couid.