The record-union., 1893-08-24

graduated, the young physician may
practice and yet be in office, becoming
what Is known as "sundown DOCTOR"
Inc medical schools of the Georgetown
College and Columbia University are of
the highest rank. In the Army Medical
Museum the.finest medical library in the
world IS accessible. Justices of the
u mted States Supreme Court and great
medical officers OF the Government are
members of the faculties of these and
and other learned establishments in
Washington.
The House ?oted to reduce the annual
vacation ofthe clerks from thirty days to
fifteen days. Undoubtedly many of the
GoverDment employees do abuse the pres
ent privilege. which allows them thirty
DAYS SICK leavefn each year in addition
TO the regular month of absence. 1t is
reckoned that one out of every six of
them always gets in as many as thirty
days illness per anpum. Persons ofthis
class always have their holidays figured
out Tor year in advance. BY having
things thus scheduled they are able to
turn their leisure TO the greatest adVan-
tage. For example, whenever there is a
legal holiday there is usually a half
holiday OH, the day previous. The clerk
takes the working part Of that half-holi-
day of. This gives him two days clear.
But on the day before the halt-holiday he
goes to the chief OF his bureau and asks
permission TO leave at $50 p. NJ, so as to
catch train. Thus the single days holi-
day is expanded into TWO days and a half.
The ingenuity with which such affairs
are managed is SAID to he wonderful.
Legal holidays are not subtracted from
the thirty days leave. Likewise no ac-
count is taken of the holidays that are
granted when eX-Secretaries die. There
were i've holidays of this latter sort in
| December. However, il should be ex-
planned that two-thirds Oft the Department
employees rarely take a day of the sick
leave allowed them.
III clerk is absent on account Of illness
over sixty days III any year, he or she
must pay a substitute. The Civil Service
! Commission provides ali the substitutes
that are wanted. 1t is provided that the
clerks shall give to the substitute a GER
tain proportion of the pay, usually
amounting 10 about 56 per cent. by thus
hiring substitute clerk might retain
hls place III the service of the Govern
ment for ten years, though himself blind,
paralyzed and confined 10 his bed. In
all cases OF sickness a physicians GER
/ tltlcate is required. \ lot long ago the
! Treasury Department made q rule TO the
effect that such certificates must always
state the nature OF the complaint. But
the local medical society resolved in
! formal council that such thing was out
| OF the question, so the regulation fell to
the ground.
/ The clerks are perpetually haunted by
/ a dread lest they are watched by detect
4 ives OF the Secret Service. That SCrt Of
| thing is sometimes done, but only rarely
/ and on request of a superior officer who
| suspects that something is wrong. ii q
| man who occupies d responsible position
gets to drinking and playing the races"
/ ii may be thought worth while to have
him shadOwed for time. with view to
hnding out what his habits are. II a
/ Government employee is dissipated, his
boarding-house keeper, washerwoman
and tradesmen are apt TO suffer and they
do not hesitate to address complaints to
! the department If such appeals come in
so frequently as to be annoying, an in
vestigation follows. Oddly enough, the
clerk who lnisbehaves in such ways is
/ usually not a new man, but an old hand
! who feels sure OF his place.
If a money counter in the Treasury
/ takes a glass of beer in Il saloon he im-
agines that the man who picks his teeth
on the other side of the screen in the
doorway is lurking there 10 watch the
/ motion of his elbow. If the young lady
who helps hash the worn-out bills in the
/ Redemption Division INDUCES in llirta-
| ton at an evening party, it is with a faint
though lingering anxiety lest the cock
( eyed violin player may possibly be oo-
/ serving her at SO much an hour, drawn
on vouchers from the Secret Service
/ Fund. If the youth who does up silver
/ in bags OF LOCO each invests - in poker
chips he cannot help suspe-ting that the
newly introduced acquaintance on the op-
/ posite side OF the table, who keeps strad-
/ ding the ante so provOkingly, is an Of
ficer in disguise detailed to shadow him.