Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1893-07-08
NEW HAVEN, CONN.,, SATURDAY MORNING, JULY 8, 1893.

before q cooking stove, and the appurte-
nances thereof, saying, cit does not matter
| what you would like to do, or what you
| could do much better than you will ever
| do this-your work Ia here, so don't dis =.
| grace yourself by rebelling."
That a woman ought to cook. and to like
| to cook, and to be an accomplished cook,
/ simply because she Is woman, is one of
| those fallacies with which the world seems
| 10th to part No one Is Mortified if man
| acknowledges that he has no taste for
| farming or carpentry yet these are neces-
sary and manly employments. Why
| should all women cook, while all men do
not and will not plant potatoesa
OF a young lady who displayed with
| some pride the new shades she had been
putting up, a gentleman asked, "Whatl
can you drive a nail in straightl"
"Certsinly can," she replied. "I am
very fond of hammers and nails"
"Well, said he, "I never drove a nail
straight in ell my life," and then he
laughed, as If oonfessing only to an amiable
weakness that had its ludiorous side.
If che had added, as che might have done
-s.but hate to make bread, )" would he
have considered that smusingi As pros
porous business man he was able to hire
his nail driving done for him, and che,
with his business training and experience,
would have been In position to place her
culinary cares in other hands.
When the time foretold by Miss Bar
lows arrives, that IL, when all the cooking
for the community Ia done by trained
scientific cooks, the "boIn cocks" will
take it up as business, snd will find IL
simply remunerative. Then the women
who are not born cooks will have an op-
portunity to do the other things for which
they were born. If they prefer millinery,
or architecture, or Horticulture, to turning
pancakes and peeling onions, they will be
allowed to follow those vocations. Only,
when women and men generally are doing
that work in the world for which they are
best fitted. which they enjoy most, and In
which they are likely to succeed, it will be
time for the world to come to an end.
Meantime, in epits of all the jokes which
the humorists invent at their expense,
many of the teachers of cooking are doing
excellent work. They are developing the
genius of the predestined cooks, and in
structing all their pupils in wholesome
methods of preparing food, in domestic
science and hygiene. and doing much to
make cooking profession as honorable to
those who choose it as 1t is essential to the
comfort and support of mankind.
WOMEN WORKERS AT WASHINGTON.
Nearly 5000 women are employed in the
government Offices at Washington, trifle
more than one fourth of the whole army
of clerks. They were first employed by
the War Department as confidential clerks
ia the Office of the quartermsster-g general,
iu 1862, when the exigencies of those trou
bled times made this measure almost
necessity. The "greenback" and the wo-
man in government service appeared at
that both have kept their places.
OF the three women frst appointed to
the positions mentioned, one still retains
her clerkship, while the designations of the
others were accepted after many years of
faithful service. Soon after these were ap
pointed, assistarce was needed in the
Treasury Department, and as male clerks
were scarce q number of women were en-
ployed to count the currency and to do the
work of copyists. Here they were found
to be legible writer's, very deft in counting
the dilapidated currency brought in for
redemption, and quick In learning to de-
hundred and ffty-nine are now employed
there, scattered through the different
bureaus as sorters, counters, detectors,
"blind readers" stenographers. copyists,
translators and telegraph operators.
Gradually all departments have been
opened to them, and they fill all manner
of PLACES, from press feeders in the Print
ing Office at twenty -one cents an hour, to
examiners in the Patent Office at 81 1,800
year. In the Department of the In
terror more than one-third of the force
are women, and III the Pension Office
great many women are employed, moat of
them the widows or daughters of soldiers,
and the number of second grade, or
81 400 clerkehips, is proportionately lar
ger than in the other Offices. The greatest
number employed in any one bureau are
found in that of Printing and
Engraving attached to the Treasury De-
partment; the fewest, and here are excel
lent opportunities for women who can
take the necessary special training, are in
the Agricultural Department. The reason
why there are not more women employed
as microseopists, entomolcgists, vegeta bic
pathologists and botanical artists, is be-
cause there are not enough who are prop
erly qualified for the work. The prelimt-
nary training Is to be obtained In but a
few of the colleges for women, prominent
among these being Barnard College in
New York City, and 1t is a rather expen-
sive course of study, but for those who
| can tske up this line of work the work is
waiting, both in Washington and in other
| fields.
That women should seek for employ
ment in the various Offices Is not strange,
as the pay Ia certain, the hours shorter
| than in most other lines of occupation,
| and the positions from highest to lowest
are of assured respectsbility. The disad-
| vantsges are the feeling oneself to be but a
very email part of great machine, and
the xiety lest change in the admins
traticn, turn in the political wheel, should
send one adrift. Yet there are women who
hold their places. year after year, spite OF
all changes, because their experience and
skill and faishfulness have made them in
dispenssble. Generally spesking, they are
| all faithful and honest. While many OF
the man appointees have accepted bribes
sold information to the highest bidder,
forged, or carried on systems of fraudulent
accounts to conceal defalcstions, it Is said
that the only one of these things ever at
| tempted by women has been the selling Of
information, and then only in few un,
important cases.
With all this "dependability, com
| petent women are sometimes superseded
| by men who are at least no more competen
than they, and the male clsrk's salary fo
| doing the same kind of work that tn
woman clerk does Is ususliy higher thai
hers. This is not just, bu5 it is the wa,
of the world, which has not yet worked NJ
to gee that good, honest, thorough worl
should he paid for according to its value
and Tot according to the sex of the worker