Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-03-31

ter of Robert J. Walker, a former Score
tary of the Treasury, and as she sat at her
desk one day in the treasury department
the future Attorney General walk ed
through the room. She made some remark
about his LONELINESS. l DO not know
whether Brewster overheard 1t not but
he saw her, and with him it was n case of
love at first sight. He sought an intrCGuc-
ton and shortly afterwIrd offered her his
hand and his wealth, and his name for her
self and her children. 1t is said that lie
proposed TO her in words something like
mis- My dear, you are beautiful and
am hideous, but If you will marry me it
will not be the first instance of the mating
of beauty and the beast, and | assure you
you Will never regret marrying me-" His
proposition was accepted, AMI the next
time Mrs. Brewster came to Washington
ii was as the wife of ;he Attorney General
of the United States Stephen \. Douglas
got his wife in one Of the departments at
washington, and you all remember what q
talk there was about Secretary Bayard and
Miss Markoe during the time :hat Sayard
was at the head of the State Department
PIatOnic Friendships.
1t is wonder that there are not
more marriages among the clerks Young
men and young women of marriageable age
work side by side in the departments They
come in contact with each other hourly
and sometimes fall in love with one an
other. but not often. In the bureau of
engraving and printing, where the money
is made there is one man and oae woman
at every printing press, and there is no
separation of the sexes. There are I be-
lieve more platonic friendships here among
young men and young women than You
will find anywhere else in the country,
and cases have been known where couples
have married and kept their MARRIAGES a
secret for years in order to avoid the rule
that husband and wife shall not be en-
ployed at the same time in the civil service
at Washington. Many such cases have
been found out and the recent investIga-
ton of the congressional committee Nill
probably lead to some changes in this re-
spect According to its report, there were
last fall twenty-four husbands AMI wives
drawing salaries from Uncle Sam, which
the husbands and wives who are out of
work and have no job at all think is de-
cdedly unfair.
One clerk tells me that the big men
of the departments have the softest
places and the most money, while the poor
ly paid clerks do the work. There is no
doubt that many a $1,000 clerk does the
same work for which another clerk is paid
$1,000 and sl,400. and many a woman at
$500 is doing thoroughly work which a
Sl,400 man is half doing al her side Still
$1,000 is pretty good pay. and the chief OBJ
lection to these government positions is
that the employees have little chance to
rise. They may get up to sl.io0. Sl.GD and
perhaps 81 800 a year, but their chances are
small and the limit is fixed. 1t is seldom
that a clerk becomes a cabinet minister
though cases of this kind have been known
in the past. Horatio King went into the
Post Office Department as a clerk a. 81. aDO
a year and he acted as Postmaster General
under James Buchanan. There are assist
ant secretaries in the departments who
have been clerks but the majority of the
men who so into the great mills of Uncle
Sam are ground between the upper and
neither mill stone and soon become, as far
as energy, push and ambitious work is
concerned, inanimate powder
You have all heard the story Of how
Salmon z. Chase once came to his uncle,
who then in the United States Senate.
and asked for government job. His uncle
told him he would give him a dollar TO buy