The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1894-06-08
IN GOVERNMENT EMPLOY
THERE ARE NEARLY 1000 FEMALE
CLERKS IN WASHINGTON.

They Are Scattered All Through the
Departments-The Varied Work
They Do-Cupid Also at Work.
r WANT to say word about the
woGasn clerks of Washington,
writes Frank G. Carpenter in the
Detroit Free Press. They are the
brightest and ablest people in the
service. They do their work con
scientiously, and some of the most eff.
ficient of Uncle Sans employees are of
the gentler sex. If / had my way
would give the women the preference
as to all classes Of work which they
can possibly do, reserving only the
harder places for the men. AS it is,
however, there are two men to every
woman i'll the departments, and the
number of women all told amounts to
less than 1000. These women are of
all ages, from eighteen to eighty, and
there Is, by the way, one woman in
the Treasury Department who has
now reached ninety years. There arc
many women over sixty and hundreds
of sweet young msidens of twenty
Ave. These women do all sorts of
work. Starting in as counters in the
Treasury about n generation ago, they
have extended their work to nll sorts
of clerkships, and they now pass upon
questions of law, examine patents,
translate foreign languages, and do
everything under the sun. Some of
the most expert counters of the Gov
ernment are women, and several of
the very best bookkeepers of the
Treasury wear petticoats. Women are
fast making their way rs typewriters
and stenographers, and the chief
trouble to the outside employer Of
labor ut Washington is that as soon as
he trains a woman thoroughly into his
work rs typewriter or stenographer
she makes an application to Uncle
Sam and gets place at higher salary
in one of the departments. I have
had this experience happen to me
half dozen times. and I have come to
look upon my Office here as kind OF
training school for the Government
service. In the dead letter Office the
most expert translators of bad writing
! nre wonien, AMI il would surprise you
to know that the Treasury Depart
ment has woman lawyer who pre-.
pares the briefs for internal revenue
metters and who could probably make
more outside of the department. by
practicing law than she gets by acting
rs law clerk within it. There are a
| number of women editors in the SER
| vice at Washington. The official rec
| ords Of the Civil War are to certain
| extent gotten up by women, and in
the Navy Depa :tment you find women
who are making maps and tracing
| charts for our ships in different parts
of the world, and in the Government
| printing Office there are women type
settlers, women stitchers. press feeders
and compositors.
Everyone has heard of the pretty
| girls of the Treasury, but you find
beautiful maidens in all of these Gov
crnment departments. Hokc Smith
directs the handiwork of 1900 girls,
and Secretary Lamont has a company
OF ia in his department Of war. Post
masterGeneral Bissell has hundreds Of
maidens under him. and in the Gov
.ernment printing Office there are more
than 1000 women. Many of these
come of the best families of the coun-
try. Not few are the daughters of
noted Generals. Governors of States,
| Senators and Representatives and now
and then you finI n relative of Presi-
dent or n Cabinet Minister. The ma
jority of them are women of good edu-
cation, and with but few exceptions
they are educated and refined ladies.
They receive salaries ranging from
S72O to $500 II year. and II lar re mum.
ber of them support families. Many
( OF them are widows, not n few are old
J maids, and thousands are sweet mar
ilagcable young women, who have too
much sense to change a sure living I'M,
der Uncle Sam to a prospective one in
company with some Sood-for-nothing
man. The best of them are, however,
open to engagements, and not n few
Of the most notable marriages Of Wash.
| ington in the past have been IN con-
nection with Government clerks. At
torney General Brewster got his wifo,
whose features were Vcnus-l like in their
beauty, in n Government department
here. She was the daughter of Robert
j. Walker, former Secretary of the
Treasury, and rs she sat at her desk
one day i'll the Treasury department
the future Attorney General walked
through the room. She made some
remark about his LONELINESS do not
know whether Brewster overheard it,
or not, but he saw her, and with him
it was case of love at first sight He
sought an introduction and shortly af-
tcrward offered her his hand and his
wealth. and his name for herself and
her children. IT il said that he pro
posed to her i'll words something like
this: "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, and the next time Mrs. Brew
ster came to Washington it was as the
wife Of the Attorney General of the
United States. Stephen A. Douglas
got his wife in one of the departments
of Washington.
1t is wonder to mo that there are
not more marriages among clerks.