The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-07

printing office there are women type
settlers, women stitchers and press
feeders.
Everyone has heard of the pretty girls
of the treasury, but you find beautiful
maidens in all of these government de-
partments. Secretary Smith directs the
handiwork of / 500 girls, and Col. Lamont
has a company of ia amazons in his de-
partment OF war. Postmaster General
Bissell has hundreds of maidens under
him, and in the government printing
Office there are more than LOCO women.
Many of these come of the best families
of the country. Not few are the daugh
tiers of noted generals governors of
states, senators and representatives, and
now and then you find a relative of
President or a cabinet minister. The ma
iOrity of them are women of good educa-
tion, and with but few excep-
tiOns they are educated and
refined ladies. They receive sal
aries ranging from $40 to $500
a year, and a large number of them sup
port families Many of them are widows,
not a few are old maids and thousands
are sweet, marriageable young women,
VINO have too much sense to change a sure
living under Uncle Sam to a prospective
one in company with some good for-noth-
ing man. The best of them are, however.
open to engagements, and not few of
the most notable marriages Of Washing
ton in the past have been in connection
with government clerks. Attorney Gen
eral Brewster, who had the uglicst face
which ever entered a government depart
ment at Washington, got his wife,
whose features were VenUs-like in
their beauty, in a government de-
partment here. She was the daugh-
ter of Robert j. Walker, a former Secre-
tary of the Treasury and as she sat at
her desk one day in the treasury Depart
ment the future Attorney General walked
through the room. She made some re-
mark about bis LONELINESS. | do not
know whether Brewster overheard it or
not, but he saw her. and with him it was
a case of love at first sight. He sought
an introduction and shortly afterward
offered her his hand and his wealth and
his name for herself and her children. II
is said that he proposed TO her in words
something like this; My dear, you
are beautiful and | am hidcOus,
but If you will marry me it
will not be the first instance of the
mating of beauty and beast, and | assure
you you will never regret marrying me ~
His proposition was accepted, and the
next time Mrs. Brewster came to Wash
ington it was as the wife of the Attorney
General of the United States. Stephen
A. Douglas go. his wife in one of the de-
member what talk there was about
Secretary Bayard and Miss Markoe dur
ing the time that Bayard was at the head
of the state department
PLAToNIc FRIENDSHIPS.
1t is a 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.
hourly and sometimes fall in love with
one another, but not often. In the bureau
of engraving and printing where the
money is made, there is one man and one
woman at every printing press, amt there
is no separation Of the sexes. There are,
l believe, more platonic friendships here
among young men ana young women than
you will find anywhere else in the country.
and cases have Deen known where couples
have married and kept their marriages a
secret for years in order TO avoid the rule
that q husband and wife shall not be en-
ployed at the same time in the civil ser
vice at Washington. Many such cases
have been found out and the recent in
vcstigation of the congressional committee
will pro 0ably lead TO some changes in this
respect. According TO its report, there
We're last fall twenty-four husbands and
wives drawing salaries from Uncle Sam,
which the husbands and wives who are
out of work and have no job at all think
is decidedly Unfair
One clerk tells me that the big men of
the departments have the softest places
and the most money, While the poorly
paid clerks do the work. There is no
doubt that many a 81 900 clerk does the
same work for which another clerk is
paid 81 200 and 81 400, and many a woman
at $500 is doing thoroughly work which a
L.. Hi.
81 900 is pretty good pay, and the chief
objection to these government positions is
that the employees have little chance to
rise. They may get up to 81 400. 81 900 and
perhaps s., 500 a year, but their chances are
small and the limit is fixed. 1t is seldom
that clerk becomes a cabinet minister,
though cases Of this kind have been known
in the past. Horatio King went into the
postofnce department as a clerk at 81 900
a year and he acted as Postmaster Gen
eral under President buchanan There
are assistant secretaries in the depart
ments who have been clerks, but the
men who 90 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 p. Chase once came to his uncle,
who was then in the United States Senate,
and asked for government job. His uncle
told him he would give him dollar TO buy
an AK or q spade, but that he would not
aid him in digging his own grave in one
of Uncle Sans official cemeteries. Post
master General Bissell told me not long
ago that he did not consider the govern
ment departments good place for young
men, and there is no DOUBT but that an
enterprising, energetic young fellow had
better keep away from the government
service The hours are short, and all the
tendencies are to laziness and good-for-
nothingness. 4 man has To have very
positive qualities in order not to be
turned into a machine, and all the tendea-
cies are TO extravagancies in living Wash