The Savannah morning news., 1901-01-27
TuF U. S. TREASURY GIRLS.
orD1,cEp GENTLEwoMEN OF RE-
sPECTABILITY.

,rt-They Now Do All the Count
% the NOney-SeIdOm Make
.,,-.,l,e--At First 1t Was Thought
Male Clerk Was Equal TO Two
,te Clerks, but That Opinion
I. No Longer OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
MATTERS of Interest.
washington, Jan. ga great deal of
o..,ant and disreA pectful wit has been ex-
1,5ad upon Treasury girls" and most
&c unmerited and decidedly out of
-,,os Nearly all of them are reduced
.rtlewomen, of unnistakable respectable
o.. and II goes without saying. in these
s,,s of rigorous civil service examina-
,,ors that they must be persons of good
.s,,stion and consequently Of refinement.
,.soed so difficult have the exam nations
or-r of late-purposely made so because
here are not nearly enough places to go
.rornd" among the appl cants-that many
,olIese-bred girl and ex-schooi-
ords herself unable to pass. Occasionally
.,nck and brightness does 1t where edu-
a+ion faus-as in the case of a young
u.or,an at recent examination, being I'M
1bi o
&c Saturn, replied that she was certain
Il was far enough away not to interfere
r,itb her wolk of cCuAting coupons at
eeventy-fve d Il RS month; and she got
the coveted pla e. though hardly up to
tbo Standard of book knowledge.
The Iady-clerks of the Washington de-
nartments might set up an aristocracy
~ their own, if they chose. Among them
are widows and daug tiers of my and
navy officers of highest rank, daughters
and granddaugtters of former members
of the cabinet, majors, Supreme Court
justices. and even Presidents of the
waited States. granddaughter of
Thomas Jefferson long held a clerkship.
The only daughter of Andrew Jackson
nonaIdson. (the adopted son of Andrew
1acksop). was born in the White House.
educated in Berlin; and later the whirl-
Gig of life found her for years employed
IN the post-office depaI tment The proud
daughter Of Chief Justice Taney-a belle
and beauty during her fathers life-be
came a Treasury g,rP' when fortunes
smiles were turned to frowns. The daugh-
ter of Robert ]. Walker, former Secretary
Of the Treasury, served for years under
another secretary, who was not so indul-
gent as her father might have been.
A great many Of them are the orphans
of soldiers who gave their lives to the
country in the Civil War, on one side or
the other. For time ii was the widows
Of these brave men-equally brave wheth-
er they wore the gray or the blue. But.
now after four decades, the widows have
Joined their soldier husband in Shadow
Land or else are too old for labor. Most
of the women clerks have helpless de-
widows
with young children Ga good many of che
recent recruits made widows by the Span
ish war; and wives with invalid or Grip
pied husbands, but unmarried girls with
aged parents to take care of, or younger
brothers and sisters to educate. True, as
has been often remarked, the government
IS not a charitable institution. nor its de-
partments run" on the plan of an asy-
lum but it is eminent,y proper, all things
being equal, to employ every time such
deserving women as the above-named
rather than those who have no pressing
need of the salary; and to the credit of
our statesmen be it said that in almost
every case where choice is to be made,
it is not the latter who win. However,
as every picture has it's shadows. there
Is no denying that you may now and
then find some worthless creature quar-
tered upon the treasury by an admiring
congressman, and kept there, too, in spite
of protest and civil service and tradition
al survival of the fittest;" but, happily,
such examples are very few.
It Is only about forty years since wo-
men have been emp Dyed at all in the de-
partments Before the Civil War, such
thing was unknown. Gen. Spinner be-
gan it, by employing a few war-widows
and orphans to cut notes apart with
for act 6a tpf 11l
women have been fussing around. holding
meetings, contributing their own money
and soliciting others. in the effort to
erect monument to his memory. The
monument, l believe is made and paid
for but the hitch now is that they
want 1t to stand on the front steps Of the
treasury and for some. unknown reason
the powers that temporarily be, refuse to
grant 1t that conspicuous position. To-
day at least, half the personnel of the
Treasury Department Is made up of wo-
men, and fully one-third in the other de-
partments. In che treasury they do prac-
ucaIy ell the money-counting, and much
OF the other most responsible work, de-
handing honesty and accuracy. The few
merits of government funds that have ever
oeen detected were mostly made by men.
VINO are said to have less power Of resist
ing temptation than the so-called weak
constitutionaNy more enterprising and
courageous? Since the first greenback
was printed, the counting and putting up
81 Packages of money have devolved en-
''e4y upon girls and matrons.
mere are a few in Office now who have
oeeh there from the beginning. and bill
,ons Of dollars have passed through their
lauos without the fraction of a penny
sucking to them. OF course they are
'eeoy' or they would not be there; yet
tnese experienced and trusted women
whose services could not well be d.
pensed with. not only get about half the
saIdiy mat is paid to men occupying les
tesponslole positions, but are expected to
e thankful that they are permitted t.
1--WE Oncle Sam for nine hundred dollars
year. 1t does sometimes happen, but
.Siy rarely. tina! a package of bank note
opuhted by tired woman is found TO b
snort IN the account; and then, no mat
nov innocent the counter may be, or
40" thoroughly her honesty has been
pioVea by long years OF faithful ser
we Tie missing amount is taken out Of
tutLre salary; or If too large for that.
cue Is also discharged, without a dollar
H'I may be due her. And in almost
very instance Of this kind on record, it
maS oeen afterwards found that the thief
WIS some male messenger, white or col
oltl' or some man who received the pa X
ase tyon' the lady and syly distracted a
VeN rom II. There Is an old saving: