The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-02-22
A WARNING TO WOMEN WHO ARE SEEK
ING EMPLOYMENT AT THE
NATIONAL CAPITOL.

ceSSlty Tor multiplying the clerical
Departments it was discovered that
there was dearth of men for these
positions, General Spinner suggested
to Mr.. Chase that women could be
employed with great advantage to the
Government and at the same time be
wage-earners of the families of SOL
dlers and officers who had gone to the
front-the handling of the currency
it was agreed would furnish special
field for them, with their deft fingers
and quick perceptions. Secretary
Chase consented to try the expert
ment by the appointment of three
who were especially fitted for the
yrsk, Thus another avenue was
opeued for women workers.
How well they performed their
duties is demonstrated by the fact
that othe.s followed in quick success
sion, until before and since the war
thousands have been borne upon the
rolls, and il is ever the pride of our
sex that but one was ever suspected
of being rec1eant to the trust reposed
in her and that not a dollar has ever
been really lost to the Government
, through woman employe.
Through their achievements, and
the compensation awarded them, there
has gradually grown sort of mania
on the part of women age-earners to
flock to Washington to secure en-
ployment in every branch of the Gov
ernment.
From every section of the country
they come besieging members, Sena-
tors and executive officers of every
department, until they have made
the lives of many officials intolerable
by their opportunities, hosts of them
without the first qualification for any
branch of the service frequently being
obliged to enter preparatory schools
before they can pass the Civil Service
examination that is now imperative.
One can but admire an energy and
perseverance that overcomes all such
formidable obstacles, or fail to pity
when, after having passed the exam
nations, they are still unable to Sue
ceed simply because of the excess of
numbers of applicants and the few
places.
Every now and then through some
legislation for a specific temporary
work for limited number the multi
tude appears, to go through she same
painful ordeal of importuning, wait
ing and for hundreds disappointment
in the end. Those who do "get in"
go in and out to their daily grind
fearing they may see the fatefu1 yell
low envelope lying on their desk when
they return, enclosing the dreaded
announcement, "Your services are no
longer required"
Women have tainted on reading
these brief notices, and more than one
have actually died and have been
borne from the building dead, shot
through the heart by these fatal
words.
Young women, particularly, mis-
understand the facts about clerkships
in Washington. The pay seems lib
eral, and so it is. But the living is
high.
The air of every department is un-
healthful, and while the hours ap-
pear short, when you come to sit in
one spot from 9 in the morning until
in the afternoon, with only thirty
minutes at noon, day after day, it
becomes irksome and exhausting.
No one can keep her beauty or
high spirits in the enervating atmos-
phere of a Government building and
the daily grind of clerical duties, there
being no sinecures.
On several occasions, when there
has been a wholesale discharge on ac-
count of exhaustion of the appropria-
ton or completion of the work, pa
thetic scenes have been witnessed as
they filed out, to return to their desks
no more. Two hundred or more per-
sons were discharged from the Census
Bureau recently in one day.
There is nothing available in the
way of employment in Washington
outside of the Government hence,
when all chance of securing or re-
tanning employment in some of its
departments is impossible, there is nc
alternative but departure from Wash
ington. 1t has cost all the employees
have received to live and carry the
burdens that almost all of them have,
but few saving enough to pay their
expenses to return to their homes OF
provide place to live.
Not infrequently illness and mis-
fortune serve to complicate the situa-
ton and render them dependent upon
charities.
Looking at the question from an
unprejudiceG standpoint, and having
great respect for self supporting wo-
men, strongly advise against women
who must support themselves coming
to Washington to seek any position
within the gift of the Government if
they can possibly do otherwise.
We have known very many of
these noble women in the quarter of a
century that we have seen them come
and go, and we are proud of them as
women who have rivalled the strong
er sex in the discharge of their duties
by their intelligence, keen intuition,
courage, fidelity and high moral char
acters. and have watched with much
pain the telling effect Of the eternal
grind upon their lives.-Nrs. John
Il. Logan, in WeaO York /on,nal.
IT IS not entirely prudent to put
your hands in the straps furnished in
the street cars for overcrowed passen-
gers. Turn one of the straps in any
car not fresh from the shops inside
out, and the reason will be plain.
Handled as they are by all sorts and
conditions of men, they are really car.
riers of diseases. The abraded skin
| &c C. A1,.11 ..,FANka6