Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1902-04-06
Women Who Toll and Spin
FOR UNCLE SAM
In the Federal Departments

clerk. 1t has been urged that the w6.
men drawing these comparatively
good salaries are being spoiled for
wives. Perhaps they are. No one can
blame a girl for being reluctant to give
up comfortable income and the tree.
dom to live as she pleases for the
cares and worries of married life.
When Department girls do marry,
they usually make success of 1t.
They do not have to look out for a
home, and the business girl of today
has a fireproof heart. No dashing
neer do well can hope to catch her
fancy and her neat nest egg. She
meets and knows too many men not
to be able to catalog them. Then the
matrimonial chances in Washington
are few. 1t is not a business town.
Take away the Government and the
place would be dead in no time. Manu-.
factories, there are none. The male
Department clerk is not an eligible
by any means. He frequently gets no
more per month than his female co.
laborer. and sometimes less. A large
proportion Of them live from hand to
mouth, and are flush" on salary day
and -'broke" on all others.
Experts in the Treasury.
Much has been said and written
about the "old ladies of the Treasury"
1t is true that there are great many
elderly women in that Department
but surely their age is no cause for
complaint. Some are in the seventies,
one or two have drifted along to eighty
odd. Their salaries all touch or over
lap the hundred dollar mark per
month. Among them are the widows
and daughters of famous men. For
years they have worked in this biggest
bank Of the world, and millions upon
millions of dollars have they helped to
pour out through the enormous check
books over which their white heads
are constantly bent. The Treasury
contains the most interesting workers
in Observation-Disclosures are the women
whose skillful eyes and delicate I'm
gers can detect a counterfeit in sec.
ond. So expert are they that a glance
suflices. Occasionally, however. a
counterfeit is so near the original that
It takes considerable time and labor
to prove the forgery. In the case of
bogus bill, the paper is soaked and
then separated by means of slender
knife. The Government greenback Is
made up of three thin sheets pressed
together with hairlike threads of silk
between them. One can imagine the
steadiness of hand required to separ.
ate these sheets one from anothe,
without tearing Or mutilating them Ia
any way. These women are not paid
extremely large salaries for theii
work, not over 81, 500 per annum, yet II
is doubtful II many men could be
found to do the work regardless of sal
airy.
Some pension officials declare that
II male instead of female clerks were
employed on the pension cases of our
old soldiers, their widows and orphans,
the poor prospective pensioners would
die of starvation before action was
reached on their claims. In cases
where eSactitude to the verge of fin
ickiness Is required, women are better
clerks than men. This has been borne
out in the work Of the Census Office
where the tabulating machines, re.
quiring unending patience and the
most skillful exactness OF touch, are
all run by women.
Experience in Census Bureau.
The Census Bureau has proven a
source of much contention. Coming
as its organization did at the close of
the Spanish-Amerlcan War, 1t was a
Godsend to many families that had
suffered loss Of husband, son or broth.
er in that conflict. There should be
some consideration of this fact shown
in the dismissals which are now talk
ing place. However. a great many
clerks were employed who realized
that their work would be of a Temporal
ny character. Some few are prepared
for dismissal, but the great majority
have spent their money carelessly and
without thought for the morrow, and
these find themselves in an unpleasant
position. They have acquired taste
for Washington life, and go back to
the farm, or the store, or 10 the little
country home. discontinued and with
longings which cannot be satisfied.
Without doubt, these 1000 or more
young men and women who have been
employed in the Census Bureau have
added TO the revenue of the street car
companies and the confectioners OF
Washington fdr the past year or so;
and the prettily gowned figures and
gay young voices of the girls will be
missed from the streets Of the Capital.
1t Is a well dressed crowd of women
and girls who troop down to the De.
partments in the mornings, the women