The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1912-01-27

o+ber ona of a dozen tasks common TO every com
munity in this busy age On the other hano'
however Uncle Sam has on his payroll a NUMBER
of women who have odd duties. Some OF the
tasks indeed, novel, that Uncle sam mao
to train his own workers for their performance
and there are scattered here and there IL Inc
ranks of the army Of feminine workers, women
experts or specialists who have absolutely unique
Observation-Disclosures Of their crafts VINO nave no
rivals anywhere in the world.
For instance there Is woman in the employ +
of the department of state who stands pre-eml-
nent as manuscript doctor" or manuscript
surgeon" Never heard of such thing, ala you
Well it is a very important line OF work Tor an
that there is not wide market for her services
and 1t is form of endeavor that Is almost lnval-
liable to Uncle SAM who likes to preserve intact
all the historical manuscripts and documents
which have had bearing upon the history OIL
our nation Before the government had recourse
to the services Of this "restorer' many OF the
most valuable documents Creates. presidential
proclamations, etc) were fast going to ruin Age
handling and frequent foldings that broke the
paper had, indeed, already played havoc win
many a precious relic. After this ingenious Wom'
an took hold she accomplished wonders in mend
ing the ravages of time. She patched and pasted
and smoothed out wrinkles and the result is that
many Of these treasured mementoes are. to all
appearances, literally as good as new.
very interesting line of work In which Uncle
Sam has recruited a corps of especially adept
women workers is fine book binding In ordl-
nary practice most bookbindng nowadays Is done
by machinery. That is the way 1t is done at
the government printing Office where there Is
maintained one of the biggest bookbinding plants
ia the country. However, the government has
some books that 1t desires to have bound with
the costliest materials and with greater care
than can be bestowed upon the machine-made
product This hand-Work Is performed for the
most part by women and some of the morocco
hnu,1 Seh5
recent years would arouse all sorts of enthusiasm
were they to be exhibited at any of those expo
sitions of womens handicraft which are held
from time to time.
The whole process of making Uncle Sans pa
per money and postage stamps is full OF odd
tasks and many of them are performed by Wom-
en- The women-hundreds of them-assst III
printing the precious product and they have an
ideal field In which to develop their superior
deftness Of lingering in the counting and recount
Ing of the money in the making The newly
printed currency is counted no less than half a
hundred times ere Uncle Sam sends it out to the
people and women do most of this enumeration
They also examine the sheets OF money and
stamps for the tiny defects OF printing, and this
REQUIRES a keenness OF vision almost unbelievable
In its accuracy.
When the soed currency. tattered and torn,
is sent back to Uncle Sam as unfit for further
usefulness it is other women at the treasury
department VINO nave 70 count IL anu eAeeh up
the returns Connected with this ofice-the re-
demption division, are few women whose work
liz perhaps the most miraculous of all the won
der-tasks performed by the women at Washing
ton Their forte is to identify the denomination
al partially destroyed bills which no ordinary
individual would regard as anything more than
waste paper. Currency that has been chewed
BIZ dogs notes that have been torn into bits and
even charred paper money that has been all but
consumed by the flames is taken IN hand by these
wizards and in ninety-nine cases out OF nun
dred they manage to ascertain the denomination
of the damaged bit OF pulp or paper and Uncle
sam reimburses the unfortunate owner.
In line with the detective work Of these money
sleuths is the intuition (you cannot call It any