The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-07-02
STEERING The new CLERKS
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
By Frederic j. Haskin. Director
Makhingfon. ID. @.


parts of the country they arrive at
the union station, with a determined
grip on their suitcases and a flushed
look of awe for the towering white
dome of the national capitol There
is no installing their mission. They
have the air of somewhat insecure
confidence that marks the young wo-
man breadwinner all over the world,
and with it a suggestion of dignified
importance appropriate to their posi-
ton. They have come 20 work for
the government!
So the matrons of the Young Wo-
mems Christian Association always
recognize them as soon as they come
thru the gates, and see that they get
on car which takes tneIn to the Of
flee of the organization. Here they
are advised as to a suitable boarding
house.
Washington is full of boarding
houses, good, bad and Indifferent.
Rows of tall, Gaunt houses. with front
bay-windows; stone steps with iron
ratings on which the boarders sit on
troplcaily hot evenings. waving palm
lear rams in a futile attempt to keep
cool and combat the mosquitoes; base
ment dining rooms that greet the Wis
Itor with the ghosts of long-departed
caobages and sauer kraut NAV be
round on street after street thruout
the northwest section. Each displays
neat little sign of some sort with
the non-committal words, Rooms and
Board" to attract the weary seeker of
lodgings
The door is usually opened by
tired African cook, who seems to re-
sent such an unwarranted intrusion
INTO her already multifarious duties
and calls her mistress from the bot
tom of the staircase in a voice which
is a protest against the burdens of ex-
istence There is a long interval of
silence, except for the sounds of vari-
Gus boarders moving around upstairs
WINE the prospective ledger becomes
acquainted with the ostentatious albeit
inexpensive grandeur of the 'parlor"
Th1s room is the principal feature of
the better boarding houses the first
thing the prospective boarder sees
when she enters a house, and in most
cases she is led back to it while she
makes her final decision.
The rest of the house may rarely
fulfil the expectations aroused by this
first impression, but one is fortunate
to have a parlor at all. Some of the
houses rent their "parlors' nowadays
and contain no provision for receiving
guests.
The Young Woman's Christian As
ISOLATION of Washington has no lodg-
ing accommodations of it's own. 1t
has very fine lot on which 1t intends
to erect a large building some day, but
in the meantime funds are short
Hence, when the officers learned that
hundreds of young women would be
called to Washington during the year
for government service, they conduct
ed an investigation of local boarding
houses. A committee of women spent
two weeks in going around and inter
viewing landladies, inspecting houses
and making lists of references, so that
haps the first complete index of
boarding houses that has ever been
made by any organization.
A boarding house must live up to
the requirements of the association
before the officers will send girls to it.
There must be a parlor where they
may receive guests. The bedrooms
must contain what the officers con-
slider an adequate number of windows.
There must be certain regulations con-
corning the number of people using
one bath. And the landlady herself
must be a woman of stern principles
and morals, preferably consistent
church goer-
When a girl arrives at the asSocia-
tons headquarters she is carried to
the office on the second floor by an
elevator run by II woman, and led to
the matron in charge. The girl usual
ly greets the matron, telegram in
hand, which she f1ourishes before the
good lady, explaining that she has
been appointed to such-and-such
place in one of the departments.
will you tell me how I can get
there p" is the impatient question. This
business of coming all the way from
Wyoming to do ones patriotic duty by
the government IS a thrilling matter.
The matron in charge always tells
the girls to report for duty as soon as
they can reach the place to when
they have been appointed, for the rea-
son that their names are placed on
the payroll from tile date of reporting.
So the girls usually leave their suit
cases and parasolS in the association s
offices and rush to report, returning
in the noon hour lin some cases the
government permits them to have the
afternoon Off to start on the trail OF
q boarding house.
A girl reached the office of the asso
citation the other day from a small
town in Alabama She was very
pretty girl, and somehow the matrons
at the Union station had overlooked
her. Another woman had approached
her graciously, however, and offered
to help her find a home. She mad
accepted, they had taken a street car
and the woman kept up a converse
ton until they ndu TedChCu bAoI Tvs
tination. Whom they got off the car,
the girl found that they were in a
neighborhood which even to her un-
travelled eyer appeared unpleasant
What did you do?' the matron
asked concernedly.
u lust thought very hard for a few
seconds" drawled the young lady firm
". land then 1 stopped right still in
the middle of the pavement, and look
ed that lady squarely in the eye.
have decided not to take advantage of
YOUR extreme courtesy, after all, L
said: and then 1 turned and ran for
street>~car that was stopping on the
corner. The car took me about five
miles into the country, but 1 found
nv way here with the assistance of a
policeman.
Now" continued the young lady, Il
S.a Mt tn % to q Mace where the nen-