CHAPTER VIII.

Government Clerks

PROMINENT daily paper, published in London, Eng., has this to say of women clerks:

"There are many advantages in women clerks. They are found to be punctual and docile. Their good conduct and

decorum after office hours insure a steady attendance not broken down by 'Derby' headaches, or the drowsiness that follows nocturnal dissipation. They have not that genius for getting into debt, which is an indication of superiority displayed by their male colleagues. It is also worthy of note, that the sluggishness of promotion, which is one of the difficulties of all official careers where men are concerned, is got rid of in the case of women. No matter how closely they may restrict themselves to their work from ten to four, the clever, clear-headed, vigorous young girls who are government clerks are ready enough for society in the evenings. They enter it with freshness of feeling, because they have honestly earned relaxation; and the fact that they are pecuniarily independent, enables them to meet men frankly and on equal terms. Their very success in examination and in office life, implies their quickness, brightness, and good health,

and these are the qualifications that tell in a sweetheart and wife, as well as in

A POSTOFFICE CLERK.

The result is that they get married off with reasonable celerity, and thus the official field is kept clear by the weeding out of brides, who relinquish red-tape for orange blossoms, new girls coming in to take their places. For those, however, who can not or will not marry, the office duties provide a quiet, steady and decorous career. Most of them live at home; many help to support a relative; all have shown, by their docility and steadiness, that a young woman is ready to work hard for half the pay that will content a young man.'

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There does not seem to be that fine and distinctive sense of justice in the last statement that all liberalminded people would like to see exemplified, in equal pay for equal work; but it is to be hoped that the young man either did better work or supported more relatives on his double amount of pay. In regard to government lady clerks in this country we have even a more flattering picture. They are represented as more industrious, more punctual, more painstaking, more obedient, more patient than the men, in similar situations. It is doubtful if anywhere in the world is assembled so large a body of women as these employes, possessed of such social virtues, such fine breeding, and such social accomplishments. Of course there are a few among them with giddy heads or false hearts. Although there have been some pretty faces that have married their owners to a senator, a judge, a governor-in one instance to a foreign nobleman-no expectations of that romantic sort are cherished by the rest. There is a certain proportion

who go into the best society and shine there; in fact, they have never left the society in which they were reared. They change their office dress after the hours of work are over for a calling suit, and then proceed to make visits, and they attend such of the evening entertainments as they please; being the daughters or widows of admirals, senators, and other dignitaries of the past; the daughters and wives of similar dignitaries of the present; being perfect ladies, they command the treatment of ladies, and enjoy their social life. Among the ladies of distinguished lineage in the Treasury Department at Washington, are Mary E. Wilcox, adopted daughter of General Jackson, and daughter of Donelson, who ran with Fillmore for vice-president, and god-daughter of Van Buren; Charlotte L. Livingston, whose husband was a grandson of the distinguished chancellor; C. E. Morris, a granddaughter of Robert Morris; Sophia Walker, a daughter of Robert J. Walker, Polk's secretary of the treasury; Miss Dade, a descendant of John Randolph, and niece of Winfield Scott; Helen McClean Kimball, widow of General Kimball, killed in the Mexican War; Sallie Upton, daughter of Francis Upton, of Brooklyn; Mrs. Granger, the widow of General Gordon Granger; Mrs. Tyndale, widow of the Hon. Sharon Tyndale, of Springfield, Ill., and others.

Of course the opportunity to secure such positions was a great blessing to many widows and orphans of gentlemen who had died in one branch or another of the government service-women who had either starvation or intolerable dependency before them. The salary of a majority of the clerks is nine hundred dollars a year,

paid monthly; a very few have one thousand dollars, and a still smaller number enjoy a remuneration of twelve hundred dollars. They go to the rooms which the government provides at nine o'clock in the morning, remaining until four in the afternoon, and they work constantly nearly all that time. It is not a position of emolument without labor, by any means, and any who have imagined the office a sinecure, will please read the following detailed account of their duties:

They bend all day over their desks.

They copy letters from hour to hour, in round hand, without erasure.

They compute.

They keep books.

They make clean records in big ledgers.

They register bonds.

They print and cut, and file and sort.

They count with the accuracy and dexterity of machines, and in a manner that it is perfectly wonderful to observe, seeing and reckoning at a single glance, not only the figures telling the denomination of a bill, be they one or five, or twenty or a hundred, but those also at the same time telling the date of the series, and those which are to be found in a red-line, both under the treasury seal and near the upper right hand corner, thus keeping at once a double tally. They have great skill, too, in making out the face of money that has been injured by fire or water, masses of charred rubbish that one would never dream to be anything but embers, and that which has been water-soaked to a ball of pulp, are restored by their patient research so that a

good part of the original worth is made out and redeemed. Having so little of their own, there is something pathetic in the way in which they handle money by the million, none of which has ever been known to stick to their fingers.

For many years all the writing and copying work was given out at the department for ladies to take to their homes, and it was paid for under a tariff of ten cents for every hundred words. This was before the era of female clerkships, when a lady was supposed to lose caste by doing anything in the shape of public work. For the past twenty odd years, however, the ladies engaged in department work have been admitted to formal clerkships, with stated salaries.

The Treasury, Postoffice, Patent offices, the Smithsonian Institute, and Pension Office all employ a number of ladies, but it is next to impossible ever to find a vacancy, owing to the fact that a lady in office who intends to resign-and this is equal to the oft-quoted remark, that few die and none resign-knows immediately of an acquaintance or friend who has capabilities for the work, and who steps in as she steps out. Women without influence, political or other, can not expect to gain the position simply because they can perform the duties. Five hundred women could do that. We hear sad stories of delicate, high-bred girls who have lingered year after year at the capital, filling inferior positions, while waiting-waiting for a seat in congressional halls. One bright girl did get in by perservance and pluck, if her story is true. Here it is: