Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1881 — Female Clerks. [ARTICLE]

Female Clerks.

The first female clerks in the national treasury were appointed in 1862 by Secretary Chase, who placed them in the office of the comptroller of the currency at S6OO a year. They cut and trimmed the United States notes issued in sheets, and did their work well. As soon as they had been appointed there were many other applicants, and their number steadily increased, many of them securing places through the peculiar energy and perseverance which will refuse to take no for an answer. There are now more than thirteen hundred women in the departments at Washington, the majority employed in the bureau of engraving and printing and in the government printing office. They excel as counters, their slender, sensitive fingers turning notes with great rapidity and actness. They detect counterfeits, it is said quicker than men, though they do not succeed so well with accounts as the average feminine mind has little natural love for figures. Counters and copyists receive S9OO a year, other women sl,200 to $1,400, several of them $1,600 and one in the internal revenue sl,800. i Most of the clerks are well educated and refined, and msny have seen more prosperous days. A number are widows and daughters of army and naval officers who lost their lives in the civil war. Very few of the young women or widows marry or resign, and consequently the hundreds who are constantly seeking places in Washington have very slender prospects of success. The most untiring, obstinate place-seekers at the federa capital are women.

Victor Hugo, having asked Admiral Maxse to give written views on the Irish situation, for use as the basis of the manifesto which he promised Parnell, the admiral has printed his statement in the form of apamphlet. ; He upholds the efforts of Gladstone’s ' cabinet to deal with the Irish land ► question, and condemns the conduct > of Parnell and his associates. In coni eluding he urges. Hugo to preserve a f generous silence.