There are drones in this hive. These are office hours, yet here and there may be seen a young man and maiden whose in-door costume marks them as _employés_ of the Treasury, loitering in the shadow of pillar or alcove, lingering by stair or doorway, saying very pleasant things to each other, doubtless, after the manner of young maidens and men. Flirting or making love in the flare of the public must always be a desecration of the heart’s best sanctities. Beside, Sassafras and Sacharissa, you ought to be at work. It is precisely such as you who have brought discredit even upon the faithful and unfortunate, and sometimes rebuke upon the whole Treasury Department. For, as a rule, the Treasury, like all the other departments of Washington, is a vast refuge for the unfortunate and the unsuccessful. The only exceptions are found in two classes, viz.: those who use departmental life as the ladder by which to climb to a higher round of life and service, and those who seek it without half fulfilling its duties, because too inefficient to fill any other place in the world well. Unpractical authors, sore-throated, pulpitless clergymen, briefless lawyers, broken down merchants, poor widows, orphaned daughters, and occasionally an adventurer, masculine and feminine, of doubtful or bad degree,—all are found within the Treasury. I remember an aged woman, with bent back and long, wasted fingers, sitting behind the door in the Redemption Bureau. Her dim eyes peered through her spectacles and her poor fingers trembled, as she tried to count the dirty, ragged currency. “Alas! sad eyes,” I thought, “by this time rest from toil should have come to you.” “It is pitiful,” I said, to the kind gentleman who reigned over the division, “that one so old should have to come through rain and snow to fulfil a daily task. Is she not too old to do her duty well!” “No,” was the answer, “she does it very well. But if not, she would never be removed. She is a _protégé_ of President Lincoln.” But any one who fancies that even woman’s work in the Treasury Department is a sinecure, should climb to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. You may climb, but you cannot enter unless you hold a written “sesame” from the Secretary of the Treasury; so sacred and guarded is this very hot precinct in which Uncle Samuel creates his “Almighty Dollar.” The business of this Bureau is to engrave, print, and perfect for delivery to the United States Treasurer, all United States notes, Treasury checks, gold notes, drafts, fractional currency notes, all bonds and revenue stamps issued by the Government of the United States.