The Treasury, the Interior, the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, the Postoffice Department, the Pension Office, and the Government Printing Office, all employ a large proportion of female clerks. The average rate of compensation is $900 per annum. For some years it was much lower, but the end came, and the reward, as it usually does to those who patiently labor and patiently wait. It has proven another verification of the old adage “A work well begun is half done.” The progress has been very slow, but all prejudice is obstinate and difficult to remove; every reform fights for its foothold inch by inch; the gates of light ever unclose reluctantly. The legislative halls of the nation have not been wanting in men who have vehemently maintained that no government clerkship should be filled by a woman. Not on account of mental, moral or physical lack, but because these places were their legitimate spoils, which they prostituted their high offices to unworthily bestow. And on the other side, there have been great and generous spirits that have emphatically declared that _all_ of these offices should be given to females, unless, indeed, the charge of bureaus requiring an unusual degree of executive ability. Many women are skillful accountants, neat and rapid copyists, and accomplished linguists, and these are what government work demands. Their accuracy and rapidity in counting money is marvelous. Beyond and far above their intellectual or mechanical capabilities, I should mention honesty. The peculations and defalcations of male employes have been legion, but no woman has ever been known to betray her official trust. A former Secretary has affirmed that in his opinion this unfailing honesty was attributable to cowardice; that they were not too good to steal, only that they were afraid! Well, let the honorable gentleman have his way. No matter how low the motive, the fact remains, and the result is favorable to the national exchequer. Even with the odium of this ungenerous construction, they will probably continue to enjoy a pardonable pride in this bit of departmental record.