The silence could be felt. There was no shorthand reporter present, and exactly what he said is not now known—perhaps nothing very different from what other retiring Vice-Presidents have said. No reference was made to the duel, none to the scorn he had merited, unless it were in his words, "For injuries received, thank God, I have no memory." He thanked the Senators for kindness and courtesy. He prophesied that if ever political liberty in this country died its expiring agonies would be witnessed on the floor of the United States Senate. As he walked out no man rose, no man shook hands with him; when the door closed on him it shut him out forever from position, usefulness, home, country, the love of women, and the friendship of men. At the President's reception on the following Morning two Senators were relating the circumstances to a group which had gathered round them. On being asked, "How long did Mr. Burr speak?" one of them answered, "I can form no idea; it may have been a moment and it may have been an hour; when I came to my senses I seemed to have awakened from a kind of trance." Burr, hurled from power and honor, wandered a fugitive from justice, and at last would have been laid in a pauper's grave but for the care of a woman who had loved him in his better days. Surely the Psalmist was right when, speaking of the righteous and the unrighteous, he said: "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away." XIII PEOPLE IN THE DEPARTMENTS ABOUT one-third of all the employees in the government departments at Washington are women. Several receive over $2,500 per annum, about fifty receive $1,600 per annum, one hundred receive $1,400 per annum, four hundred and fifty receive $1,200, three hundred receive $1,000, and the remainder receive from $600 to $900 per annum. The Civil Service Commission records for last year show that 3,083 women were examined for the various positions opened for them under the civil service. Of these, 2,476 passed and 444 were appointed. Of the applicants examined, 1,351 came under the head of "skilled labor." The most popular examination for women is that of stenographers and typewriters. "Good stenographers" is the ceaseless demand of the department official—not mediocre, but good par excellence. Government work is well paid only when well done. Promotions are at least sometimes the reward of merit. A very striking illustration of this occurred last winter, when a young woman was made chief of one of the divisions in the Post-Office Department because she knew more about the work of that particular division than any other employee in it. She receives a salary of $2,240—among the highest paid to any woman in the service.