Ten years in Washington : Life and scenes in the national capital, as a woman sees them . acknowleged value, that theseGovernment experts have been allowed to go to distantparts of the country, to restore burnt money belongingto Adams Express Company, because it was kno^vn thatthere was no one else in the land, who could perform thisservice. The whole basement floor of the north wing of theTreasury is occupied by the busy counters of mutilatedmoney. Here sit one hundred and eighty women count-ers, restorers and detectors. Side by side, we see the fadedand the blooming face. Here is the woman,
Ten years in Washington : Life and scenes in the national capital, as a woman sees them . acknowleged value, that theseGovernment experts have been allowed to go to distantparts of the country, to restore burnt money belongingto Adams Express Company, because it was kno^vn thatthere was no one else in the land, who could perform thisservice. The whole basement floor of the north wing of theTreasury is occupied by the busy counters of mutilatedmoney. Here sit one hundred and eighty women count-ers, restorers and detectors. Side by side, we see the fadedand the blooming face. Here is the woman, worn andweary—born, more than likely, to ease and luxury—thankfully working to support herself and her children;and at the very next table, a maiden, whose fresh youth,care has not yet worn out—each working with equal thank-fulness, to support herself, and besides, perhaps, father andmother, brother, sister or child. The time of toil, for one who must earn her living, isnot long; indeed, the hours are fewer than the averagehours of ordinary labor. She does not complain of them;. THE BEUSH-AKD-BROOM BRIGADE. 355 she is grateful for her chance. Yet her working-dayis as long as her brothers. Her chance, alone, is the same hours and the same toil, her stipend is one-fourth smaller than his smallest. At three oclock P. M., hats and shawls come down fromtheir pegs, lunch-baskets come forth from their hiding-places, the great corridors, and porticoes, and broad streetsare thronged with homeward-wending workers. For thespace of half an hour, the Treasury-offices and halls seemdeserted, and then—Lo ! the Broom Brigade ! Cobwebs,dust and dirt, no longer dim the granite steps, the tessel-lated floors, the marble surfaces of the Treasury-building,as they used to do, years ago. Congress has provided aBroom Brigade, with fifteen dollars a month, to pay eachmember—and here they come, the sweepers, the dustersand the scrubbers—ninety women! Three years ago, was established
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