Читать книгу The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work - Virginia Penny - Страница 19

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"Many Government offices could be creditably filled by intelligent and experienced women. Miss Wallace and Miss Thomas were employed as computers on the Coast Survey at Washington in 1854, with salaries each of $480, with perquisites making it $600. A man to do the same work would probably receive twice as much." "Mrs. Miller, at one time, was engaged in making observations of the weather—the thermometer, barometer, direction of winds, quantity of rain, &c., in which she was assisted by another person appointed by a society of which both sexes were members." Computations of this kind could be made at home. Mr. Blodgett, who had charge of the Smithsonian Institute in 1854, wrote: "The discussion of observations in physical science, meteorological observations particularly, has never been undertaken in a general manner until attempted in this department of the Smithsonian Institute, and I have found that accuracy and despatch require well-trained minds of great endurance. Only the best minds can successfully undertake scientific calculations and computations; and these must possess a sort of half masculine strength and endurance." Yet we would not offer this as a discouragement. If it has been done, it can be done again. "During Mr. Fillmore's administration, two women wrote for the Treasury Department at Washington, at salaries of twelve and fifteen hundred a year." Several ladies are employed in different parts of the United States for copying by registers of deeds; but the majority are relatives of the registers. In some towns of the East, however, other ladies than relatives are employed, who receive $1 per day for their services. Miss Olive Rose has performed the duties of the register of deeds, at Thomaston, Maine. She writes: "I was officially notified of the election, required to give bonds, &c. I am unable to state the exact amount of salary, as it is regulated by whatever business is done in the office. Perhaps it may average between $300 and $400 yearly." The Duchess of Leuchtenberg was elected to preside over the Imperial Academy of Science, in Russia, a few years ago. An acquaintance told me that in the warehouses at the London docks, silks, shawls, and such goods are exposed for sale, and many ladies go down in their carriages and purchase. If any female is suspected of concealing on her person goods that she has appropriated in the warehouse, the watchmen who guard the place remark they would like to detain her for a few minutes, and convey her to a room, where a woman is in attendance to search her. The present collector of customs at Philadelphia writes: "The only instance of employment of women in connection with the custom house here has been, while Liverpool steamers were coming to this port, some years ago, when one or two were employed to search female emigrants, to prevent smuggling on their persons. The employment was only for a day or two at a time, and is now discontinued." Some time ago it was feared that large quantities of precious stones and laces were concealed on the persons of some women, and so smuggled into New York. Consequently "two American female searchers were inaugurated in the revenue service as aids. They each receive $500 per annum, and are paid by the month. Men receive $1,095 (or $3 per day) for similar services. The qualifications needed are intelligence, tact, and integrity. They spend but one or two hours on the arrival of each steamer or passenger received from abroad." I think, in European countries, female police, who examine the persons and passports of women, receive the same salaries as men.