The Prettiest Clerk in Washington.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 188, 22 January 1887, Page 5

The Prettiest Clerk in Washington.

It is said that the prettiest girl in the employ of the Government is a copyist at the Navy Department. This is saying: a good deal, as about 4,000 women hold positions in Washington, and probably 2,000 more in other parts of the country are receiving salaries from Uncle Sam. Some of the " countesses," as the girls employed in the Treasury are called, are very pretty, but the belle of the navy is claimed to be entitled to the apple of Paris. She is a niece of our Minister to England, Phelps, and her family reside in this city. For about four years the young lady has bee" employed as a typewriter in the office of Commodore Walker, the chief of the bureau of detail, receiving a salary of $900 a year. She is a dark-eyed blonde, with a beautiful figure, and the officers of the navy are all her devoted slaves. She was so much interrupted in her work by them that Commander McCalla, in whose room she is, was compelled to prohibit the officers from interviewing her in department hours, and got a large screen, behind which her attractions are now hidden. If the Commander leaves his room for a moment there is certain to be some bold young tar about the building to run in for a chat with the beauty, and when MeCalla returns the culprit is profuee in his excuses. The number of officers who have type-writing to be done is astonishing, and they all went to superintend the work. The young lady does not appear to be aware of her attractions, but cannot but notice that the other type-writers are not in such demande as herself. When she leaves the department at night there are generally two or more officers accidentally waiting in the corridor to escort her eafely down the elevator and see her to the streetcar.