actory to
her, she was, at her own request, transferred to the railroad
division of the General Land Office. Her duties were to copy
railroad decisions, and the work being merely routine clerical
work, she took up typewriting, hoping to advance herself
thereby. This caused her to be transferred to the contest
division, and later she was assigned to a desk requiring
original work, and her duties were to promulgate decisions of
the Department. From this time on the grade of her work was
raised until she was promoted to $1,400, by which time she had
become familiar with the entire work of the division. She soon
found that a knowledge of the law of Congress disposing of the
public domain and familiarity with the rules of practice and
decisions of the General Land Office and of the Department alone
were not sufficient to enable her to perform her work in a
manner satisfactory to herself, however satisfactory to the
Department, and she therefore took up a regular four years' law
course and graduated with credit to herself and her college.

How satisfactorily she does her work is shown by the fact that
out of sixty appeals from her decisions rendered during a period
of six months, decisions involving thousands of dollars, only
one was reversed and one modified, and this because of new
matter being filed after the decisions were rendered by her.

Mrs. ---- also enjoys the distinction of holding a law desk in
the General Land Office, having been transferred to it from the
Census Office, where she had been dealing with mathematical
problems. It was found that a $1,600 clerk was back in his work
with 300 cases which it was necessary to have adjudicated. The
bringing this work up to date was assigned to her. Prior to this
she had written a few decisions. She was at first appalled at
the decree, but went bravely to work with a determination to
succeed. How well she succeeded can be ascertained by the
records of the office. Later she was transferred at her own
request from the public land division to the contest or law
division. Her experience gained in the Land Office taught her
how to adjudicate contest cases, and she was often required to
bring up work of the principal law examiners when in arrears.

Miss ---- was assigned to duty on Board of Pension Appeals to
typewrite decisi