Knights of Labor. She was again instrumental in organizing a woman's society, the Joan of Arc Assembly Knights of Labor, and was us first master workman and a delegate from that body to the district assembly.
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ALZINA PARSONS STEVENS.
In the district she has been a zealous and energetic worker, a member of the executive board, organizer, judge, and for a number of
years recording and financial secretary. In 1890 she was elected district master workman, becoming the chief officer of a district of twenty-two local assemblies of knights. She has represented the
district in the general assemblies of the order in the conventions held in Atlanta, Ga., Denver, Col., Indianapolis, Ind., and Toledo, Ohio, She represented the labor organizations of northwestern Ohio in the National Industrial Conference in St. Louis, Mo., in February, 1892, and in the Omaha convention of the Peoples Party, July, 1892. She is an ardent advocate of equal suffrage, an untiring
worker, a clear, incisive speaker and a capable organizer. She has been appointed upon the Women's Auxiliary Committee to the World's Fair Labor Congress. For several years she held a position on the editorial stiff of the Toledo "Bee." She is now half owner and editor of the " Vanguard." a paper published in Chicago in the interests of economic and industrial reforms through
political action.
STEVENS, Mrs. E. H., librarian, was born in Louisiana. Her maiden name was Hebert, and her family was of distinguished French Huguenot blood. She was educated by private tutors and in the seminaries in New Orleans. Her education is thorough and extensive, and she is master of both French and Spanish, to which fact she owes her success in her present arduous position as librarian of the agricultural department, Washington, D. C., which she has held since 1877.
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MRS. E. H. STEVENS.
She is the widow of a West Point officer who filled many prominent positions during his lifetime as a member of the Corps of Engineers. He traveled extensively and she always accompanied him, gaining wide knowledge of the world. He died abroad some years ago while building railroads. When he died, he left her in straitened circumstances, with two children dependent upon her for support. She applied for a government position in Washington. She says of her entrance in that field: "I came to Washington with only one letter of introduction in my pocket. That was to the Postmaster-General from the then district attorney of Baltimore, and a note from Mrs Gen. Grant. The Postmaster-General turned my case over to the then Commissioner of Patents. Gen. Leggett, who gave me a place in the drafting oftice, but. upon its being made known that I was a fluent French and Spanish scholar, I was often called upon to translate, and finally they placed me at a separate desk and kept me at that during the whole Grant regime, giving me only translating to do. Indeed. I may be said to have inaugurated the desk of 'Scientific Translations' in the Patent Office. When Mr. Hayes came in, Mr. Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, put in a requisition for a 'new translator.' My salary had been $1,000, but the desk becoming a permanency, the salary was rated at $1,600, and Schurz, without ceremony, put in one of his political friends, transferring me to another place as correspondent, at $1,200. My friends were indignant, since I had done the work of organizing that desk, and. acting on their advice, I resigned, but was immediately reappointed in the agricultural department. I was the assistant of Mr. Russell, the librarian. His health soon failing, I was promoted, on his retirement, to the office of librarian " Mrs. Stevens in time past wielded a ready and facile pen. She is a member of the Woman's National Press Association of Washington, and is interested in whatever will help woman onward professionally. Her success in her conspicuous position is pronounced.
