Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1876-05-05

BOTTLED BEESWAx.n
ting square wIlh the colonel

Getting Square with 1he Colonel. +.
When General Grant wrote in his
report of the last campaign against
Richmond of Buffers being abottled
APP at City Point, the idea struck
the American people as quite origin
al aud excellent'y descriptive of the
occasion. But the phrase was not
original with him. He must have
heard of il many years before, while
he was yet in the army. When among
the officers, Colonel Twiggs, after
wards General Twiggs, who surrendl
cred his forces to the Confederates
in Texas, without firing a shot, at the
opening of the last war, was known
by the nickname of Bottled Bees
wax" The origin of the name was
practical joke which Twiggs tried
to play off on sutler, but which in
the end was ludicrously turned
against himself. The Mexican war
had just closed, and Colonel Twiggs,
in command of the Second ORA
goons, eight hundred sabers strong,
was stationed at Fort Jessup, in
Texas. The post sntler was Mr..
Richardson, very obliging man,
who, whenever he went to New Or
leans to re plenish his stock of goods,
always carried with him private or
ders from the officers of the regiment
for the purchase of various articels.
On one of these occasions Colonel
Twiggs gave him an order for
dozen bottles of French beeswax,
which he said a certain firm in New
Orleans specially imported from
France. The sutler was peremptori-
ly directed by the Colonel to bring
the wax on his return, and he prom
ised to do so. Arriving at New Or
leans, he first attended to his own
purchases and then to the various
orders from the officer, but he found
it impossible to get the beeswax for
Colonel Twiggs. The firm designat-
ed by the Colonel had never dealt
in the article, and Mr.. Richardson
ran from street to street, from store
to store, but nowhere did be find any
imported French beeswax. Having
spent whole day in the fruIless
search, the sutler returned to the st.
Charles Hotel rather despondent.
As he entered the public hall of the
hotel he met Captain Hamilton, of
the same regiment, who was on his
way back to Fort Jessup from an
official visit to Washington. To him
Mr.. Richardson confided the difficult
ty he was in concering the beeswax
for the Colonel. sits a Joke. the
Colonel has been playing on you
Richardson, said Captain Hamilton,
"Yop'd better turn the tables on him.
and pay him back in his own coin.''
"But how?" 'tNever mind" said the
Captain, and divulged his plan,
which was carried out. They bought
a dozen French perfumery bottles of
large size, melted down several
pounds of white wax and filed the
bottles with it, cot labels specially
printed in French: "Cire pure DEL
la6eLIes FrancdiseS"- pure wax from
French bees-wrapped the bottles
in French silken paper, and packed
up the whole in handsome basket
of foreign make, in which Eau de
Cologne had been imported. With
this the sutler, Mr.. Richardson, and
Captain Hamilton returned to the
fort. They had no sooner reached
there than Colonel Twiggs sent an
orderly to enquire whether the
French beeswax had come. Of course
it had, said Richardson; and shortly
after he presented the basket with
the bottles to the Colonel, who was
supremely astonished at this unex-
pected compliance with bis order.
He examined the bottles, and they
contained wax, to be sure; the lables,
the wrapping and packing, every
thing, indeed, about the case bore
French look, and Twiggs could not
restrain himself. "Where in thun-
der did you get it?" he asked Rich
ardson. "Well, Colonel, to tell the
truth, it was a hard job. I spent the
best part of two days on it. l even
thought I wouldn't take it at all, be-
cause the price was so high, but then
1 didn't like to disappoint you, so /
paid the money. Here's the bill
Colonel" He grasped it. "H-H,"'
he said, "you don't mean to say that
you paid Ave dollars a bottle for that
stuff?'' ''Not penny less, Colonel"
Twiggs bit his lips; he felt that he
was sold, but would not own it. So
he handed the sutler $50 in Uncle
Sans coin and kept the wax. But
nelher Richardson nor Captain Ham
ilton kept the secret, and soon Colonel
Twiggs was known in the regiment
and in the army only as "Bottled
Beeswax.p .5a- ;,laI sgl si-a-'-i e..