The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1881-12-15
Sam Sperry's Pension.

q
hope, that idle dream, that fond delusive
fancy known as "Sam Sperry's pension"
The wits who congregated in the bar
room and grocery of the Bloomington
Centre post office sometimes had only a
sad consciousness Of futility in their best
efforts; the column of facetT in the To-
cal newspaper frequently palled on the
senses: Sam Sperry's lank and STOPPING
figure as he descended faithfully, twice
every week, from his lone home on the
distant mountain, to 'learn the news from
Washington" bore with it an aroma of
neYer-faiiing interest and diversion.
"Any tcial dokkerments arrived for
me ~ Sam was accustomed to inquire, on
entering the pOSt-ottice, with an air of
lli-c0ncealed consequence, and on being
answered in the negative, the look of
sudden surprise and incredulity which
0Nerspread his features was always as
fresh and real as it had been during the
first six months he had undergone the
( blow. His recovery was as complete and
instantaneous, when, seated on the cOun-
ter with the 'boys,' he derided the very
existence Of his proud nations capital in
terms of the most reckless sarcasm, or, in
/
tul pOtations, palljated the weakness Of
official Judges with torbearanCe which
his listeners found even more irresistibly
entertaining.
They think they re comm it over me,
down there to Washington Sam observ-
ed on one occasion, rolling his eyes upon
bis near neighbor on the counter with a
look which was dark without menace, and
at the same time torcibly introducing the
sharp point Of his elbow to that gentle
mans ribs-"they think they're comm it
over me. down there to Washington. And
all the time they're hangin' Oft about my
pension, what's accumulatin down there I!
what's accumulatin' ~ Here Sans
companion vas actually obliged to move
an inch or two away il order to escape
the too sc1 ere emphasis of the emaciated
elbow. Back pay" chuckled sam
chats what's accumulatn'-back pay .
Let 'em hold ten or a dozen years longer,
and I'll be swimmin in back pay-I'll be
fairly wallerin in it "
With which the deeply confidential as
pect OF Sans face changed to a triumph
ant simper, and, turning to nudge another
companion (as he supposed on his right,
he inadvertently thrust his elbow through
the Wrappings of a large parcel of sugar,
the contents of which were scattered
over the grocery floor.
Sans expression OF diSnay was pitiful.
"Iiaye it charged to your back pay,
sam cried an uproarious though cheer
tul voice
sam took up the cue, and ever after
that bis descent from the West Mountain,
which had before been significant of a
small invoice Of slunks' fur, blueberries
and the like, at the Bloomington grocery,
missed the hampering weight of those
hardly acquired products, and Sans bus
mess transactions at the counter the IN
derstandjng being good between the gro
Ger and those jolly Bloomington boys
were rounded by a regally careless,
"Charge it to pension, Ned-reg'lar pen
sion OF back pay, don't care which"
Rarely, very rarely Sam really did find
document waiting for him at the post
Office marked with the mysterious seal of
the Department Of the Interior, and open
ed it with fingers of trembling eXpeCta-
ton, only to find printed sheet of pain
fully W0Tdcd statistics, to the effect that
"lesides the two hundred and ninety
thousand filed claims, others were con-
stantly being entered, but that III due
time each would receive careful consider
alton" etc. His first heat of desperate
Indignation yielded later to tears of unaf-
tected sentiment, as he murmured, open
sion, | guess SO, boys the grass'll be
growing over my grave before see any
pension" and later still to smiles and
hope again.
The gunshot wound i'll his right hand
upon which Sam had based his claim on
the national bounty was of small account
compared with the harm which he mad
suffered, both in body and soul, from the
soldiers camp life, the Southern marshes
above all, the Southern prisons.
81 don't know what Sam might "a been,
or what he might not a been," said
Judge IIocomb, a prosperous citizen of
Bloomington, who had been incarcerated
with Sam at AHdersonville "'Pon my
honor, boys, he began uncommon bright,
though he Want never what ye'd call per
ticker rough or long Winded. But | can
tell ye one thing, Sam Sperry want
never the same man after he came out o.
that prison.
Even after this asseveration do not
know that any Of the frequenters of the
Bloomington bazaar remarked that the
bOyish head on Sans bent shoulders,
with its rings Of close-curling light lair,
was of a Byronic cast, or that his eyes,
when not filmy from the effects of ague
or rum. were of such perfect and
heavenly blue as is seldom seen even in
the nndmmed orbs of children. Sam was
their Punch, their by-wOrd, their theatre
cOmique; they would have paid twice the
price Of his lordly though prudent nego-
tiatiOns at the counter rather than miss
the zest afforded by his semi weekly ap
pearance. With touch of real pity too,
perhaps, for their old cOmrade, they ca
joled with him in his forlorn hope, en-
couraged in him at all times the freest
expression Of his sentiments, tiattered
him, and regaled him. And often, alas
the feet which had come shuffling down
the mountain awkwardly enough, retrac-
ed their steps in still more desultory
and uncertain manner, and chance pass
ers-by have told how Sam, pausing at
length by some wayside fence, frequently
nudged the post with his elbow, as though
having just committed to it some gravely
confidential or facetiOus remark.
There was one person whom Sans
weaknesses and derelictions failed to in
spire with appreciative mirth. In the
neighborhood of Sans house ON the
mountain there were two other homes.
One was possessed by Isaac Travers with
his belligerent wife and numerous small
children; in the other Mary Ellsworth
dWelt alone with her mother.
Years ago, Sam and Mary had gone
down hand in hand to the school kept in
the little hamlet at the foot of the noun
tain. Mary still keeps the green covered
''speller' in which she and Sam studied
their lessons together. And they were
at the head of the class always, the noun
tain boy and girl-always at the head of
the class, and always first and most i'm
perious in play Mary small, brown eyed.