St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1882-02-03
Sam Sperry's Pension.

For more than two years it was the
joke of Bloomington Centre-that
bright hope, that idle dream, that fond
delusive fancy, known as "Sam Sper-
ry's pension"
The wits who cOngregated in the
bar room and grocery of the Bloom
ington Centre post office sometimes
had sad consciousness of futility in
their best efforts; the column of face
tiH in the local newspaper frequently
palled on the senses but Sam Sper-
ry's lank and STOPPING figure as he de-
scended faithfully, twice every week,
from his lone home on the distant
mountain, to "learn the news from
Washington" bore with it an aroma of
never failing interest and devotion.
"Any 'ficial dOkkerments rived for
me 7" Sam was accustomed to enquire,
on entering the post office, with an air
of lll-cOncealed consequence and on
being answered in the negative, the
look of sudden surprise and increduli-
ty which Overspread his features was
always as fresh and real as it had been
during the first six months he had un-
dergOne the blow. His recovery was
as complete and instantaneous, when,
seated on the counter with the "boys,'
he derided the very existence of his
proud nations capital in terms of the
most reckless sarcasm, or, in a softer
mood, induced by certain grateful po-
tations, palliated the weakness of of
fetal judges with fOrbearance which
his listeners found even more irresisti-
bly, entertaining.
"They think they're comm it oveI
me, down there to Washington" Sam
observed on one occasion, rolling his
eyes upon his near neighbor on the
counter with a look dark without men-
ace, and at the same time fOrcibly in
Producing the sharp point of his elbow
to that gentleman's ribs they think
they're comm it over me down there
to Washington. And all the time
they're hangin' off about my pension
what's accumulatin' down there p
what's accumulatin' p Here Sans
companion was actually obliged tC
move an inch or two away in order t.
escape the too severe emphasis of that
emaciated elbow. "Back pay" chuck
led Sam; that's what's accumulatin
back pay Let 'em hold off ten or a
dozen years longer, and rll be swim
min in back pay-Ill be fairly woller-
in in it.'
With which the deeply confidential
aspect of Sans face changed to a tri
umphant simper, and, turning to nudge
another companion (as he supposed
on his right, he inadvertently thrus
his elbow through the wrappage of Z;
large parcel of sugar, the contents o
which were scattered over the grocery
floor.
SANS expression of dismay was pitt
ful.
"Have it charged to your back pay
SAM" cried an uprOariOus though
cheerful voice.
Sam took up the cue, and ever afte
that his descent from the West Noun
tain, which had before been significan
of small invoice of skunks' fur, blue
berries, and the like, at the Blooming
ton grocery, missed the hamperin.
weight of those hardly acquired pro
duets, and Sans business transaction
at the cOunter-the understanding be
ing good between the grocer and thos,
Jolly Bloomington boys-were rOunde,
by a regally careless, "Charge it t,
pension, Ned-reg'lar pension or bacl
pay, | don't care which"
Rarely, very rarely, Sam really di'
find a document waiting for him at tn
post office, marked with the mysteri
GUS seal of the Department of the In
terror, and opened it with fingers O
trembling expectation, only to find
printed sheet of painfully worded sta
tistics, to the effect that "besides til
two hundred and ninety thousand file,
claims, others were constantly bein
entered, but that in due time each woul
receive careful consideration" etc
His first heat of desperate indignation
yielded later to tears of unaffected sen
timent, as he murmured, "PensiOn
guess so, boys the grass IL b
growing over my grave before l Sc
any pension" and later still to smile
and hope again.
The gunshot wound in his right han
upon which Sam had based his claiI
on the national bounty was of sma
account compared with the harm whic
he had suffered, both in body and sou
from the soldiers camp life, the South
ern marshes-abOve all, the SOuther
prisons.
81 don't know what Sam might
been, or what he might not "A been
said Judge HolcOmb, prosperous cit
izen of Bloomington, who had been il
carcerated with Sam at Andersonvill,
"Pon my honor, boys, he began III
common bright, though he want neV
er what ye'd call pertickler tough {
long winded. But | can tell We on
thing, Sam Sperry WANT never I'll
same man after he come out o. tn;
prison.
Even after this asseveration do NJ
know that any of the frequenters of I'll
B. Bloomington bazar remarked that ii
bOyish head on Sans bent shoulder
with its rings of close curling hgl
hair, was of a Byronic cast, or that h
eyes, when not filmy from the effects
= ague or rum, were of such perfect an
- heavenly blue as is seldom seen eve
in the undimmed Orbs of childre
| Sam was their Punch, their by-wOr
their theatre comique; they won
have paid twice the price of his lord
/ though prudent negotiations at Il
f counter rather than miss the zest a
Il forded by his semi-weekly appearance
With a touch of real pity too, perhap
I for their old cOmrade, they cajOlt
4 with him in his forlOrn hope, encOu
aged in him at all times the freest e,
I I preston of his sentiments, hattert
D him and regaled him. And ofte
alas the feet which had come shutf1iI