Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-08-08
MEIGS ON HIS METTLE.
present Returned Without Thanks,
and Other Waits from Washington.

and Other Waits from Washington.
WASHINGTON. August 7.-General NJ.
I. Meigs, who was recently retired as
Quartermaster General of the Army, is
now supervising the erection of the new
Pension Office building in this city. Gen
eral Meigs has handled millions of gov
ernment funds during his official life.
There has never been asuspicion as to his
honesty He is very punctilious in all
matters of honor. He is a fine old gentle
man of the old army school. There
Is DeIng USED IN the building
of the new Pension Office a good
deal of terra-cOtta work. A BOs-
ton company has the contract for furnish
ing this material. The President of the
company evidently did not know what
kind of man General Meigs was. The
other day there arrived in a carload of
terra-cotta two large and handsome lawn
vases of that material. Accompanying
the Dill OF ladlng was note to the express
cOmpany's agent here that these vases
were intended as a present for General
MelgS, 1t was requested that they be
sent TO that officers residence with
the compliments Of the company.
They arrived at the Generals residence
he was seated on his lawn. AS soon as
he found out what they were and where
they came from. his mad was up. He
was about as violent as Solicitor RaVnOr
of the Treasury Department. is. when any-
body hints at using influence with him.
lie ordered the eXpressman to take the
vases back to the office, and wrote a note
to the agent to ship them to the Boston
company, and that, too, at their expense.
He then wrote lnftpr n tho DroGi1ont Of
that company, which, as it was
penned before he cooled off, was
very much on the fireworks
order. 1t is safe to say that the Boston
company with which General M6igs has
contracted for furnishing terra-cotta work
for the building which he is erecting will
not send him any more presents. General
Meigs was, by the way, born in Georgia
while his mother was ON a visit to the
State.
IMPORTATION RECEIVED AT THE INTER
NAL REVENUE BUREAU
here points to the selection of the whilom
Pleasant as Deputy Collector of Internal
Revenue under CollectorJohnson. In fact it
is taken for granted here that Pleasant will
receive such an appointment. The princi-
pal influence that would induce such an
exercise of the appointing power by Col
lectOr Johnson is thought to be Mr.. James
Atkins. 1t is unnecessary to say that
the officers of the Internal Revenue Bu-
reau do not tackle very kindly to the idea
Of Pleasant being retained in the service.
1t does not strike them as consisting very
well with the eternal fitness of recent
things.
EX-SENATOR M'DONALD'S FRIENDS
here, and he has a number of them, do not
think he is acting very wisely in rushing
into tho (lbin n9mnainn fp
speeches. They simply keep up a COM
plant that they commenced nearly year
ago. 1t is, in brief that for Presidential
candidate, Senator Mcdonald is Just a
little too soon. He boldly burst into the
ring about the 18th of last November, and
has kept the public Notified ever since
that he is there. He has issued pronuncia-
mentoes and things and has been very
busy. And now he is billed for number
Of speeches in Ohio, in which all sorts of
subjects must necessarily be handled.
And this the while other men, who have
made Presidential bee-hIves of their hats,
are very wary and chary of saying or
doing anything. Some of them wOn'teven
say whether they are candidates or not.
Mr.. McDOnald's friends fear the worst
from the impetuous course he has taken.
They have often demonstrated with him,
but he won't have it. He is too full of the
idea that he would make a splendid can
didate, and of the policy of impressing ii
upon others at all seasons of the year and
all days Of the week. Mr. Blaine used to
be like Mr.. Mcdonald, but he has never
yet pOcketed a nomination. There is such
a thing in politics as people getting tired
of one thing-see the Republican party,
for instance-and the blight has been
known to be almost an epidemic where
politicians have been restless unless they
were prominently mentioned seven or six
times n week for the office upon which
their guns are trained.
MIR. TERRILL Is CHIEF
of one of the minor divisions in the Treas
ury Department. He has under him, be-
sides males, three female clerks. One of
the latter is a bright young lady, the
daughter of a deceased army officer who
was stationed for some time in Atlanta
This young lady is the only emplOye
under Mr.. Terrill who does not write a
good hand. She has influential friends.
Mr.. Terrill has time and time again tried
to induce her TO improve her handwriting,
but she has not done it. Mr.. Terrill
would 90 at it about every day in this
style: "Suppose there should be a reduc-
tion Of force in this office, and ] should
lose one of my lady clerks; which would
go, the one who writes a poor hand or one
Of the two who write good hands?" The
answer would always be given, parrot
like, bv one of the females who writes
a good hand, "Why, the one who
writes poorly, of course" This went on
for long time until Il few days ago. The
young lady, who is not handy with her
copying, was getting very tired of it.
Upon the occasion referred to Mr. Terrill
again asked his time-worn and worm
eaten question: (which would 90, the
poor writer or one of the good writers?v
As quick as flash the badgered young
lady answered: "The one who had the
least influence would 90, of course" Since
then Mr. TeIrIll has shelved his question,
and no more is said about the hand-writ-
ing Of the lady who certainly by her an
swer demonstrated that she had pretty
we'll mastered the principles which 20 to
make up glorious civil service.
A PROMINENT OFFICIAL
of the Navy Department said to-day that
it was intended by that department to
take strict cOgnizance in the future of a
class Of Oflenses which has hitherto been
INDUCED in by some officers of the navy
with considerable impunity. He referred
to the habit Of duplicating pay accounts.
Hitherto officers reported guilty of this
Oflense have been allowed to smooth things
over. Frequently this smoothing has not
been very satisfactory to the parties
who suffered by the duplicating of pay
accounts. The number of recent cases Of
this kind in the army, and the punish
ment, of the offenders by the War Depart
ment is what is awakening the Navy De-
partment. The matter has been looked
into and it has been found that nu-
merous cases which should have been
punished have been allowed to go free.
The determination has therefore been
reached that naval officers who duplicate
their pay accounts must, in the future,
stand up to the rack and take what is in
store for them under the regulations. This
Will be good news to brokers who have
advanced money to officers for months
pay but to find that some other broker has
done the same thing for the same month.
CHOLERA LESS VIRULENT.