The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-02-09
a STORY OF TWO PUMPS.
The Time and Trouble Required to Start
One and Stop the Other.

The Time and Trouble Required to Start
One and Stop the Other.
Portsmouth On. H. Gazette.
The other day the pump which forces water
into the tanks of the eustom-house building in
this city broke, and the consequence was that
the closets and convenienees at the public
building were for the time being, deprived of
water.
The ordinary way to repair the evil in such
cases would be to send to the machine-shOp and
have the pump mended. But not so with Uncle
Sam. He does things differently; perhaps not
BETTER but with more deliberate caution and less
precipitancy.
When an incident like this occurs. it is the or
der to at once telegraph to the Treasury Depart
ment as to the trouble, and await instructions.
so the Treasury Department was duly notified
by wire that pump had broken in the Ports
mouth custom house. The message was laid
upon the desk of the Secretary of the Treasury,
Who at the time, was abroad, but having shortly
returned, the Cabinet Minister took the dispatch,
turned it over in his mind and wrote on the back
Respectfully referred to Assistant Secretary
French for his action herein" Received by that
l active and accomplished son of New Hampshire,
it was at referred to the chief of the customs
division, who, in turn, referred it to the super
v1slng architect of the Treasury, under whose
supervision the subjects of construction and
repairs always are brought The chief clerk in
this office was without a precedent, and the sub
ject-matter was referred to the First Comptroller
OF the Treasury to see if q warrant FOR the pay
ment OF these repairs would be signed if issued
by the Secretary of the Treasury. Now, here
the status of the pump for while is stationary,
and IN the meantime great Inconvenience is felt
at the public building
Collector Howard who is custodian of the
building, seeing no immediate prospect of relief,
determined to go to Washington. and, if possible,
have the thing fixed He called to his aid as
witnesses the postmaster, the surgeon of the
Marine Hospital, and another former occupant
of the building and, hastily packing his grip
sack and telegraphing to Rollins, started for the
seat of operations Arrived at the Treasury
Department, he found that his application had
been received, read and placed on file. Tracing
through its gradations in the Treasury building,
he further ascertained it was among the archives
of the First Comptroller. In fact, after days
search, Mr.. Aud, of the judicial accounts divis
ion, able to discover it among the cases
awaiting decision.
This was encouraging to the Collector, still he
was anxious to have the repairs completed, and,
on the following day, he determined to attack
the First Comptroller with an organized band,
and see if he could pull his through Ac
cordingly, the next morning. at the Hamilton
House, there was much commotion and running
to and fro delegation was to visit the Treas
ury. Colonel j. |. Christie, of the Senate, had
risen prematurely, before noon, and was to act
as chief marshal of the procession, and he had
secured carriages to convey the detachment
to the rooms of the Comptroller. The pro
cession, at an early hour, moved in this ORDER
Col Christie in a coupe
Carriage containing Senators Blair and Pike the col
lectoP and postmaster at Portsmouth.
Carriage containing Congressman Haynes and Ray,
DIR. Wentworth, and A. Young ION the
box Secretary Chandler and ex-
Senator Rolns
Carriage containing Col. Batehelder, Ichabod Cole
Charles FL. Roberts, and the correspond
ent of the Boston Journal.
Arrived at the Treasury, Judge Lawrence, who
had evidently anticipated the visit, welcomed
this distinguished representation from New
Hampshire and begged them to be seated He
then drew forth long paper which was labeled
Decision No. &C. 79: Pump at Custom-h house,
Portsmouth, N. H." and proceeded to
read it for the OBLIGATION of
his hearers The opinion sustained the
enactment of section 1853 of the Revised
Statutes relating to holding two offices by one
person. He held that the collector of the port
might also be custodian of the public buildings
at Portsmouth, at least in the vision of the
learned Ohio judge there was no valid objection.
But it was suggested that the collector was also
de facto commodore of the navy yard, an Office
the emoluments of which were above the sum
mentioned in section 1853 of the statutes If this
was the case, he could not at the same time hold
the Office of collector and custodian, and tele-
graph dispatch coming from such an officer was
clearly violation of the law, and of course
void. At this juncture Mr.. Chandler
wiped his eyeglasses and Mr. Rol-
Inns coughed audibly. Quick to the
rescue the Secretary of the Navy spoke up: Il
will cut that knot and making sign as if feel
ing for his sheath-knife in true sailor style,
added, II will remove Mr.. Howard from his
navy yard pOSlll0n." GafuOn me, MI. Oecre-
tary, said the bland author Of upward of TWEEN
ty-fve thousand decisions and various opinions
in addition, you must remember the rules of
the civil servicer ''Civil service be blanked,"
said Mr.. Rollins, ''if we have such fuss as this
to get pump fixed at the Portsmouth custom
house what should we do if we had another re-
bellion to put down." The Judge was not pre-
pared to decide that question without time
to consider it, and the party with
drew. Shortly afterward, Mr. Chandler,
armed with letter of introduction
from President Arthur, called Judge Folger
and Stated that the repairs were very simple,
and that if the Secretary of the Treasury would
not authorize the work he (the Navy Secretary
would send to the navy-yard and have it done.
AS Judge Folger has a great horror of having
the navy usurp in any respect, the functions of
the Treasury, he consented to order the work,
and on Thursday the required permission to
have the repairs effected was received in this
city. A few hours work at the Portsmouth ma
chine shop set everything Alright again. and we
hope the job was done under such legal authori
ty as will permit our new machine-shop to be
repaid for the outlay.