The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1886-05-13

Beating A Sutler!
How A SOLDIER DID A LITTLE For
AGING OFF OF THE ENEMY!

Every old soldier will remember about how
much respect existed among the men for the
Army Sutler. He was regarded a sort of
| necessary evil; men went to his tent much as
cattle go to stagoaut pool-to accommodate
necessity, yet certain of getting the worst of the
bargain. The boys always liberal with
the sutler, allowing him the Dutchman's zone
| per cent? that is, buying for one dollar and
| selling for two Sometimes he got a much Iats-
| er percentage. For instance, he would buy ci-
! sars at one cent each, and sell them for tea
! cents each. And the same with regard to chew
| ing tobsceo and other goods The sutler gem
orally had fund of stories, anecdotes, and CO.
| nundl ums and wss a lively entertainer. Yet
he was the natural enemy of the soldier. His
| service to his country was much the same as
| the kindness shown the dying animal by the
| buzzard which hovers tenderly around 1t, only
waiting to gobble it. He was generally an able
| bodied man, and sometimes had record OF
having enlisted in several regiments and bat
teries. He generally had large and well Sc
| lected stock of goods, costing at least twenty
dollars, and these by shrewd management he
converted into one hundred to one hundred
and fifty dollars in money.
| The boys never could bring themselves TO re-
gard it as verey badly dishonest to beat the sut-
Ter if they could-and it was generally pretty
hard thing to do. We remember one sutler, a
large, stout man, who met Thomas army at
|
chased Hood across the river with the shattered
| remnant of his army. Our company was Or
| dered to go down the river by boat and occu-
pied some large and commodious shanties on
| the bank of the river. These had been built a
| long time, and we knew not who they belonged
| to- but our mess had the largest and fnest-look-
| ing one in the lot. We had been assigned to
those houses by the Quartermaster at that
point.
On the morning which we were to leave,
after we had packed up and gotten our accou-
| trements on, the sutler came along and at once
took a fancy to our shanty.
"What will you take for that shanty?" asked
| the sutler.
"Oh, about two dolars!" answered the spokes-
man of the mess, a large jolly German boy.
| "I'l1 give you dollar and balf!
! "A1l right-it's your shanty"
The boy took out dollar and fifty cents in
tobacco, at the suffers prices, and immediate
| possessin was given. we marched onto the
boat and the sut1er began unloading part of
his goods and carrying them into the shanty.
Just as the boat swung away from the wharf,
| the Quartermaster rode up to the sutler and de-
manded immediate possession of the shanty.
There was no appeal from the orders they
came from headquarters. The sutler was un-
tremendously piled out, and as the boat turned
her back and put down the stream, the Dutch
| boy laughed until the tobacco-juice ran out of
| his mouth Had the amount been greater, of
course he would have laughed harder, because
there is scarcely any law of morals which could
/ be construed as throwing its protection around
| the Army Sutler.