St. Paul daily globe., 1895-09-20
WANTED FlRST-CLASS.
How an Irate Soldier Refused a
Clerkship.


Clerkship.
Washington Star.
One of the officials of the post
office department was, at the break
ing out Of the rebellion,na typo in a.
little country newspaper office in
Vermont, the home town of ex-Post-
master General, afterward Senator.
Jacob Collamer. He left his stick on
his. case and carried a musket in the
first regiment which went from that
state in 1861, and after three years
and more of continuous, service, was
badly wounded in May, 1854, and
brought to Stanton hospital in this
city. Two or three months later,
when he had become able to walk
around, he met Senator Collamer on
Pennsylvania avenue one morning,
and said that, as he had served over
three years as a soldier, he thought
he would like clerkship in the war
department, that office being the
Mecca toward which the eyes of all
enlisted men clerically inclined were
directed.
Il am going up to see Secretary
Stanton now," said the senator, "and
1 think I can arrange matters for
you without difficulty
The civil service commission was
not a stumbling block in the way Of
persons anxious to serve their coun-
try in the departmental line in those
days, so the senator and the soldier
visited the great war secretary. Past
long line of brigadiers, colonels
and majors waiting for an audience,
Senator Collamer led his printer-sol-
dier, and, reaching the august pres
ence, said:
Mr.. Secretary, this is my young
friend, Mr.. Blank, who was a good
printer up in my Green Mountain
home, has been a good soldier since
the commencement Of the war, and
know he will make a first-class de-.
partment clerk. 1 want him to have
good place-not a second or third
rate appointment"
The secretary smiled good-na-
turedly-he could afford to be good
natured, for Collamer was then
presidential possibility-and thought
ne might be able to find just the
kind of place needed.
Come here at 10 o'clock tomorrow
morning, Mr.. Blank. and We'll see
what can be found,' he said.
The soldier walked out with light
heart, and waited impatiently about
like that other little lamb, making his
appearance at the secretary's door the
next morning promptly as the clock
In the hall struck 10. Nothing had
been found, however. by the secretary,
and the waiting son of Mars was told
10 call at the same hour the next
morning. He did so. and continued to
call every morning for a week. Final
ly, disheartened, ill-tempered and tired,
he called one morning and found Major
Breck, the chief clerk, standing at the
secretary's desk.
Anything turned up yet, major?"
queried the old soldier. in tone that
reflected his expectation of the usual
disappointment, and he was agreeably
surprised at receiving from the major
q document inclosed in one of the
official envelopes Of The department..
Stepping to a window, he opened the
papers and found he had been ap-
pointed to a second class clerkship in
the office of the adjutant general.
Long waiting and continued disap-
pointment had made him snappish and
irritable, and the thought that flashed
through his mind was: "If Senator
Collamer's influence isn't sufficient to
get me a first-class clerkship, WON'T
have anything" and the papers were
torn into shreds in a flash and thrown
spitefully into the waste basket, the
irate soldier stalking out of the room,
leaving behind him a very much as
tonished chief clerk.
Long years afterward, while work
ing in a printing Office In one of the
Western states the printer stumbled
across the information that second
class clerkship in the department was
large-sized, long-drawn sigh which
gurgled up from the region of his
boots ended with an explosive begin-
ming with a large D. as the handful
of type he was distributing squab-
bled in the space box.