The Indianapolis journal., 1895-09-29
FIRsT-CLAss OR NOTHING.
How Irate Soldier Refused an
Office from Secretary stanton.

washington star.
One of the officials OF the Postof1ice De-
partment was at the breaking out of the
rebellion a typo in a little country news
paper office In Vermont, the home town of
ex,Postmaster-genera afterward Senator
Collamer. He left his stick on his case and
carried nusket in the first regiment
which went from that State in the spring
of 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 he
had served over three years as a soldier,
he thought he would like clerkship in the
Mecca toward which the eyes of all en-
listed men clerically inclined were directed.
Il am going to see Secretary Stanton
can arrange matters fer you without diff
ficulty."
The Civil-service Commission was not
stumbling block in the way Of persons
anxious to serve the country In the de-
partmental line in those days, so the SEN
ator and the soldier visited the great War
Secretary. Past long line of brigadlers,
colonels and majors waiting for an audience
Senator Collamer led his printer-soldier,
and reaching the august presence, said:
Mr. Secretary, this is my young friend,
Mr.. Blank who was a good printer up in
my Green Mountain home, has been good
soldier since the commencement of the war,
and l know he will make a first-rate de-
partment clerk. / want him 10 have good
place.not second or third-rate appoint
ment."
The Secretary smiled good-naturedly-he
could afford TO be good-natured. for Cola
mar was then a presidential possibility
and thought he might be able to find just
the kind of place needed
Come here at 10 o'clock tomorrow morn
in, 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 Secretarys door the next morning
promptly as the clock in the hall struck TO-
Nothing had been found, however by the
Secretary. and the waiting son of Mars
was told to call at the same hour the next
morning. He did so, and continued to call
heartened. ill-humored and tired, he called
one morning and found Major Breck, the
chief clerk. standing at the Secretary's
desk.
Anything turned up Major?' queried
the soldier, in a tone that reflected his
expectation of the usual disappointment
and he was agreeably surprised at receiv-
ing from the Major a document inclosed in
one of the official stamped envelopes of the
department. Stepping to window he
appointed to a second-class ,cerkship in
the Office of the Adjutant- general
Long waiting and continued disappoint-
and the thought that flashed through his
mind was: eff Senator Collamers in
uense isn't c,sraSin sufficient to get nsns me
anything" and the papers were torn into
shreds in flash and thrown spitefully
into a waste basket. the irate. soldier stalk
ing out of the room, leaving behind him a
very much astonished chief clerk
Long years afterward, while working in
States the printer stumbled across the in
formation that a second-ciass clerkship In
the departments was 500 better than a
first-class, and the large-sized, long-drawn
sigh which gurgled up from the region OF
his boots ended with an explosive beginning
with a large ID, as the handful Of types he
vas distributing squabbled in the space
box.