Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-08-17
FIRsT-CLAss OR NOTHING.
How an Iratc Soldier Refused nm Of
flee From Secretary Stanton.

How an Irntc Soldier Refused nm Of
flee From Secretary Stanton.
One of the officials of the Post Office De
partment was at the breaking out Of the
rebellion a typo in little country news
paper Office in Vermont. the home town oil
ex-Postmaster General, afterward Senator
Jacob Collamer. He left his stick on his
case and carried a musket in the first regi.
ment which went from that state in the
spring of 1851. and after three years and
more of continuous service, was badly
wounded in May, 1864, and brought to Stan.
ton Hospital in this city. Two or thre
months later. when he had become able tc
walk around. he met Senator Collamer on
pennsylvania avenue one morning and said
that as he had served over three years as
soldier. he thought he would like a clerk.
ship in the War Department, that office be-
1fg the Mecca toward which the eyes Of ali
enlisted men clerically inclined were direct
ed
Il am going up to see Secretary Stanton
now, said the Senator, and think L car
arrange matters for you without difficulty.
The civil service commission was not q
stumbling block in the way of persons
anxious to serve their country in the de.
partmental line in those days, 50 the Sena.
tor and the soldier visited the great wal
Secretary. Past long line of brigadiers
colonies and majors waiting for an au,
dience Senator Collamer led his printer
soldier, and reaching the august presence
said:
mir. Secretary, this is my young friend
MIR. 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 frSt-rate
department clerk. / want him to have a
good place-not a second or third-rate APP
pointment."
The Secretary smiled good-naturedly-he
could afford to be good-natured, for Col.
lamer 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.
ing, Mr.. Blank, and Well see what can te
found" he said.
The soldier walked out with light heart
and waited impatiently about like thai
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 to call at the same hour the mex
morning. He did so, and continued to cal
every morning for week. Finally, dis
heartened, ill-humored and tired, he called
one morning and found Maj. Breck, the
chief clerk, standing at the Secretary's
desk
Anything turned up yet. MAJOR" queriet
the soldier, in tone that reflected his eX
pectation of the usual disappointment, and
he was agreeably surprised at receiving
from the major document Enclosed in one
of the official envelopes of the department
Stepping to window, he opened the pa
pers and found he had been appointed to a
second-class clerkship in the office of the
aGjutant general.
Long waiting and continued disappoint.
ments 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 first-class clerk
ship, I won't have anything and the pa
pers were torn into shreds in a fash and
thrown spitefuily into the waste basket
the irate soldier stalking out of the room
leaving behind him a very much astonished
chief clerk.
Long years afterward, while working in a
printing Office in one of the western states
the printer stumbled across the Information
that second-class clerkship in the depart
ments was two hundred dollars better than
a frst-class, and the large-sized, long
drawn sigh which gurgled up from the
re gion Of his boots ended with an explosive
beginning with a large D. as the handful OF
types he was distributing squabbled in the
SPACE box.