The weekly examiner., 1901-03-23
THE PAMUNKEY POST OFFICE A TRUE STORY.
 By c. W. Hartley.
"A n R U F S n o R N .
By c. W. Hartley.
Copyright, 1901, by Authors syndieate-)

THE outgoing postmaster retired
 in disgrace, but that fact did not seem to deter the hosts of young and old who asked their congressman to recommend them to the president for appointment. In fact, in less than a week the whole town seemed to be afflicted with sort of mad ness an unappeased hungering for office bordering on frenzy.
 The first move of the bondsmen was to install one of their number acting postmaster until the vacancy could be filled. He was a round, rosy-cheeked farmer with a slight inclination toward politics. He had not learned the de livery boxes until he became sat aturated with consuming desire to remain. There was something fascinating about it; omething infectious. He contract- ed a dangerously severe case of desiring office at the very outset.
 In the meantime down the ravines and lanes came trooping, fguratiyely speaking, a large portion of puisating, anxiously throbbing Pamunkey to line up in front of the post office building and gaze wistfully at the structure.
 The acting postmaster did not live within 16 miles of the post office un- der consid deration, but distance in his case seemed to len nchantm ent 10 the view. Between handling th mails and rustIing for signatures in his petition, with an occasional dash into the coun- try to keep his wife informed as to his progress, he was kept pretty busy.
 The G. A. R. element had a.candid ate; the Germans centered on q man, the Spanish-American soldiers thought they ought to be recognized; the Irish wanted to know what was the matter with them; the young politicians want ed to have something to say in the mat ter, and the ladies, bless their innocent souls, thought they knew something about handling reluctant congressmen and mail matters.
 Although mails went out of Pamun- key on fast flying trains, they were not swift enough for applicants. The aid of the electric current, as subseryed by the Western Union Telegraph com pany, was invoked for greater speed. The second day after the vacancy was announced the desk of the congress man for that district was piled high with telegraphic applications, which were followed in the next mail by more lengthy messages at lighter tolls.
 The congressman moved slowly in the matter, as his renomination and election was close at hand. He did not desire to make a mistake just at that critical juncture.
 The Nicaragua canal was mere trihe to handle in comparison to the
  lessly vote to refuse to seat fellow member of congress with plurality of wives, but the good people of Pa munkey presented a problem difficult of solution.
 About the time he had his mind made up in favor of one candidate. along would come a voluminous bunch of papers in support of another candi- date, which sent him to sea again. One candidate was denounced as an outsider, another had never done any, thing for the party, 8 third was very recent convert to the party prin- ciples the congressman represented. and therefore needed proving. and so on. Each candidate had his friends and each had his enemies, and the enemies seemed more ready to speak and more persistent than the friends.
 At one time the congressman had reached such a dire state of distress that he had about made up his mind to have his private secretary write the names of all the candidates on slips of paper, place them in hat. shake them up, close his eyes and pull out name, hit or miss, and take his chances on the result reIvinp on his guardian angel to guide his hand to the right piece of paper. He must have doubted the constant attendance of that invisible presence for on sec ond thought he abandoned the whole scheme of settling the troublesome iquestion and attempted to put the matter aside for new inspiration.
 That inspiration came sooner than was expected. The congressman, who was a general in the great civil war, brushed aside the papers with an i'm patient hand and went out for stroll