Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1901-04-19
A TRUE TORY.
BY c. W. Hartley.

SSCh W OCttt tHC hOF'o va y Cohr N'~
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 a sort IF mad
MESSIAH 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 rotund, rosy-cheeked
farmer with slight inclination toward
politics. He had not learned the de-
livery boxes until he became saturated
with a consuming desire to remain.
There was something fascinating about
it; something infectious. He contract
ed dangerously severe case of desiring
office at the very outset.
In the meantime down the ravines
and lanes came trooping, fguratively
speaking, 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 I'M
der consideration, but distance in his
case seemed to lend enchantment to the
view. Between handling the mails and
rustling 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 candidate;
the Germans centered on a 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 congressman
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 subserved
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 Geographic applications, which
were followed in the next mail by more
lengthy messages at lighter tolls.
The congressman moved slowly in
the matter, as his denomination and
election was close at hand. He did
not desire to make q mistake lust at
that critical juncture.
The Nicaragua canal was a mere
trifie to handle in comparison to the
Pamunkey post Office. He could fear
lessly vote to refuse to seat a fellow
member of congress with a plurality
of wives, but the good people of Pa
munkey presented problem difficult
Of solution.
About the time he had his mind
made up in favor of one candidate,
along would come 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, third was a
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 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 a hat,
shake them up, close his eyes and pull
out name, hit or miss, and take his
chances on the result, relying 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
end thought he abandoned the whole
scheme of settling the troublesome
question and attempted to put the
| ueioC III u utW inspiration.
That inspiration came sooner than
was expected. The congressman. who
was general in the great civil war,
brushed aside the papers with an i'm
patient hand and went out for stroll
in the bracing air which came in the
form of gentle breeze down over the
Bull Run battlefield, Withholding the
soothing odor of fields and farms as it
rolled up Pennsylvania avenue. The
general shifted the refreshing atmos-
phere as he involuntarily quickened
his pace. 1t will probably never be
known what turned his thoughts to
other days when shot and shell rained
about him and he advanced rapidly
from the ranks to the position of cap
tain, then major and colonel, coming
home wearing the straps Of general,
all his ARRANGEMENTS being achieved by
bravery. 1t may have been those mem
cries were refreshed in his mind by
the murmuring breezes that came gen
| t1y dawn from far-fnme1 Alexandria