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The Patriots of E

N the early days of reconstruction, after a ride of four hundred miles, the cars left a special agent of the postoffice department about midnight at a village of two or three thousand inhabitants in the heart of Alabama. The rain came down in sheets. Guided by a dingy lantern suspended in the vestibule, he made his way to the nearest hotel, which stood a few feet from the railroad track. Southern hotels at that period, more especially away from the leading centers of trade, were the standing horror of the unfortunate itinerants who were compelled by the exigencies of business to depend on their cheer. Firstclass in extortions, and so poor in everything else as to belong to no class whatever, recognized in the nomenclature of travelers, they were patronized by the self-regardful only from necessity. The unhappy mortals whose pursuits kept

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them constantly on the wing gradually settled down to an acceptance of discomfort and bad fare with the stolidity which, under a beneficent law of nature, comes to deaden the sensibilities by habitual contact with remediless ills. As the country recovered from the desolations of war, the hotels improved also, so that the hardships referred to are no longer experienced.

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"An African with a tallow dip led the way to the sleeping apartment."

An African with a tallow dip led the way to the sleepingapartment. It was located in front, and was apparently the choice room of the establishment. Several broken windowpanes admitted the driving rain and wintery winds, the water standing in broad pools on the naked floor. It was a cold night, and the bed was very thin. Having planted the chair which held his clothing in the center of a miniature lake to protect it from invasion, the guest resigned

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himself to such sleep as the hardness of the couch would permit.

About the middle of the next forenoon the storm abated, and he sallied forth in search of the party whose communications to the department had sent him thither. The gravamen of the charge was that the postmaster, a lady, was guilty of prying into the correspondence of the complainant, delaying and suppressing it. He urged the postmaster-general to dispatch an agent from Washington at once to investigate the trouble, and promised to make startling disclosures on his arrival. According to the letter of complaint, the terrible little woman who presided over the mail-bags had put a virtual embargo on communications between the writer and the outside world. The court was in session, and the person aggrieved was one of the lawyers in attendance.

On reaching the venerable rattle-trap where justice or injustice was dispensed, the officer asked the bailiff to request Mr. Periwinkle to step to the door. That gentleman proved to be a white-headed old man of perhaps sixty, with a protuberant mouth, a prominent but thin nose of the Roman profile, and an expression of countenance that blended the characteristics of the fox and the ape.

Said the stranger, "Good morning, judge" (in Alabama every lawyer in colloquial intercourse is called "judge," while the rest of mankind, except generals, are embraced under the generic title of "colonel "). "I have the letter addressed by you to the postmaster-general, and have come to investigate the charges."

The "judge" cleared his throat several times, and was evidently much embarrassed. The prompt notice taken of his complaint appeared to surprise him. He commenced by enumerating the various dignities conferred upon him in times past through the suffrages of his fellow-citizens, and the positions he then filled under the patronage of the Federal power. His patriotism knew no bounds. Wherever

there was an office of emolument or trust to be disposed of, he stood ready like a veteran soldier to rush into the breach, regardless alike of the sneers and jeers of the "enemies of the government." He believed in everybody connected with the administration and Congress, and in everything which they did. At the same time he was ready to incur any sacrifice in the way of accepting office.

After a while the stranger interrupted the stream of his volubility with the remark, "Well, judge, I have come to inquire into your grievances. Please give an explicit statement of the facts."

"Have you been to the post-office?" he inquired.

"Not yet," said the agent. "Before calling on an official against whom serious charges are preferred in general terms, I deem it a duty to myself and to the department to obtain exact information in regard to the nature of the offense."

Again the old gentleman cleared his throat, and, with eyes cast vacantly on the floor, devoted a brief interval to silent meditation.

Rousing from the reverie, he continued, "You will do me a great favor, placing me under lasting obligations, if you will leave town without letting the postmaster know you have been here, or informing any one else of your business. It is true I have had reasons for complaint, but she is on the whole quite an estimable woman, and has influential friends. Besides, a disturbance just now would stir up bad blood and make unpleasantness. I am very glad you came. Tell the postmaster-general, and the secretary of the treasury, and the attorney-general, and the President, that if there is anything in the world I can do for the government, to call on me freely, and they shall command my services. O, how I love the glorious Union - the stars and the stripes -the grandest nation the sun ever shone on! It is the duty of every good citizen to make any and all sacrifices to preserve and perpetuate it. But," shaking a long, bony finger in the face of the astonished listener, and

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dropping his voice to a confidential whisper, "the people here cannot be trusted. They hate the government. The snake is scotched, not killed. Unless they are kept in the background, we shall have another war-I repeat it, another war. Yet many of them would do anything, or swear to any kind of oath, for the sake of getting office. Will you trust them and imperil all that has been won by the outpouring of millions of treasure and oceans of blood? I shall be most happy to advise the government and its agents. Perhaps in the course of business in Alabama you may require legal assistance. If so, command me. Rest assured, I can be depended on."

Everything earthly must come to an end, and so did the oration of Benjamin Franklin Periwinkle. One seldom encounters in a man of years and experience so transparent a humbug. Under other circumstances his rodomontade might have amused one; but, with a great deal of important work demanding immediate attention, the special agent had traveled four hundred miles on a fool's errand as it turned out, had tossed during the long hours of the previous night on a bed hard as the primitive rocks, and had given blood freely to the occupants who held the territory by right of pre-emption, so that he was in no mood to be entertained by the gush even of so eminent a patriot. The whistle, such as it was, cost too much. Besides, after opening from a masked battery on a defenseless woman, the coward lacked the nerve to meet the issue, and, when confronted with an opportunity to justify his assertions, beat an ignominious

retreat.

Turning from the old wretch with mingled feelings of indignation and disgust, the agent proceeded to the postoffice. The postmaster, middle-aged, intelligent, and incisive, was in attendance. Introducing himself as an agent of the department, he told her without preamble that he had come quite a distance to investigate serious charges pertaining to the management of the office. Betraying no trepidation

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