AT THE SERVICE OF HIS COUNTRY.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1133, 29 August 1882, Page 2

AT THE SERVICE OF HIS COUNTRY.

One sunny forenoon Schuyler Colfax was leaning over the back gate waiting patiently for the call of his country. Ho had just found a crocus in the flower bed. His heart was full of spring, and it seemed to him that in the general revivification he, too, might have a chance. There approached Schuyler a wayfaring citizen who wore one shoe and one split boot. “ General,” said the stranger, “could you give a hungry man a nickel ?” “ I will willingly give you a pipkel,” said Schuyler, blandly, P but I am not a general. My career has been that of a statesman.” . , “That’s it,” said the tramp. You show it in your face. “ Tell mo, my friend,” continued Schuyler, handing over, not a nipfcel, but a dime—“you mingle much witfi the great world, and yqur profession leads you to qII |hp busy haunts of men-—tell mo, as an observer of events do you see any signs of a Colfax movement? Do you *ear any voices demanding the vindication of Schuyler Colfax P” “ Well," Bnid the eyeing first hiss hoot and then bis ,hoe, “perhaps J dp ope signs and heiw voices ; and if it’s wppth anything to you to know—•” Schuyler gave the man half-a-dollar and invited him into the house, (l Now, said he, after having provided his guest with a square meal, ‘‘speak without reserve. If y O u bring any message from fha pppp.le ot the United States tp, a veteran who, however he W shrink from the qpepaus cares of office, is still ready to obey the call of duty and serve hit fellow-citizens in any public pqpgcity, do not hesitate to impart It. I am listenin"” 1 The tramp hesitated. “ There ain’t np mcesiijies as I knew of," h 0(

“ but it seems as if I’d heerd this Skullfax talked about somewheres.” “ That is to say,” suggested Schuyler, “ while you are not charged with any formal mission ; you come on the part of the people of the United States to sound me, to draw out an expression of my views ou public questions, to discover whether I am disposed to emerge from retirement ? Proceed.” “ Come to think,” resumed the tramp, “it was about Skullfax that I heerd talk.” “At last!” murmured Schuyler, rising from his chair and pacing the floor in great agitation. “ Fellowcitizens, or rather fellow-citizen, I thank you for this unexpected and unsought nomination. I should have preferred to remain in the quieter walks of private life, to which my tastes, my years, and my experience of the ingratitude of human kind alike incline me ; but this summons is too imperative, too unanimous, to be disregarded. Fellow-citizens, or rather fellow-citizen, Schuyler Colfax is at the service of his country.” The statesman sat down to write a letter to the editor of the “ South Bend Tribune,” while the tramp departed, richer by a ten-dollar bill. “ So that’s Skullfax,” soliloquised the latter ; “it’s curis how folks get things mixed. I thought from what I heerd said about Skullfax that he was servin’ out a sentence somewheres.” —“ New York Sun.”