“Is the Secretary in?”
Col. (with a stare). I don’t know.
Gen. W. (returning the stare). Could you not ascertain for me? I have important business with him; and am here by appointment.
Col. B. You can ascertain for yourself. I am not his door-keeper. There is his door.
Gen. W. (after a moment’s reflection). I asked you a civil question in a courteous manner, and have not deserved this harshness, and will not submit to it.
Col. B. It is not courteous to presume I am acting in the capacity of a messenger or door-keeper.
Just then the Secretary appeared at the door, having heard the loud language, and Gen. W. immediately entered his office.
Afterward the colonel fumed and fretted like an angry volcano. He disliked Col. Myers, and believed he had sent the general in under prompting to annoy him about the Secretary, whom he (Myers) really hated.
July 13th.—The Secretary made peace yesterday between the general and the colonel, or a duel might have transpired.
To-day the colonel carried into the Secretary a number of applications for commissions as surgeons. Among the applicants were some of the colonel’s friends. He returned soon after in a rage, slamming the door after him, and then throwing down the papers violently on the floor. He picked them up the next moment, however, and sitting down beside me, became instantaneously as gentle as a dove. He said the men of science were thrust aside to give way to quacks; but, laughing, he remarked that the quacks would do well enough for the wounded ——. Our men would have too much sense to submit to their malpractice.