rying to make out a case. That slur
upon the Jew cannot hold up its head in presence of the figures of the
War Department. It has done its work, and done it long and faithfully,
and with high approval: it ought to be pensioned off now, and retired
from active service.

(1) See 'Stirring Times in Austria,' in this volume.

(2) Here is another piece of picturesque history; and it reminds us that
shabbiness and dishonesty are not the monopoly of any race or creed, but
are merely human:

'Congress has passed a bill to pay $379.56 to Moses Pendergrass, of
Libertyville, Missouri. The story of the reason of this liberality is
pathetically interesting, and shows the sort of pickle that an honest
man may get into who undertakes to do an honest job of work for Uncle
Sam. In 1886 Moses Pendergrass put in a bid for the contract to carry
the mail on the route from Knob Lick to Libertyville and Coffman, thirty
miles a day, from July 1, 1887, for one years. He got the postmaster at
Knob Lick to write the letter for him, and while Moses intended that
his bid should be $400, his scribe carelessly made it $4. Moses got the
contract, and did not find out about the mistake until the end of the
first quarter, when he got his first pay. When he found at what rate he
was working he was sorely cast down, and opened communication with the
Post Office Department. The department informed his that he must either
carry out his contract or throw it up, and that if he threw it up his
bondsman would have the pay the Government $1,459.85 damages. So Moses
carried out his contract, walked thirty miles every week-day for a
year, and carried the mail, and received for his labour $4, or, to
be accurate, $6.84; for, the route being extended after his bid was
accepted, his pay was proportionately increased. Now, after ten years,
a bill was finally passed to pay to Moses the difference between what he
earned in that unlucky year and what he received.'

The 'Sun,' which tells the above story, says that bills were introduced
in three or four Congresses for Moses' relief, and that committees
repeatedly investigated his claim.

It took six Congresses, containing in their persons the compressed
virtues of 70,000,000 of people, and cautiously and carefully giving
expression to those virtues in the fear of God and the next election,
eleven years to find out some way to cheat a fellow Christian out of
about $13 on his honestly executed contract, and out of nearl