to see, just as
a gentleman in private life does his coachman, butler, or valet.
To an army officer who had for many years, in lower grades, been
accustomed to the invariable formula, delivered by a well-dressed
soldier standing at "attention" and respectfully saluting, "The
commanding officer sends his compliments to Captain B---, and wishes
to see the captain at headquarters," the tinkling of that soft
little bell must have sounded harsh indeed after he had attained
the rank of brigadier-general. Twice only, I believe, my own old
soldier messenger who attended in the room where the telephone and
bells were located, came to my room, with an indescribable expression
on his face, and said, "The bell from the Secretary's office is
ringing!" I replied, "Indeed? Go up and inquire what it means."
Presently the Secretary's own messenger appeared, and delivered a
message in courteous terms--whether the same the Secretary had
given to him I did not know, but had reason to doubt, for I had
seen and heard the Secretary violently ring a certain bell several
times, and then say with great emphasis to his messenger, "Go and
tell ---- to come here," not even using the high military title by
which "----" was habitually addressed in the War Department. But
those uncivil methods of an imperfect civilization are gradually
passing away, and the more refined courtesies, taught, I believe,
in all our great schools as well as in the military and naval
service, are taking their place. It is now a long time since that
reform was practically complete in the War Department.

THE RELATIONS OF SECRETARY AND GENERAL

Thus it appeared, when I went into the office in 1888, that of my
predecessors in command of the army, Scott and Sherman had given
up the contest, Sheridan had been put quickly _hors de combat_,
while Grant alone had won the fight, and that after a long contest,
involving several issues, in which a Secretary of War was finally
removed from office with the consent of his own personal and
political friends, a President was impeached and escaped removal
from office by only one vote, and the country was brought to the
verge of another civil war. As I had helped Evarts, Seward, and
some others whose names I never knew, to "pour oil on the troubled
waters" in the time of Grant and Stanton, and to get everybody into
the humor to respond heartily to that great aspiration, "Let us
have peace," I tho